Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,192
Here's where things stand on Saturday, May 31:
Eight people, including two teenagers, were injured in a Russian attack on the village of Vasyliv Khutir in Ukraine's northeastern Kharkiv, regional Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
The Ukrainian Air Force said that Russia launched 90 drones and two ballistic missiles against Ukraine that targeted the country's Kharkiv, Odesa and Donetsk regions.
The Kharkiv region's main city came under Russian drone attack, which targeted a trolleybus depot and injured two people, the city's Mayor Ihor Terekhov said. He said more than 30 nearby apartment buildings were damaged, while one trolleybus was completely destroyed, and 18 others sustained varying degrees of damage.
Ukraine has resisted US and Russian pressure to commit to attending another round of peace talks in Istanbul on Monday, saying it first needs to see Russian proposals for a ceasefire. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Russia 'is doing everything it can to ensure that the next potential meeting brings no results'.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan said the planned second round of talks between Ukraine and Russia will pave the way for peace in a phone call with Zelenskyy, according to a readout issued by the Turkish presidency. Erdogan said it is important that both parties join the talks with strong delegations.
Russia's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said Kremlin aide Vladimir Medinsky will again head Russia's delegation in Istanbul for the second round of Russia-Ukraine talks and will bring a memorandum and other ceasefire proposals to the meeting.
Ukraine's finance ministry has announced that it would not be paying more than half a billion dollars due to holders of its GDP warrants – fixed income securities indexed to economic growth – marking the first payment default since it created the financial instruments in 2015. Ukraine owes $665m on June 2 to holders of the $3.2bn worth of warrants, based on 2023 economic performance.
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Ukrainian drones target Russian airbases in unprecedented operation
Officials say multiple military airbases have come under drone attacks in Russia in a major operation taking place ahead of peace talks with Ukraine due to start in Istanbul on Monday. The Russian Defence Ministry said that Ukraine had launched drone strikes targeting Russian military airfields across five regions on Sunday, causing several aircraft to catch fire. The attacks occurred in the Murmansk, Irkutsk, Ivanovo, Ryazan, and Amur regions. Air defences repelled the assaults in all but two regions – Murmansk and Irkutsk, the ministry said. 'In the Murmansk and Irkutsk regions, the launch of FPV drones from an area in close proximity to airfields resulted in several aircraft catching fire,' the ministry said. The fires were extinguished and no casualties were reported. Some individuals involved in the attacks had been detained, the ministry said. Officials said that attacks targeted the Belaya airbase in Irkutsk, about 4,300km (2,700 miles) from the Ukrainian border, and the Olenya airbase in south Murmansk, some 1,800km (1,100 miles) from Ukraine. 'According to witnesses on the ground and local officials, these drones were launched from sites near the airbases. That means this was an elaborate operation, most likely by the Ukrainians, that involved a number of people inside Russia,' Al Jazeera's Dorsa Jabbari said, reporting from Moscow. 'This is the single largest attack that we've seen in one day across multiple military airbases inside Russia since the war began in February of 2022,' Jabbari said, noting that the airbases are home to Russia's strategic air bombers, which have been used to attack targets across Ukraine over the past three years. Meanwhile in Ukraine, multiple local media reports, including those by state news agency Ukrinform, cited a source within the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) saying the coordinated attacks inside Russia were 'aimed at destroying enemy bombers far from the front'. They said the operation was carried out by the SBU using drones smuggled deep into Russia and hidden inside trucks. At least 41 Russian heavy bombers at four airbases were hit, the reports said, adding that the operation, dubbed 'Spiderweb', had been prepared for over a year and a half, and it was personally overseen by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Al Jazeera's John Hendren, reporting from Kyiv, said it's 'an audacious strike, one that Ukraine has been waiting a long time and patiently to deliver, and it's come after Russian air strikes into Ukraine have dramatically accelerated over the past couple of weeks'. Meanwhile, at least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up while a passenger train heading to Moscow was crossing it with 388 people on board. No one has yet claimed responsibility. Russian officials said they were treating the incident as an 'act of terrorism' but did not immediately accuse Ukraine. The developments came as Russia also said it had advanced deeper into the Sumy region of Ukraine, and as open-source pro-Ukrainian maps showed Russia took 450sq km (174sq miles) of Ukrainian land in May, its fastest monthly advance in at least six months. Moscow launched 472 drones at Ukraine overnight, Ukraine's Air Force said, the highest nightly total of the war so far. Russia had also launched seven missiles, the Air Force said. Both parties sharply ramped up their attacks as Ukraine confirmed it will send a delegation to Istanbul led by its Defence Minister Rustem Umerov for talks on Monday with Russian officials. Turkiye is hosting the meeting, which was spurred by US President Donald Trump's push for a quick deal to end the three-year war. Zelenskyy, who previously voiced scepticism about the seriousness of the Russian side in engaging in Monday's meeting, said he had defined the Ukrainian delegation's position on the talks. Priorities included 'a complete and unconditional ceasefire' and the return of prisoners and abducted children, he said on social media. Russia has said it has formulated its own peace terms, but refused to divulge them in advance. Russian President Vladimir Putin also ruled out a Turkish proposal for the meeting to be held at the leaders' level.
Al Jazeera
19 hours ago
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Video: Two Russian bridges collapse near Ukraine within hours
NewsFeed Video: Two Russian bridges collapse near Ukraine within hours Two Russian bridges near Ukraine have collapsed within hours. In Bryansk, a bridge collapsed onto a train, killing at least seven people, while in Kursk, another bridge collapsed, derailing a freight train. Russia is investigating the incidents as possible sabotage.
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Photos: In Ukraine's Kharkiv, ballet offers hope to a war-torn city
In the Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, escaping the war with Russia is nearly impossible. On certain days, when the wind shifts, residents of this historic city can hear the distant rumble of artillery fire from the front line, some 30km (18.5 miles) away. Most nights, Russian kamikaze drones packed with explosives buzz overhead as parents put their children to bed. Three years since Russia's invasion of Ukraine, the unrelenting war exerts a heavy psychological burden on many in Kharkiv. Yet, there is a place in the city where, for a few fleeting hours, the war seems to vanish. Beneath the Kharkiv National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre, in a dim, brick-walled basement, a dance company has established a refuge from drones and bombs – a space where audiences can lose themselves in performances of classic ballets. In April, this underground venue hosted performances of Chopiniana, an early 20th-century ballet set to the music of Frederic Chopin. Despite the improvised setting, the ballet was staged with full classical grandeur, complete with corps de ballet and orchestra. It marked a significant milestone for Kharkiv's cultural life: the first complete classical ballet performance in the city since February 2022, when Russian troops launched their invasion of Ukraine. 'In spite of everything – the fact that bombs are flying, drones, and everything else – we can give a gift of something wonderful to people,' said Antonina Radiievska, artistic director of Opera East, the ballet company behind the production. 'They can come and, even if it's just for an hour or two, completely immerse themselves in a different world.' Despite Ukraine's rich tradition in classical ballet, the art form now seems far removed from the everyday existence of Ukrainians living through war. Daily routines revolve around monitoring apps for drone alerts, sleeping on metro station floors to escape air raids, or seeking news of loved ones on the front line. Pirouettes, pas de deux and chiffon tutus feel worlds away. Nevertheless, the journey of Kharkiv's ballet through wartime reflects the ways in which Ukrainian society has adapted and evolved. On February 23, 2022, the National Academic Opera and Ballet Theatre staged a performance of the ballet Giselle. The next day, Russia launched its full-scale invasion. As Moscow's forces advanced towards Kharkiv and threatened to seize the city, the theatre closed its doors and much of the ballet troupe departed. Some regrouped in Slovakia and Lithuania, mounting ballet productions abroad with assistance from European sponsors. By 2023, although the conflict ground on, the situation in Kharkiv, in Ukraine's northeast, had stabilised after Russian ground troops withdrew. A new realisation took hold – this was a long-term reality. Locals began referring to the city, and themselves, with the Ukrainian word 'nezlamniy', meaning invincible. That year, work began on transforming the theatre's basement into a performance venue. By October 2023, it was being used for rehearsals. The following spring, authorities permitted the theatre to admit audiences, and small-scale ballet performances, including children's concerts, resumed. The revival of Chopiniana marked the next chapter in Kharkiv's wartime cultural journey. Staging a classical opera again signals that Ukraine endures, says Igor Tuluzov, director-general of Opera East. 'We are demonstrating to the world that we really are a self-sufficient state, independent, in all its aspects, including cultural independence,' he said. The auditorium now seats 400 people on stackable chairs, compared with the 1,750 seats in the main theatre above, where the plush mustard seats remain empty. The stage is a quarter the size of the main one. Grey-painted bricks, concrete floors, and exposed pipes and wiring form a stark contrast to the varnished hardwood and marble of the theatre above. The basement's acoustics, performers say, fall short of the cavernous main auditorium. For artistic director Radiievska, however, the most important thing is that, after a long pause, she and her troupe can once again perform for a live audience. 'It means, you know, life,' she said. 'An artist cannot exist without the stage, without creativity, without dance or song. It's like a rebirth.'
