18 May 2025

May 2025 in brief

Local authorities said a drone strike on an evacuation minibus near Bilopillia in Sumy region killed nine people, most of them elderly women, and the Sumy governor later ordered the mandatory evacuation of 11 more border villages. ^[1][2] Russia launched a then-record 273 drones in one night and, later in the month, three nights of mass missile and drone attacks on Kyiv and other cities that UN human rights chief Volker Turk said killed at least 14 civilians and injured 88. ^[1][2] WHO recorded attacks on health care in places including Kherson and Bilozerka. ^[1][2] Russia's unilateral 72-hour Victory Day truce began with both sides reporting continued fighting, and after the leaders of the UK, France, Germany and Poland demanded a 30-day ceasefire in Kyiv, Putin proposed direct talks in Istanbul instead. ^[1][2] The first direct Russia-Ukraine talks since 2022 produced no ceasefire but an agreement to exchange 1,000 prisoners each, which was carried out over three days as the largest exchange of the war. ^[1][2] After a two-hour call with Trump, Putin offered to work on a peace memorandum but did not accept a 30-day ceasefire, and Trump later wrote that Putin had gone absolutely crazy. ^[1] Kremlin negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Moscow was ready to continue contacts, and cited the 21-year Great Northern War as a sign Russia would fight as long as it took.

Written from the records it cites; every figure appears in a cited record.