The New York Times writes about a former Russian citizen who now leads a volunteer unit of Ukrainian fighters countering Putin’s invasion in the east of Ukraine. Kandalaksha, who asked to keep his persona anonymous, left his homeland in 2014 following the Russian annexation of Crimea. He wanted to fight against Putin’s regime, and Ukraine was the right place to do it. He joined the Ukrainian volunteer military unit in 2015. In February 2022, he decided to volunteer again, first serving in the Kyiv suburbs and now in the battle for Donbas, where he commands a group of Ukrainian volunteers. Back in Russia, Kandalaksha used to live in Murmansk, Russia’s far north, where he was trained as an electrical engineer. He became interested in politics in 2008-2009 when he learned about the corruption and embezzlement of billions of dollars of state money by the Russian leadership. As he became visible as an opposition activist, Kandalaksha soon came under scrutiny from the secret service. He was forced to move to southern Russia in 2013 and later, following the events of 2014, decided to leave the country for good. He says he feels at home in Ukraine and is not thinking of ever coming back to Russia. Kandalaksha believes not only does Putin have to leave, so there are changes in Russia – the system has to change. Therefore the whole idea of providing Putin with an off-ramp is horrendous.
Patrick Wintour, the diplomatic editor at the Guardian, writes about the division among western leaders on Ukrainian matters. Apparently, there still are western leaders who believe they would be able to work with Russia once the war is over, and that is why they are neutral or negative towards enforcing the Russian oil embargo, supporting Ukraine with heavy weaponry, and are in favor of pushing Ukraine to concede part of its’ territories as a price for peace. As Ukraine is suffering serious losses in the east, the commander in chief, Valeryi Zaluzhnyi, pledges for immediate delivery of long-range artillery weapons. The Guardian refers to a Germany Deutsche Presse Agentur, that reported NATO members had informally agreed not to supply certain weapons to Ukraine, fearing Russia could perceive delivery of tanks and combat aircraft as the west entering the war. There are also reports that Israel rejected a US request to allow Germany to send to Ukraine the Spike anti-tank missiles produced under Israely technology. While Great Britain, Poland, and the Baltic states agree that any appeasement would make Putin stronger in the long term, Berlin and Paris disagree. The article also covers the four-point plan offered by Italian Prime Minister Mario Draghi, which reminds of the Minsk agreement, especially in the part where it offers the occupied territories autonomy and creation of a single economic zone. But the Guardian notes that as the war continues and Russia is gaining successes in the east, it is hard to see peace talks renewing soon.
Politico writes about a tentative compromise over the plans to sanction Russian oil imports. For the past month, Hungarian prime minister Viktor Orban has blocked an agreement to ban imports of Russian crude and refined fuels. Now, the diplomats are discussing an option of blocking only the oil supplies by ship. That would allow Hungary, Germany, and Slovakia to keep buying Russian crude by pipelines. Such an exemption would be unfair for member states who will not be able to get the crude via pipelines. It would also be a partial defeat for European leaders, like Ursula von der Leyen, who urged for the toughest possible action to cut off Putin’s cash flow. At the same time, it has been weeks since the EU failed to agree on the sixths sanction package, and most of the EU countries (including Poland) are willing to agree on at least a partial ban on Russian oil imports. Politico writes that further talks are expected over the weekend, ahead of a summit of EU leaders taking place in Brussels on May 30-31.