u/KI_official

As Ukraine intensifies strikes inside Russia, videos circulating online show Russians reacting to the war increasingly reaching their own regions, including during one of the latest large-scale attacks on the Moscow region.

Overnight on May 16–17, a joint operation by Ukraine’s SBU and Armed Forces targeted military-industrial sites, oil infrastructure, and air defense systems across Moscow Oblast and occupied Crimea. President Volodymyr Zelensky called the operation a fair response to Russia’s ongoing attacks on Ukrainian civilians.

Kyiv has stepped up long-range strikes in recent months, demonstrating an apparent growing ability to hit targets in areas heavily protected by Russian air defenses.

Video: supernova_plus; exilenova_plus / Telegram.

For Lia Gazi, a 24-year-old Crimean Tatar activist in exile, the second half of May each year signifies both personal and collective tragedy — the forced deportation and genocide of the Crimean Tatar People.

Over the course of two days in 1944, from May 18 to May 20, the Soviet secret policy forcibly deported over 190,000 indigenous Crimean Tatars across thousands of kilometers from Crimea to Central Asia. Members of Gazi's family were among the victims.

"Strangers still live in our homes today, and the scariest thing is that the impunity surrounding these crimes allows them to happen again and again," Gazi told the Kyiv Independent.

The deportation of Crimean Tatars was carried out under direct orders from Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin, who labeled the entire Crimean Tatar population as traitors following the peninsula's liberation from Nazi occupation. An estimated 8,000 Crimean Tatars died in the process.

Decades have passed since Gazi's ancestors were deported, and now history appears to be repeating itself: In Crimea, occupied since 2014, and other occupied territories, Crimean Tatars now face political repression and persecution, as well as erasure of their identity and history.

Read the full article here: https://kyivindependent.com/in-crimea-you-cant-even-mention-it-out-loud-82-years-after-soviet-deportation-russia-continues-persecution-of-crimean-tatars/

Photo: ullstein bild; Max Vetrov; Danil Shamkin; Danylo Antoniuk / Getty Images; Lia Gazı / Archive.

The analysis reveals that the drone war is now delivering something Ukraine has never had before: the ability to strike even heavily defended targets around the Russian capital. From the Tuapse oil terminal to the Moscow Refinery, deep strikes are forcing Russians to confront a war their government told them they could ignore.

Read more: https://kyivindependent.com/analysis-how-ukraine-gained-the-upper-hand-in-the-drone-war/

Photos: Dmytro Smolienko / Ukrinform / NurPhoto / Getty Images; Efrem Lukatsky/AP Photo; Satellite image / 2026 Vantor / Getty Images; Alexander Nemenov / AFP / Getty Images

Some hoped that with Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban leaving office on May 9, Ukraine's path to EU membership would become much smoother. Instead, problems of substance have risen to the surface, which could prove difficult for Kyiv to fully address.

Pressure is rising in Brussels to find a way to reach an agreement on opening so-called "enlargement clusters" by the next meeting of EU leaders on June 18. National ambassadors have raised the concern that there might not be sufficient progress in time, but who or what is blocking the way now?

Not the European Commission. The EU's Enlargement Commissioner, Marta Kos, has repeatedly said that Ukraine is ready to open all six of the enlargement clusters. Any blockages, therefore, are politically driven by specific EU countries.

Read more: https://kyivindependent.com/ukraines-obstacle-course-the-countries-blocking-progress-on-joining-the-eu/

Photo: Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg via Getty Images.

When 23-year-old Russian student Valery Averin signed a military contract in January after being recruited into Russia’s drone forces campaign targeting students, he was told he would train as a drone operator. Three months later, he was dead near Luhansk after reportedly being sent into an assault unit despite having no military experience.

His case, reported by the BBC Russian Service, appears to be the first known death linked to Russia’s growing campaign to recruit university and college students for the war against Ukraine.

As Russia struggles to replenish its forces — with battlefield losses exceeding recruitment rates for five consecutive months — without launching another politically risky mobilization wave, students are increasingly becoming a new recruitment pool for the war, with universities themselves pushing them to the front.

Read the full article here: https://kyivindependent.com/first-known-russian-recruited-from-university-dies-in-ukraine-exposing-russias-student-recruitment-campaign/

Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev; Contributor; Sefa Karacan; Laurel Chor / Getty Images.

When 23-year-old Russian student Valery Averin signed a military contract in January after being recruited into Russia’s drone forces campaign targeting students, he was told he would train as a drone operator. Three months later, he was dead near Luhansk after reportedly being sent into an assault unit despite having no military experience.

His case, reported by the BBC Russian Service, appears to be the first known death linked to Russia’s growing campaign to recruit university and college students for the war against Ukraine.

As Russia struggles to replenish its forces — with battlefield losses exceeding recruitment rates for five consecutive months — without launching another politically risky mobilization wave, students are increasingly becoming a new recruitment pool for the war, with universities themselves pushing them to the front.

Read the full article here: https://kyivindependent.com/first-known-russian-recruited-from-university-dies-in-ukraine-exposing-russias-student-recruitment-campaign/

Photo: Kirill Kudryavtsev; Contributor; Sefa Karacan; Laurel Chor / Getty Images.

Belarus has begun nuclear weapons drills together with Russia "to improve the readiness of the armed forces to use modern means of destruction, including special ammunition," the country’s Defense Ministry announced on May 18.

The exercises have added significance as they come amid growing warnings from Kyiv that Russia is trying to draw Belarus deeper into its war against Ukraine, while also expanding military infrastructure that could support future Russian operations against Ukraine or NATO's eastern flank.

The ministry said a key feature of the drills will be testing the military's ability to conduct combat operations from "unplanned" locations across the country.

Ukraine's Foreign Ministry condemned the exercises, calling Russia-Belarus nuclear cooperation "an unprecedented challenge to the global security architecture," adding the drills violate the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT) by involving a non-nuclear state in preparations linked to nuclear weapons use.

"Turning Belarus into its nuclear bridgehead near NATO borders, the Kremlin is effectively legitimizing the spread of nuclear weapons globally and creating a dangerous precedent for other authoritarian regimes," the statement reads.

Russia and Belarus have expanded nuclear cooperation since 2023, when Moscow announced the deployment of tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus. The two countries held joint nuclear drills in 2024, while Russia reportedly delivered its nuclear-capable Oreshnik missile system to Belarus in 2025.

Photo: Ramil Sitdikov / POOL / AFP / Getty Images.

Ukrainian troops are holding several positions in northern Pokrovsk that are "almost cut off" as Russian forces increasingly dominate the skies, logistics routes, and high ground around the embattled Donetsk Oblast city, Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said in a detailed battlefield assessment published on X on May 18.

The statement offers a sobering picture of the deteriorating situation north of Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian troops say Russian drone superiority has made troop rotations, evacuations, and resupply missions nearly impossible.

According to the corps, Russian forces "control the high ground and the city’s buildings," while deploying surveillance and electronic warfare systems that dominate the skies over northern Pokrovsk and nearby Hryshyne.

Pokrovsk has long served as a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, located at the intersection of major rail and highway routes. In a costly operation that has lasted more than a year, Russia has committed a large number of troops in an effort to capture the city.

Read the full article here: https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-troops-in-northern-pokrovsk-almost-cut-off-as-russian-drones-dominate-logistics-routes-military-says/

Photo: DeepState monitoring project; Dmytro Smolienko; Marharyta Fal / Getty Images (Illustrative purposes).

Ukrainian troops are holding several positions in northern Pokrovsk that are "almost cut off" as Russian forces increasingly dominate the skies, logistics routes, and high ground around the embattled Donetsk Oblast city, Ukraine’s 7th Rapid Response Corps said in a detailed battlefield assessment published on X on May 18.

The statement offers a sobering picture of the deteriorating situation north of Pokrovsk, where Ukrainian troops say Russian drone superiority has made troop rotations, evacuations, and resupply missions nearly impossible.

According to the corps, Russian forces "control the high ground and the city’s buildings," while deploying surveillance and electronic warfare systems that dominate the skies over northern Pokrovsk and nearby Hryshyne.

Pokrovsk has long served as a key logistics hub for Ukrainian forces, located at the intersection of major rail and highway routes. In a costly operation that has lasted more than a year, Russia has committed a large number of troops in an effort to capture the city.

Read the full article here: https://kyivindependent.com/ukrainian-troops-in-northern-pokrovsk-almost-cut-off-as-russian-drones-dominate-logistics-routes-military-says/

Photo: DeepState monitoring project; Dmytro Smolienko; Marharyta Fal / Getty Images (Illustrative purposes).

https://kyivindependent.com/zelenskys-ex-chief-of-staff-released-on-over-3-million-bail-amid-major-corruption-probe/