A hospital in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro was hit Friday morning in a Russian missile attack, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said. This comes as Russia held separate talks with China and Brazil on the war in Ukraine. Follow our blog to see how the day's events unfolded. All times are Paris time (GMT+2).
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10:25pm: Ukraine says Russia plans to simulate accident at nuclear power plant
Ukraine's defence ministry on Friday said Russia was planning to simulate a major accident at a nuclear power station controlled by pro-Moscow forces to try to thwart a long-planned Ukrainian counteroffensive to retake territory occupied by Russia.
The Zaporizhzhia plant, which lies in an area of Russian-occupied southern Ukraine, is Europe's biggest nuclear power station and the area has been repeatedly hit by shelling that both sides blame each other for.
The defence ministry's intelligence directorate said Russian forces would soon shell the plant and then announce a radiation leak. This would force an investigation by international authorities, during which all hostilities would be stopped.
9:25pm: EU condemns Russian deal to station nuclear warheads in Belarus
The European Union on Friday condemned an agreement between Russia and Belarus to allow the deployment of Russian nuclear warheads in Belarus.
"This is a step which will lead to further extremely dangerous escalation," EU foreign policy chief Josep Borrell said in a statement.
Russia moved ahead on Thursday with its plan to deploy tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, whose leader said the warheads were already on the move. The plan was announced by Russian President Vladimir Putin in March.
9:21pm: 'They've gone mad', Putin says of Georgia anti-Kremlin protesters
President Vladimir Putin on Friday said he was surprised by anti-Kremlin protests in Georgia when Russia resumed air travel with the pro-Western country.
Dozens of Georgians protested last week outside an airport in the capital Tbilisi as a Russian passenger plane landed in the Caucasus country for the first time since 2019.
The resumption of air travel comes as Moscow's offensive in Ukraine stretches into its second year and Russia's isolation from the West deepens.
Honestly, I was totally surprised by the reaction," Putin said at a meeting with businessmen.
"I thought everyone would say: 'Well, thanks, that's good. But no, there was a completely incomprehensible fuss over this issue," Putin said in televised remarks.
"When I look from here, I think: 'they've gone mad, it's not clear what's happening there," he said.
7:07pm: Germany to move Slovakia-based Patriot system to Lithuania to protect NATO summit
The German Defense Ministry said Friday it will transfer Patriot air defense systems from Slovakia to Lithuania as part of efforts to provide security for the NATO summit that the Baltic country will host in July.
Germany will provide land, air and sea-based assets to help secure the meeting of NATO leaders in Vilnius on July 11-12 at the alliance's request, according to a ministry statement. It didn't provide details, but said it will deploy units that are currently on NATO's eastern flank or can operate from Germany.
6:27pm: Russia strikes Dnipro, battle on the outskirts of Bakhmut continues
A Russian missile hit a clinic in the eastern Ukrainian city of Dnipro on May 26, killing two people and wounding 30 in an attack that President Volodymyr Zelensky called a crime against humanity.
FRANCE 24's Catherine Norris-Trent, reporting from the ground, stated, "People aren't safe anywhere, anytime." Norris-Trest indicates that the battle on the outskirts of Bakhmut is continuing. Watch her report below for the full story:
5:01pm: Brazil's Lula said spoke to Putin on war, declined invitation for economic forum
Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva said on Friday he had a phone call with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin and reiterated his country's willingness to talk to both sides of the war in Ukraine seeking peace.
Lula tweeted he had also thanked Putin for an invitation to attend an economic forum in Saint Petersburg, but had to decline it as he "can't visit Russia at the moment".
4:51pm: Russia's Lavrov tells China envoy 'serious obstacles' to Ukraine peace
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told China's special envoy Li Hui on Friday that there were "serious obstacles" to resuming peace talks, blaming Ukraine and Western countries.
"The Russian foreign minister reaffirmed Moscow's commitment to a politic-diplomatic resolution of the conflict, noting the serious obstacles to the resumption of peace talks created by the Ukrainian side and its Western mentors," the foreign ministry said.
During the meeting with Li, who was China's ambassador in Russia between 2009 and 2019, Lavrov also praised Beijing's "balanced" position on Ukraine.
While China says it is a neutral party in the Ukraine conflict, it has been criticised for refusing to condemn Moscow for its offensive.
4:41pm: Lavrov, Chinese special envoy Li discuss prospects for peace in Ukraine, Russia says
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and Chinese special envoy Li Hui discussed prospects for resolving the conflict in Ukraine at a meeting in Moscow on Friday, Russia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
Li has been on a tour of European capitals including Kyiv.
In a meeting with officials from the European Union in Brussels on Thursday, Li said China had always upheld an objective and just position on the Ukrainian issue and actively promoted peace talks
2:31pm: FRANCE 24 visits Ukraine’s Avdiivka, holding out under siege for nearly a year
Russian forces have for months been concentrating their offensive on eastern Ukraine with the aim of capturing the Donetsk region. Avdiivka, a town located on the outskirts of the occupied regional capital, has resisted Russian assaults for nearly a year of continuous siege, and Russian aircraft and missiles have been ravaging what remains of the town for weeks. FRANCE 24 reporters Catherine Norris Trent, Johan Bodin and Dymitro Kovalchuk went to speak with the people there.
1:47pm: Russia says it carried out overnight strike on Ukrainian ammo depots
Russia's Defence Ministry said on Friday that it carried out an overnight strike on Ukrainian ammunition depots, the RIA news agency reported.
"The target of the strike has been achieved. All designated facilities were hit," the defence ministry was quoted as saying.
12:52pm: Russia summons US diplomats to protest 'unacceptable' comments about strikes on its territory
Russia said it summoned senior US diplomats to its foreign ministry on Friday to protest what it called "unacceptable remarks" by White House national security adviser Jake Sullivan about "strikes on Russian territory".
12:44pm: Swedish Foreign Minister Billstrom says ambition is to join NATO by July
Sweden still hopes to be a member of NATO by the time of the alliance's summit in Vilnius in July, Swedish Foreign Minister Tobias Billstrom said on Friday.
"We should be able to be members before then and it is the government's ambition that will be the case," he told a news conference with his Spanish counterpart. Sweden's accession to NATO has been held up by objections from Turkey and Hungary.
12:41pm: UN nuclear chief to brief Security Council on Ukrainian power plant
The UN nuclear watchdog said its chief Rafael Grossi will brief the UN Security Council in New York Tuesday on his plan on protecting Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant.
"Grossi is planning to brief the UN Security Council on the nuclear safety and security situation" in Zaporizhzhia at a meeting chaired by Switzerland, according to a statement sent by the agency to AFP.
12:32pm: Two drones damage buildings in Russia's Krasnodar city
Two drones damaged buildings in the centre of the southern Russian city of Krasnodar, the regional governor said Friday, the latest in a spate of aerial attacks regions bordering Ukraine.
"The cause of the morning incident on Morskaya street in the regional capital was the fall of two drones. There is damage to buildings, but key infrastructure was not damaged. And most importantly, there were no casualties," governor Veniamin Kondratiev said in a statement on social media.
11:16am: Dozens of strikes hit Russian border region
The southern Russian frontier region of Belgorod has been pummelled by dozens of Ukrainian strikes in the past 24 hours, the governor said Friday.
Five districts were repeatedly attack by drones, mortars and artillery and the village of Kozinka had been struck more than 130 times, Belgorod governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said on social media.
10:24am: Russian strike on clinic kills at least one, injures 23 in Ukraine's Dnipro
A Russian missile on Friday morning struck a medical facility in the central Ukrainian city of Dnipro, killing one and injuring 23 including two children, officials said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted a video of smoke billowing from roofless buildings with blown-out windows. "There are 23 injured in Dnipro," the head of the regional military administration Sergiy Lysak wrote on Telegram, after several buildings were hit.
"A 69-year-old man died. He was just passing by when a Russian terrorist missile hit the city...". Zelensky said that with a strike on a medical facility, "Russian terrorists once again confirm their status of fighters against everything humane and honest". Lysak said the injured included two boys aged three and six, who have been hospitalised along with 19 others.
Local media posted video footage of rescuers helping people with blood on their faces escape from the clinic through corridors full of rubble. The three-storey building was partially destroyed and a fire spread over 1,000 square metres, Lysak wrote on Telegram, posting a video of firefighters aiming hoses at the smoking rubble.
Lysak said earlier that the Dnipropetrovsk region was "massively attacked" overnight "with rockets and drones". In the city of Dnipro, overnight shelling set fire to a house and damaged two others, he said.
10:10am: Russia's Medvedev says Ukraine talks 'impossible' as long as Zelensky in power
Russia's Deputy Security Council Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Friday that negotiations with Ukraine were "impossible" as long as President Volodymyr Zelensky was in power, the TASS news agency reported.
"Everything always ends in negotiations, and this is inevitable, but as long as these people are in power, the situation for Russia will not change in terms of negotiations," Medvedev was quoted as saying.
7:14am: Russia's Medvedev says pre-emptive strike needed if Ukraine receives nuclear weapons
Russia will have to launch a pre-emptive strike if the West gives Ukraine nuclear weapons, Russian news agencies quoted Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman, former president Dmitry Medvedev, as saying on Friday.
"There are irreversible laws of war. If it comes to nuclear weapons, there will have to be a pre-emptive strike," Medvedev said.
6:09am: New overnight bombing raids on Kyiv
Russian forces bombed Kyiv again Thursday night, according to the city's civil and military administration, which said that all the missiles had been intercepted and destroyed.
"Another air attack on Kyiv, the 13th in a row since the beginning of May! And as always, at night", said the administration on its Telegram account. According to the administration, cruise missiles were launched by Tu-95MS strategic bombers from the Caspian Sea region.
"According to preliminary information, all enemy targets in Kiev's airspace have been detected and destroyed," it added.
6:00am: Germany's Scholz plans to speak with Putin 'in due course'
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz says he plans to speak to Russian President Vladimir Putin "in due course", holding out the prospect of resuming contact after a near-total breakdown in relations since the Ukraine war.
"My last telephone call was some time ago," Scholz told the Koelner Stadt-Anzeiger newspaper in an interview published Friday. "But I plan to speak to Putin again in due course".
Scholz insisted that his aim remained to "actively support Ukraine", but "at the same to prevent a direct conflict between NATO and Russia. ... And never to act alone, but in close coordination with our friends and allies."
Asked about the prospect of halting the conflict through negotiations, Scholz said that Putin had to understand that the war could not be ended by making "some kind of cold peace ... for instance, by turning the current front line into the new 'border' between Russia and Ukraine," he said. "It is about a fair peace, and the prerequisite for that is the withdrawal of Russian troops," he added.
3:47am: Kyiv reports increased danger of missile strikes, says defences working
Military authorities in the Ukrainian capital Kyiv reported an increased danger of Russian missile strikes in the early hours of Friday morning and said anti-aircraft defences were working.
Russia has launched hundreds of rocket attacks against targets across Ukraine since last October, seeking to destroy critical infrastructure and other targets. In recent weeks Ukraine said it has knocked out most of the missiles.
"Increased missile danger! Air defences are working in the region," the Kyiv regional military administration said in a message on Telegram.
2:57am: Japan to slap additional sanctions on Russia after G7 summit
Japan will place additional sanctions on Russia, a government bulletin showed on Friday, after the Group of Seven (G7) summit the country hosted last week in Hiroshima showed the G7 leaders' resolve to support Ukraine.
Japan will freeze assets of 78 groups and 17 individuals in Russia and ban exports to 80 Russian entities such as military-affiliated research labs, according to the bulletin.
2:30am: Putin ally says Ukraine war could last for decades
A top ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin said the Ukraine war could last for decades, with long periods of fighting interspersed by truces, Russia's RIA news agency reported on Thursday.
It said former President Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Putin's powerful security council, had spoken during a visit to Vietnam. Medvedev often makes hardline comments and last month described Ukrainian authorities as an infection.
"This conflict will last a very long time, most likely decades," RIA cited Medvedev as saying.
"As long as there is such a power in place, there will be, say, three years of truce, two years of conflict, and everything will be repeated," he continued, reiterating Moscow's claim that Ukraine is a Nazi state.
1:21am: EU extends Ukraine tariff suspension, Zelensky pledges to make it permanent
The European Union agreed on Thursday to suspend restrictions on imports from Ukraine for a further year after warding off an import ban imposed by some EU nations amid farmer protests over low prices.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky thanked the EU for the extension and pledged to work towards meeting the union's standards required to secure membership of the 27-nation bloc.
The Council of the EU, a grouping of EU governments, said in a tweet that EU ministers responsible for trade had agreed to the extension at a meeting on Thursday.
12:30am: Russia signals July end to Black Sea grain deal if demands not met
Russia signalled on Thursday that if demands to improve its grain and fertiliser exports are not met, it will not extend beyond July 17 a deal allowing the safe wartime export of the products from three Ukrainian Black Sea ports.
It made the same threat and demands in March. Moscow agreed last week to renew for 60 days the Black Sea export pact initially brokered by the United Nations and Turkey last July with Russia and Ukraine to ease a global food crisis aggravated by Moscow's February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
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Key developments from Thursday, May 25:
Russia's Wagner group founder Yevgeny Prigozhin said it is withdrawing its forces from the Ukrainian city of Bakhmut and transferring its positions to Russian army units.
Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said that Russia had begun moving tactical nuclear weapons into his country.
Read yesterday's live blog to see how the day's events unfolded.
(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)
