🔴 Live: Russian border region Belgorod targeted by overnight drone attacks, says official

11:04am: US aircraft carrier, world’s biggest, arrives in Oslo for NATO exercises

The world’s largest aircraft carrier, the USS Gerald R. Ford, sailed into Oslo on Wednesday, a first for such a US ship, in a show of NATO force at a time of heightened tension between NATO and Russia over the war in Ukraine.

The ship and its crew will be conducting training exercises with the Norwegian armed forces along the country’s coast in the coming days. “This visit is an important signal of the close bilateral relationship between the US and Norway and a signal of the credibility of collective defence and deterrence,” said Jonny Karlsen, a spokesperson for the Norwegian Joint Headquarters, the operational command centre of the military.

Norwegian media reported the aircraft carrier would sail north of the Arctic Circle. Karlsen declined to comment on the reports.

The Russian embassy in Oslo condemned the aircraft carrier’s Oslo visit. “There are no questions in the (Arctic) north that require a military solution, nor topics where outside intervention is needed,” the embassy said in a Facebook post. “Considering that it is admitted in Oslo that Russia poses no direct military threat to Norway, such demonstrations of power appear illogical and harmful.”

NATO member Norway shares a border with Russia in the Arctic and last year became Europe’s largest gas supplier after a drop in Russian gas flows. The Norwegian military and NATO allies have been patrolling around offshore oil and gas platforms since the autumn, following explosions on the Nord Stream pipelines in the Baltic Sea.

10:52am: Russian PM tells China’s Xi: We will push back against sanctions, RIA reports 

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin told Chinese President Xi Jinping in China on Wednesday that Moscow and Beijing would push back against attempts by countries to use sanctions to “impose their will”, Russia’s RIA news agency reported.

10:31am: Russia set to terminate agreement on military visits, Finland says

Russia has informed neighbouring Finland that it will terminate a bilateral agreement on mutual visits to military installations, the Finnish defence ministry said late on Tuesday.

The bilateral agreement, signed in 2000, provided for one annual Russian assessment visit to Finland and a similar visit by Finland to the Leningrad Military District in north-west Russia, the Finnish ministry said in a statement.

Finland last month joined the NATO military alliance in response to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, drawing a threat from Moscow of “counter-measures”.

The bilateral agreement, last applied in 2019 before the outbreak of the COVID-19 pandemic, was among several post-Cold War measures taken to improve East-West relations.

The broader Vienna Act, agreed within the framework of the Organisation for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE), which also provides for mutual inspection and evaluation visits, would not be affected by the termination, Finland said.

10:08am: Crimean Bridge closed due to ‘drills’, Russian-backed chief says

The Russian-built Crimean Bridge which links the Crimean peninsula to the Russian region of Krasnodar has been closed for several hours on Wednesday due to “ongoing drills”, the Russian-backed head of Crimea’s administration said.

“The Crimean bridge is closed due to ongoing exercises in the area. Traffic will be restored in a few hours,” Sergei Aksyonov said on Telegram.

9:53am: West sees Russia and China as threat to its dominance, Russia FM Lavrov says

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Wednesday said that the West saw Russia and China as “adversaries” that posed what he called an existential threat to the West’s “dominance”.

“As evidenced by statements made at the recently concluded G7 summit in Japan, the West views Russia and China as strategic adversaries posing almost an existential threat to its dominance,” Lavrov said.

9:06am: Problems continue despite renewal of Black Sea grain deal

Although Russia agreed to renew the Black Sea grain deal on May 17 for 60 days, the deal is not working in practice, says the deputy head of the Ukrainian ports authority. According to the Ukrainian government, 1.5 million tonnes of grain remain stocked on ships at the port, waiting to be exported, as ships are not allowed to come pick it up. Many African countries in particular are disappointed that the deal has only been renewed for two months. As such, six African heads of state are due to visit Ukraine and Russia in June to discuss the deal. 

FRANCE 24’s correspondant Gulliver Cragg tells us more from Odesa. 

9:01am: Drone attacks overnight in Russian border region, governor says

A Russian official in the southern Belgorod region bordering Ukraine said Wednesday that the territory was targeted by numerous drones overnight, following an armed incursion into the territory from Ukraine.

“The night was not entirely calm. There were a large number of drone attacks. Air defence systems handled most of them,” governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said in a post on social media, adding: “The most important thing is that there are no casualties.”

7:50am: Russia PM says relations with China at ‘unprecedented’ high level

Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin said on Wednesday that ties with China are at an “unprecedented” high level, characterised by mutual respect of each other’s interests and the desire to jointly respond to challenges.

“As our Chinese friends say, unity makes it possible to move mountains,” Mishustin told Chinese Premier Li Qiang during a meeting in Beijing.

Mishustin was the highest ranking Russian official to visit the Chinese capital since Moscow sent thousands of its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

6:32am: Russia extends arrest of US journalist Evan Gershkovich by 3 months

A Russian court on Tuesday extended the arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich by three months in a closed-door hearing emblematic of the secrecy that has marked the case against the first United States correspondent since the Cold War to be detained in Russia on spying charges.

Gershkovich, a 31-year-old American citizen, was ordered to be held until August 30. He was arrested in March on espionage charges on a reporting trip in Russia. He, his employer and the US government have denied the charges.

Tuesday’s pre-trial hearing wasn’t announced in advance, and the entire case has been wrapped in secrecy.

Russian authorities haven’t detailed what – if any – evidence they have gathered to support the espionage charges. 

6:18am: China willing to work with Russia to take pragmatic cooperation to new level, says premier

Chinese Premier Li Qiang said on Wednesday that China was willing to work with Russia to promote their pragmatic cooperation in various fields and take it to a “new level”.

Pragmatic cooperation between China and Russia has shown a “good” development trend, and the scale of investment between the two is also continuously seeing an upgrade, Li told Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin during a meeting in Beijing.

Mishustin was the highest ranking Russian official to visit the Chinese capital since Moscow sent thousands of its troops into Ukraine in February 2022.

6:07am: Russia will achieve all its goals in Ukraine, TASS reports citing Kremlin spokesman 

Russia will achieve all its goals in Ukraine either through its “special military operation” or through all other means, the state TASS news agency cited Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying on Wednesday.

“Russia is taking under consideration only the completion of its special military operation: ensuring its interests, achieving Russia’s goals either through the special military operation, or by other available means,” Peskov told TASS, answering a question on whether Russia would consider the possibility of freezing the conflict.

Moscow calls its actions in Ukraine a “special military operation”, while Kyiv and its Western allies call it an unprovoked aggression to grab land.

4:05am: Russia’s newest nuclear submarine to move to permanent Pacific base in August, reports TASS

The Russian navy’s newest nuclear-powered ballistic missile submarine will move to a permanent base in the Kamchatka Peninsula in August, Russia’s TASS news agency reported on Wednesday, as Moscow steps up its Pacific military presence.

The Generalissimo Suvorov, which entered service at the end of 2022, carries up to 16 nuclear-tipped Russian Bulava missiles, each of which can carry more than one nuclear warhead.

“The submarine Generalissimo Suvorov will make an inter-naval transition from the Northern Fleet (in the Arctic) to the Pacific Fleet in August,” the state TASS news agency reported, citing a source close to the military department. “The transition will be carried out along the Northern Sea Route, including in a submerged position.”

Russia has been boosting defences in its vast far eastern regions bordering Asia-Pacific, accusing the US of expanding its presence there and raising security concerns in Japan and across the region.

• Key developments from Tuesday, May 23:

NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Tuesday that Training Ukrainian pilots in flying US-built F-16 fighter jets does not directly involve NATO in the war in Ukraine. “Ukraine has the right of self-defence … We help Ukraine to uphold that right,” he told reporters. 

Russia said Tuesday that its armed forces had beaten back and then wiped out a group of militants and military hardware that were dispatched to its southern Belgorod region from Ukraine. It reported that one resident of the Belgorod region was killed. Kyiv has denied involvement in the attacks.

Ukraine’s prosecutor general’s office said that it has launched criminal proceedings into “the forced transportation/deportation of over 19,000 children” from the occupied regions of Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, Kherson, and Kharkiv, including to Belarus.

Read yesterday’s live blog to see how the day’s events unfolded.

(FRANCE 24 with AFP, AP & Reuters)