The main thing at the moment

• Russian troops are conducting an offensive near Lisichansk and Severodonetsk, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine in the morning report on May 20.

• The report also says that the threat of missile and bomb strikes from the territory of the Republic of Belarus remains.

• The US Senate has approved a $ 40 billion aid package to Ukraine.

  The document is now to be signed by President Joe Biden.

• According to the UN, 3,811 civilians have died in Ukraine since the beginning of the war.

  The Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Human Rights believes that the actual figures are much higher.

• The Russian Defense Ministry said that a total of 1,730 Azovstal defenders had already surrendered, including 771 over the past 24 hours.

  Ukraine does not comment.

• The command of the Azov regiment remains on the territory of the Azovstal plant in Mariupol, the deputy commander of the regiment said in a video message.

• Russian sergeant Vadim Shishimarin pleaded guilty to murdering a civilian in a court in Kyiv.

  The Prosecutor's Office of Ukraine has asked for his life sentence.

• Two more Russian servicemen are on trial in Ukraine.

  They are accused of artillery shelling in the Kharkiv region.

Territorial control of Ukraine on May 11, 2022

Independent verification of information about hostilities provided by officials of various parties is not yet possible.

What happens on May 20th

Russian troops attack Lisichansk and Severodonetsk - General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine

Russian troops are conducting an offensive operation in the Lisichansk and Severodonetsk districts, the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine said in a morning report on May 20.

• Experts from the American Institute for Military Studies (ISW) said on May 15 that the Russian command had apparently abandoned plans to encircle a Ukrainian armed group in the Donetsk region and is now focusing on taking control of the Luhansk region.

Russia claims mortar shelling of Alekseevka and Dronovka in the Kursk region.

The governor of the

Roman Starovoit, quoted by Russian media, said late in the evening on May 19 that there were no casualties and destruction, and "retaliatory fire suppressed enemy aggression."

Kursk region borders the Ukrainian Sumy region.

The General Staff

reported that Russian troops fired artillery and mortars at the border settlements of the Sumy region: Yesman, Sopych and Middle Buddha.

In addition, according to the General Staff of the Armed Forces, Russian troops are equipping additional firing positions and defensive structures in the border areas of Bryansk and Kursk regions.

The US Senate has approved the allocation of nearly $ 40 billion in financial assistance to Ukraine.

The U.S. Senate on Thursday finally approved an unprecedented size of aid package to Ukraine worth nearly $ 40 billion.

Most of this amount will be used to supply weapons to the Ukrainian army, which is trying to oust Russian troops from the country.

Ukraine will receive howitzers with ammunition from the United States

The U.S. Department of Defense has officially announced that the U.S. Marine Corps is preparing a towed 155-millimeter M777 howitzer to be sent along with other supplies and ammunition to Ukraine.

This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine on Facebook.

The US Senate has previously begun voting to provide $ 40 billion in aid to Ukraine.

Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said that if the bill is not passed by May 19, it could affect the ability of the United States to continuously provide military assistance to Ukraine.

Democrat Senator Chris Koons also stressed that "a week's delay will harm the defense of Ukraine."

On May 12, Republican Sen. Randall Paul single-handedly blocked consideration of a new aid package to Ukraine.

He proposed amendments to the bill, which provide for the establishment of a separate inspector to verify the allocation of funds under this package.

Russia's Defense Ministry says 1,730 Azovstal defenders captured

On May 19, the Russian Ministry of Defense announced that 771 more Ukrainian servicemen had been taken from the Azovstal plant in Mariupol to the territory controlled by pro-Russian separatists.

Thus, according to Russia, since May 16, the total number of Ukrainian servicemen from the plant, who took prisoner, reached 1730, among them - 80 wounded.

Kyiv has not yet commented on these figures.

On the eve of the Deputy Minister of Defense of Ukraine Anna Malyar called not to take the statements of the Russian side about the Ukrainian servicemen who surrendered as prisoners, as true information.

However, earlier the Ukrainian authorities confirmed that the military would leave Azovstal at the command's disposal on May 16.

Official sources in Kiev call it an "evacuation"

The International Committee of the Red Cross has registered hundreds of combatants who left Azovstal and called them "prisoners of war."

Prisoner-of-war status means that soldiers are guaranteed the protection and rights provided by the Geneva Convention.

In particular, according to the ICRC, this means immediate access to representatives of the organization.

More than a million refugees have returned to Ukraine

This was announced on May 19 by Ukrainian Ambassador to the United Kingdom Vadim Pristaiko, speaking in the British Parliament, writes the BBC.

According to him, residents of Kyiv and Kharkiv were advised not to hurry with their return, as the situation in the cities cannot be called safe until the end.

More than 6.3 million people have fled Russia since Ukraine's invasion, according to the Office of the United Nations High Commissioner for Refugees as of May 12.

Most of them went to Poland, Romania, Russia, Hungary, Moldova and Slovakia.

About 8 million Ukrainians are now internally displaced.

The population of Ukraine (including Russian-controlled territory) is about 44 million people.

What is happening in Russia

Russia has expelled 85 diplomats from EU countries and closed the Canadian CBC office

Russia is sending 34 members of the French diplomatic mission, 27 to Spain and 24 to Italy.

They were given two weeks to leave the country.

According to the Russian Foreign Ministry, these measures were taken in response to the expulsion of Russian diplomats after the start of Russia's war against Ukraine.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman

also announced the closure of the Canadian CBC office in Moscow: accreditation and Russian visas for journalists will be revoked.

Russia's Justice Ministry proposes to ban lawyers from "unfriendly countries"

In the future, on the basis of this order, it is planned to deprive the current lawyers of their legal status.

Currently, 247 lawyers from Ukraine, the United States, Great Britain, France, Germany and other "unfriendly" countries are registered in the register.

S7 airline canceled flights to the west and south of Russia, as well as to the Crimea until June and September

This was pointed out by RIA Novosti.

The airline closed sales for flights to Anapa, Gelendzhik, Krasnodar and Simferopol until June 23, and for flights from Moscow to Belgorod, Bryansk, Voronezh and Lipetsk - until the end of September.

Rosaviatsia closed flights to each of these airports on February 24, the day of Russia's war against Ukraine, and then extended the ban more than ten times.

Now the flights are formally closed until May 13.

Belarus' participation in the war

Belarus has allowed Russia to use its territory to attack Ukraine from the north;

Russians use Belarusian airfields for flights and Belarusian sites for rocket attacks on Ukrainian cities.

At the same time, Belarusians are fighting on the side of Ukraine in various formations.

A battalion named after Kastus Kalinouski has been created.

Belarusian army near the border with Ukraine

The Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces, First Deputy Defense Minister of Belarus

announced the beginning of the second stage of the inspection of the rapid reaction force.

According to him, as part of this stage, battalion and tactical groups have moved to the Western and North-Western operational areas, and to strengthen them - air defense units, missile forces and artillery, which will ensure their combat operation.

According to Gulevich, units of special operations forces were deployed in three tactical directions of the southern direction (to the border with Ukraine. - RS).

How the world reacts

European Parliament: All EU sanctions against Russia should apply to Belarus

On Thursday, MEPs adopted a resolution condemning the Lukashenko regime's support for Russia's war against Ukraine and calling for all sanctions against Russia that have already been imposed and will be imposed on Belarus.

The resolution also calls for an investigation into the crimes of Alexander Lukashenko's regime against the Belarusian people, calls on EU countries to actively apply the principle of universal jurisdiction and to prepare lawsuits against Belarusian officials, including Lukashenko, responsible for violence and repression in Belarus.

The European Parliament has backed a tribunal to try Russia for war crimes

Members of the European Parliament supported the resolution calling on the EU to support the establishment of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and provide it with the necessary resources and support, said Urkaina Foreign Minister Dmitry Kuleba.

The European Parliament has decided to abolish the import duty for Ukraine for a year

The European Parliament has called for the abolition of tariffs on imports into the EU from Ukraine in order to support the country's economy.

515 deputies voted for, 32 against and 11 abstained. This benefit will be valid for a year.

The abolition of duties on exports of industrial products, fruits and vegetables, as well as anti-dumping duties on steel imports.

The decision of the European Parliament will take effect after it is published in the Official Journal of the EU, after which it will come into force the next day.

This is expected to happen in June.

On May 19, the US Senate approved a new $ 40 billion aid package to Ukraine

Now it has to be signed by Joe Biden.

Last week, the U.S. Senate tried to pass the law in an accelerated format, but the vote was blocked by Republican Rand Paul.

A significant part of this amount will go to arms, it is also planned to allocate funds for humanitarian purposes and support the economy of Ukraine.

Ukraine will receive humanitarian aid from Poland in the form of gasoline

This was announced by Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Economy Yulia Sviridenko.

According to Sviridzenka, Poland will provide a total of 25,000 tons of its own reserves.

According to the press service of the Cabinet of Ministers, fuel supplies will begin next week.

Fuel shortages at Ukrainian gas stations arose in late April.

In late March, the Russian military began airstrikes on fuel depots.

Oil depots in Lviv, Volyn, Rivne, Poltava, Dnipropetrovsk and Odessa regions were destroyed or damaged.

Also, as a result of Russian air strikes, the infrastructure of the Kremenchug refinery, Ukraine's largest oil company, which supplies more than a third of the entire Ukrainian fuel market, was destroyed.

The EU will allocate another 9 billion euros for the reconstruction of Ukraine

“We will continue to be close to Ukraine throughout this war and when it starts to recover.

We offer Ukraine new macro-financial assistance of up to 9 billion euros in 2022, "said European Commission President Urzul von der Leyen on May 18.

FIBA has excluded the basketball teams of Russia and Belarus from its competitions

The Executive Committee of the International Basketball Federation has decided that the official FIBA ​​basketball competitions should not be held in Russia or Belarus until further notice, and the teams of the Russian Basketball Federation and the Belarusian Basketball Federation should be removed from all national team competitions.

The G7 agreed to strengthen Russia's economic and political isolation

The G7 foreign ministers have vowed to strengthen Russia's economic and political isolation, continue arms supplies to Ukraine and work to reduce the global food shortage caused by the war.

This is stated in the statement of the ministers.

Diplomats from Britain, Canada, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, the United States and the European Union have also pledged to continue military and defense assistance to Ukraine "as needed."

"We will never recognize the borders that Russia has tried to change through military aggression, and we will continue to support our participation in support of the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine, including Crimea," the ministers said.

The EU will give Ukraine 500 million euros for the purchase of heavy weapons

European Foreign Minister Giuseppe Burel has announced plans for the European Union to provide an additional 500 million euros to Kyiv.

This money will go to purchase heavy weapons (heavy weapons usually mean air defense systems, ships, aircraft and armored vehicles).

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