The U.K. didn't send invitations to King Charles' coronation ceremony on May 6 to the heads of Russia, Belarus, Iran, Myanmar, Syria, Afghanistan, and Venezuela, a British source told Reuters.
According to the source, even senior diplomats from North Korea and Nicaragua received invitations to the ceremony.
Iryna Horobtsova, a 37-year-old IT specialist and activist, was kidnapped by Russian soldiers in May 2022 for her participation in protests against the Russian occupation of Kherson, Ukraine. Her family has not seen her since.
Her case is one of many; the Ukrainian Ombudsman has received over 20,000 reports from relatives of civilians in Russian captivity.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken told Fox News on May 2 that Washington knew Ukraine was contemplating a counteroffensive "in the coming weeks," and it was monitoring the course of events.
Ukraine's new Offensive Guard force has "fully formed" eight assault brigades and will put them under the command of the Armed Forces; Verkhovna Rada has voted to extend martial law and mobilization for another 90 days; and more.
U.S. Army General Christopher Cavoli (NATO’s top commander): “Russian air, maritime, space, cyber, and strategic forces have not suffered significant degradation in the current war. Moreover, Russia will likely rebuild its future Army into a sizeable and more capable land force… Russia retains a vast stockpile of deployed and non-deployed nuclear weapons, which present an existential threat to the US.”
The Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Oleg Nikolenko lashed out at a German Press Agency article, which cited unnamed diplomats arguing that talks about Ukraine's accession to NATO "distract from the much more important support" for Kyiv and risk provoking Russia to wage "even more aggressive warfare."
Nikolenko dismissed the arguments on May 2, saying that they "constitute a set of erroneous judgments that have long lost their relevance."
He also said that "we have already heard arguments about the need to refrain from steps that could allegedly 'provoke' Russia to new aggression," arguing that the only thing that "provokes" Russia is uncertainty.
U.S. Ambassador to China Nicholas Burns said on May 2 that "it’d be helpful if China pushed Russia to cease bombing of Ukrainian schools, and Ukrainian hospitals, and Ukrainian apartment buildings," CNN reported.
"What we need to see from China is to push Russia to withdraw its troops and so that Ukraine can have all of its territory back and can be fully sovereign again in all aspects of that word," Burns said.
The Verkhona Rada, Ukraine's parliament, adopted a resolution on May 2 defining Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's regime as "rascism," also known as "rashism" or "ruscism," a contraction of "Russian fascism."
Denmark will provide Ukraine with the biggest military aid pacakage to date worth $250 million, the Danish Broadcasting Corporation reported on May 2, citing Danish Defense Minister Troels Lund Poulsen.
The Russian-installed deputy head of the Internal Affairs regional office in Zaporizhzhia Oblast was reportedly hospitalized after opening his gate where an explosive device had been planted, according to Russian media reports.
The enemy continues to focus on conducting offensive operations in the Lyman, Bakhmut, Avdiivka, and Maryinka directions where over 30 assault efforts were recorded.
Ambassador of the French Republic to Ukraine Etienne de Poncins has visited the Cherkasy region’s Uman and paid tribute to 23 victims killed in Russia’s recent missile strike on a residential building.