The Russian forces said this Thursday, May 22, having killed 35 Ukrainian drones flying in the direction of Moscow on Thursday, May 22, while Ukraine said they had intercepted more than 112 Russian drones. These attacks are involved in a context of intense European diplomatic efforts, supported by the United States, to obtain a ceasefire from Russia. The head of American diplomacy, Marco Rubio, said Tuesday to expect Moscow to present “in a few days” his terms for a fighting of fighting, while the Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accuses the Russians of wanting to “save time”, what the interested parties denied on Wednesday: “No one has an interest in dragging the process”, Peskov, ensuring that “everyone works in a dynamic way”.
Info to remember
⇒ The European Parliament adopts surcharge on Russian fertilizers from July
⇒ A new commander appointed to the head of the Russian land forces
⇒ Russia says it has shot down 35 drones targeting Moscow
The European Parliament adopts surcharge on Russian fertilizers from July
In what appears to be one more stage in the showdown between Brussels and Moscow, the European Parliament approved this Thursday a surcharge of the millions of tonnes of fertilizer imported from Russia each year in Europe, despite fears of the agricultural world which redoubts a surge in world prices. The text was adopted by 411 votes for, 100 against and 78 abstentions. The European Union wants to gradually increase its taxes against Russian and Bélarussian fertilizers in order to end its imports in three years.
More than three years after the invasion of Ukraine, it is necessary to cease “to feed the war machine” by Vladimir Putin and “limit the dependence of European farmers with regard to Russian fertilizers”, claims the Latvian MEP Inese Vaidere (PPE, right), rapporteur of this text. The European Union imported 6.2 million tonnes of Russian fertilizers in 2024 and already nearly 2.5 million since the beginning of 2025, a quarter of its imports in this area.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accuses Russia of threatening “security in Europe”
The German Chancellor Friedrich Merz accused Russia of threatening “security in Europe” during a trip to Lithuania on the occasion of the entry into office in this country of a German armored brigade intended to strengthen the East NATO front. “Russia, as it presents itself today, is a threat to all of us. It is against this threat that we protect ourselves and that is why we are here today,” Friedrich Merz told Vilnius alongside Lithuanian President Gitanas Nareda.
It is the first time, in the post-war period, that the German army has sent a permanently complete brigade abroad. The 45th armored brigade, or “Lithuanie brigade”, has been present since early April with currently 400 soldiers on site. The subject of an agreement concluded in 2023 with Lithuania, this “panzerbrigade” must see its ranks grow to count around 2,000 soldiers by mid-2026, then 5,000 enrollment, including 200 civilians, by 2027. Mounted quickly after the start of the invasion of Ukraine, in February 2022, this “flagship project” of the German government is a marker of the country’s remilitarization.
A commander of the headquarters of Marioupol appointed to the head of the Russian land forces
One of the commanders of the devastating headquarters of the Ukrainian port of Marioupol in 2022, Andreï Mordvitchev, was officially appointed on Thursday at the head of the land forces of the Russian army, after the transfer of his predecessor to another position. General Mordvitchev “is an experienced combat officer who fully revealed his talents as a military chief during the special military operation,” said Russian Defense Minister Andreï Belououssov, using the euphemism in force to qualify the conflict in Ukraine.
Andreï Mordvitchev, 49 years old and born in Soviet Kazakhstan, is a career soldier who commanded the 8th Russian army during the siege of Marioupol, in the first weeks of the Russian assault against Ukraine in 2022. This seat had devastated this Ukrainian port and made an always unknown number of deaths.
Russia says it has shot down 35 drones targeting Moscow
Russian forces killed 35 Ukrainian drones flying in the night in the direction of Moscow, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Thursday, an attack that caused the main airports of the Russian capital. The mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobianine, had reported earlier Thursday morning of 23 devices slaughtered, specifying on Telegram that emergency services had been deployed at the scene of the fall in their debris.
Between 11:00 pm Wednesday and 04:30 am Thursday (French time), “anti -aircraft defense systems destroyed and intercepted 105 Ukrainian air drones”, 35 of which were flying towards Moscow, according to a statement from the Russian Defense Ministry. Following the attack, the main airports of the capital – Chérémétiévo, Domodedovo and Vnoukovo – temporarily interrupted their operations, announced the Russian agency responsible for civil aviation, Rosaviatsia, then specifying that the restrictions had been lifted. On Wednesday, 27 drones also headed for the capital before being slaughtered, according to Sergei Sobianine.
Ukraine said it had intercepted more than 112 Russian drones on the night of Wednesday to Thursday.
Murder of an ex-Ukrainian deputy in Madrid: the privileged organized crime track
The track of a settlement of accounts in relation to organized crime is privileged after the murder of an ex-Ukrainian deputy prorussian on Wednesday in Madrid, even if the investigators also follow that of a crime with “political motivations”, we learned Thursday from police sources.
On Wednesday around 9:15 am, Andriï Portnov was killed in front of the Huppé school establishment where he had just placed his children in Pozuelo de Alarcón, a chic suburb of Madrid. Several suspects, who fled after the facts in a nearby wooded area, are still wanted this Thursday by the police.
The American Senate pushes to further sanction Russia
More than 80 American senators supported a bill on Wednesday aimed at imposing new sanctions against Russia, faced with what they consider to be a lack of Moscow to end the war in Ukraine. These elected officials from both sides want to put more pressure on Vladimir Putin, after The exchange on the phone on Monday between the Russian president and Donald Trumpwhich has not led to the ceasefire hoped for by kyiv, its European partners, and the American president.
With 81 co -signs out of 100 senators, the text has wide support but it is not yet certain that the Senate republican chief decides to submit the text to the vote. John Thune said preferred to wait for the White House instructions on this subject. “These sanctions would be imposed if Russia refused to engage in good faith negotiations with a view to lasting peace with Ukraine,” the republican senator Lindsey Graham, close ally of Donald Trump, said in a joint statement, and the Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal, at the origin of the text. “The bill would also impose customs duties of 500 % on goods imported from countries which buy from Russia oil, gas, uranium, and other products,” they add.