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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 05-20-2024 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
The latest statement from Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence (HUR) representative echoes earlier calls by lawmakers to introduce social media regulations due to rampant disinformation campaigns.
Telegram, a social media platform commonly used by Ukrainians and Russians alike, has been used as a “legalized darknet” and a tool for Russian disinformation, and there’s a need to at least “de-anonymize” the platform, said Andriy Yusov, spokesperson of Ukraine’s Defence Intelligence Directorate (HUR).
“Often Telegram is used as a somewhat legalized darknet in which you can find anything from selling drugs to groups of draft dodgers or some other people who are engaged in anything up to child pornography,” said Yusov in an interview with the Center for Countering Disinformation.
Kharkiv - evacuation response by the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Ukraine
HIGHLIGHTS
The impact on civilians of daily attacks in Kharkiv City and other towns and villages of Kharkivska Oblast increased over the last three days, with scores of civilian casualties and damage to houses and civilian infrastructure reported by the authorities.
The world in focus, as seen by a Canadian leading global affairs analyst, writer and speaker, in his review of international media.
Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi has been killed in a helicopter crash in a mountainous area of the country. Rescuers on Monday found the helicopter that had been carrying the president and other officials including Foreign Minister Hossein Amirabdollahian, who also died, the semi-official Mehr news agency reported. It crashed on Sunday near Tavil village in northwest Iran.
Ebrahim Raisi has been one of Iran's hardest of hardliners, a fanatical and absolute believer in the Iranian revolution and its mission. If he has died on a mountainside in the north of the country, as looks increasingly likely, it will be a major moment for the country and the region. It will remove from the Middle East one of its toughest most uncompromising players. A man who launched the first direct attack on Israel in his country's history and a hardliner on whose watch hundreds of Iranians have been killed in the brutal repression of recent women-led protests, Mr Raisi has a huge amount of blood on his hands - Sky News
Iran has become one of Russia's key political allies since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022, with Tehran supplying crucial drone technology.
Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday hailed Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi as an "outstanding politician" and said his death in a helicopter crash was an "irreplaceable loss."
Iran has become one of Russia's key political allies since Moscow launched its Ukraine offensive in 2022, with Tehran supplying crucial drone technology.
Russian milbloggers seem convinced it was American ATACMS missiles. If it was it means Washington has handed over top-end, harder-hitting models of the weapon.
Ukrainian precision-guided missiles sank an armed minesweeper tied up at a military wharf in Sevastopol and likely also blew up one of the Russian navy’s most modern guided missile boats, a Ukrainian Naval Forces spokesperson said on Monday.
Navy officer Dmitro Pelenchuk in comments aired by Radio Liberty on Monday said that Kyiv’s military intelligence has confirmed that the Russian minesweeper Kovrovets was sunk at her moorings in the Crimean port in an attack taking place in the early morning hours of May 19.
Russia is trying to "patch up the holes" in its military fuel supplies by moving petroleum products from Belarus using Wagner fighters to guard the shipments.
As a result of systematic and successful Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian oil refineries, Moscow faces a fuel shortage and has turned to Belarus for help. According to Ukraine’s National Resistance Center (CNR), Minsk is now actively increasing fuel supplies to Russia.
This assertion is supported by local reports, that Belarusian oil refineries have seen a surge in the production of aviation jet fuel which is being supplied to Russia on rail shipments.
The investigative journalist group advocates caution in the media's reliance on open-source intelligence and our impulse to always consider the information they offer as credible and verified.
Today’s information purveyors, including news outlets, governmental agencies, NGOs and others, increasingly rely on a wide range of open-source intelligence (OSINT) resources, the best of which utilise the best practices of journalism, fact-checking, and critical thinking, but many don't.
Kyiv Post, like most modern media outlets, relies on multiple sources to provide, confirm and validate the news it reports – with social media and other OSINT being important such resources.
Kallas said that training Ukraine’s forces on their territory would not be escalatory, adding that “Russia’s propaganda is about being at war with NATO; they don’t need an excuse.”
Estonia’s Prime Minister Kaja Kallas told the Financial Times (FT) that NATO allies should not fear that sending troops to Ukraine to train its soldiers would risk dragging the military alliance into war with Russia.
Estonia is one of Ukraine’s staunchest supporters and Kyiv’s largest military donor when measured by share of gross domestic product.
Russia saw a wave of arson attacks on army offices after the Kremlin announced an unpopular military mobilisation drive in September 2022.
Russia on Monday sentenced a man to 25 years in jail for planning to set fire to a military enlistment office in Siberia in 2022, the year Moscow launched its military operation in Ukraine.
Russia saw a wave of arson attacks on army offices after the Kremlin announced an unpopular military mobilisation drive in September 2022.
An energy deficit caused by Russian strikes is forcing restrictions for both industrial and residential consumption, which are expected nationwide between 6 p.m. and midnight.
Both industrial and residential electricity usage will be restricted on Monday evening between 6 p.m. and midnight across Ukraine, the country’s energy firm Ukrenergo announced.
Even though the warm weather in recent days has lowered power usage and thus, the power deficit, the situation is said to remain critical.
The Ukrainian air force said air defence systems had intercepted the Shahed attack drones over the central Poltava region, the southern Odesa region and the western Lviv region, bordering Poland.
Ukraine said Monday, May 20, it had downed more than two dozen Russian drones overnight that had targeted regions in the west, centre and south of the country.
The governor of the southern Mykolaiv region said debris from one of the drones damaged a private residence and left one woman with burns.
Since Russia's invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Finland has joined NATO and restricted much of its border with Russia. Meanwhile, Britain remains a major military supporter of Ukraine.
Britain and Finland will sign a new strategic partnership on Monday, May 20, to enhance their cooperation and counter the "threat of Russian aggression," announced the UK Foreign Ministry.
The agreement, which will be signed in London by UK Foreign Minister David Cameron and his Finnish counterpart Elina Valtonen, identifies Russia as "the most significant and direct threat to European peace and stability," according to a Foreign Office press release.
On May 20, 2019, Zelensky began his five-year term as President of Ukraine. The next presidential election was set for March 31, 2024, but Russia's invasion pushed this issue into the background.
On May 20, 2019, Volodymyr Zelensky’s five-year term as President of Ukraine officially began. According to the Constitution, the next presidential election was supposed to take place on March 31, 2024, but Russia’s full-scale invasion pushed this issue far into the background before it returned to the Ukrainian media space only after a series of statements voiced by Western politicians.
In May 2023, PACE President Tiny Kox said Ukraine should organize elections despite the ongoing war, referring to the statute of the Council of Europe. Then, in August, U.S. GOP Senator Lindsey Graham suggested that free and fair elections be held in this country, even as it is being attacked.
The film, called simply “Putin,” follows the dictator’s life over six decades from age 10 when he is seen being beaten by his stepfather. “In the end I show his death. A happy end,” said its director.
When Russian President Vladimir Putin was unavailable to star in his biopic, Polish director Patryk Vega turned to artificial intelligence.
The groundbreaking film, whose trailer starts with the leader cowering on a floor in diapers, uses a deepfake of the ruler's face transplanted onto the body of a real actor.
Now living in exile in Tbilisi, anti-Kremlin Russians have watched weeks of mass protests against the “foreign influence” law with a mix of admiration and worry.
Standing in the middle of a Tbilisi demonstration, Russian emigre Ivan looked on with a tinge of nostalgia as thousands of Georgians protested against a highly controversial law targeting NGOs and the media.
The 37-year-old has seen such legislation before.
Russia’s aviation industry finally acknowledges that it is in crisis as it publishes revised schedule for their President’s grandiose plans for the construction of commercial aircraft.
President Vladimir Putin announced in December that Russia would soon no longer rely on its fleet of foreign commercial airliners, that were suffering from Western sanctions, by manufacturing domestically produced replacements as part of Moscow’s “import substitution” program.
Speaking during the Direct Line Q&A session at his end-of-year press conference, he said: “We need to develop our own aircraft production. Under our plan we intend to make more than 1,000 our own airplanes by 2030.”
The 37-year-old Usyk described his victory over Fury as a "great moment" for himself, his family, and his country.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky led the praise for Oleksandr Usyk after his historic victory over British fighter Tyson Fury in Riyadh, making Usyk the first undisputed world heavyweight boxing champion in 25 years.
The 37-year-old, who briefly served in the Ukrainian army following the Russian invasion in February 2022, described his points victory over Fury as a "great moment" for himself, his family, and his country. The fight took place in the early hours of Sunday morning.
Russian troops since May 10 have carried out a ground assault in the northeastern region, where they have achieved their largest territorial gains in the last 18 months.
Russian attacks on Ukraine's Kharkiv region on Sunday killed at least 11 people, said authorities in the border area facing a new offensive by Moscow's forces.
Russian troops since May 10 have carried out a ground assault in the northeastern region, where they have achieved their largest territorial gains in the last 18 months.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
Russian airstrikes near Kharkiv kill 11 civilians; Rescuers say no survivors in Iranian president's helicopter crash; Blackouts will continue “for months,” Ukrenergo says; AFU destroys Russian ship.
At some point early Sunday afternoon, Tehran time, a helicopter carrying Iranian President Ebrahim Raisi crashed in northern Iran, a local military commander told state news agency IRNA. At around sunrise on Monday, about 18 hours after the initial reports, rescuers located the crash site and reported no survivors.
While unconfirmed by Tehran, initial reports are that the Iranian president did not survive.
