May 23, 2022 Russia-Ukraine news

A 20-year veteran of Russia's diplomatic service announced his resignation Monday in protest of his country's war on Ukraine, multiple media outlets reported.  

In a rare public protest by a Russian official, Boris Bondarev, a diplomat posted to Russia's mission to the United Nations in Geneva, posted a statement on a LinkedIn account condemning Russia's invasion of Ukraine and criticizing the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for complicity in what he described as an an "aggressive war" — language that is proscribed in Russia under wartime censorship laws. 

The respected Russian business newspaper Kommersant reached out to Bondarev, who confirmed the authenticity of the post. The New York Times confirmed the receipt of a resignation sent by email to diplomats in Geneva.

The Russian mission to the UN in Geneva declined to comment on the matter to CNN, and Bondarev did not respond to messages sent to the LinkedIn account. 

It also singled out the Russian Ministry of Foreign Affairs for harsh criticism. 

"I regret to admit that over all these twenty years the level of lies and unprofessionalism in the work of the Foreign Ministry has been increasing all the time. However, in most recent years, this has become simply catastrophic. Instead of unbiased information, impartial analysis and sober forecasting, there are propaganda clichés in the spirit of Soviet newspapers of the 1930s," the post read.

"Today, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs is not about diplomacy. It is all about warmongering, lies and hatred. It serves interests of few, the very few people thus contributing to further isolation and degradation of my country. Russia no longer has allies, and there is no one to blame but its reckless and ill-conceived policy," the post continued.

The LinkedIn profile describes Bondarev as a veteran of Russian diplomatic service, with expertise in arms control and nonproliferation. The picture on the profile now has the hashtag #opentowork. 

The US State Department said Monday that Bondarev's resignation shows that “despite the Kremlin’s propaganda, there are Russians who profoundly disagree with what President Putin is doing in Ukraine and share our concern about the danger he is creating for the entire global community.”

A State Department spokesperson said it was encouraging that “many are willing to stand up to” Putin and noted that “it takes immense bravery to stand up to an oppressor, and it requires courage to speak truth to power, especially given the Russian government’s long and terrible track record of attempting to silence legitimate and peaceful protests and dissent.” 

“Plummeting morale is clearly not limited to Russia’s military forces fighting in Ukraine,” they said. 

“Boris Bondarev’s statement underscores that people around the world, including in Russia and even within the Russian government, are recognizing the brutality of the Kremlin’s assault on the Ukrainian people,” the spokesperson said. “They are doing so despite the Kremlin’s best efforts to manufacture and perpetuate disinformation.”

Ihor Terekhov, the mayor of the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, said the city's subway system would resume operations Tuesday, after months of serving as a shelter for citizens looking to escape Russian bombardment. 

During the height of the Russian bombardment of Kharkiv — Ukraine's second-largest city — many residents of Kharkiv took refuge in the city's metro system. Terekhov said many of those who remained underground had been relocated in dormitories, in areas further away from shelling. 

"If necessary, people can use the subway as a bomb shelter, especially subway underpasses," Terekhov said. 

The subway in Kharkiv became a shelter in the opening hours of Russia's invasion on Feb. 24. Residents occupied benches, steps, and station floors, as well as subway cars.

Planning efforts to bring US troops back into Ukraine in any capacity — like to protect the recently reopened US embassy in Kyiv — are “underway at a relatively low level,” Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said during a press conference at the Pentagon on Monday after the conclusion of the second Ukraine Contact Group meeting.

Those plans “have not made it to the [Defense] Secretary or myself for that matter for refinement of courses of action and what’s needed,” Milley added. 

“We’re a ways away from anything like that, we’re still developing courses of action and none of that’s been presented yet to the Secretary,” he added.

US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said Monday that Russian President Vladimir Putin’s “overall strategy” regarding Ukraine is “unknown.”

Asked by CNN’s Oren Liebermann if Putin is switching his long game to weaponizing things like food, energy, and immigration, Austin said the world has seen the Russian leader “use a number of different levers from the very beginning.”

Austin noted that at the outset of the war, Putin “envisioned using overwhelming force and speed and power to very rapidly” take Kyiv and replace the government, but that failed and their forces were pushed back.

Germany's vice chancellor and economy minister told CNN a recession is not inevitable.

Speaking to CNN's Julia Chatterley at the World Economic Forum in Davos, Robert Habeck insisted that “nothing is inevitable, we are human beings and can change the course of history.”

He also spoke to CNN about the war in Ukraine and Europe’s efforts to lessen dependence on Russian energy. Asked whether the European Union could reach an agreement on the next round of sanctions, including an oil embargo, he said he was confident a deal could be reached and could be done within days.

Habeck also discussed Germany’s dependence on Russian gas, saying German industry would collapse without Russian energy. Asked whether Germany would pay for Russian gas in rubles, Habeck said that German companies would pay for gas in euros, if Russia then decided to exchange those euros into rubles, it was a “face saving” measure for Putin.

He insisted that any such moves were approved by the EU Commission and did not break sanctions.

More background: Russian President Vladimir Putin said in March that "unfriendly" nations would have to pay rubles, rather than the euros or dollars stated in contracts. Buyers could make euro or dollar payments into an account at Russia's Gazprombank, which would then convert the funds into rubles and transfer them to a second account from which the payment to Russia would be made.

Gas supplies to Poland and Bulgaria were cut off, after they refused to pay in rubles. Other big European gas companies have told CNN they are working on ways to pay for Russian gas, while not breaking EU sanctions.

There are currently about 102,000 US troops based in the European area of operations, which is a 30% increase from the number of US troops stationed in the European area of operations before the war in Ukraine began, Gen. Mark Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said during a news conference at the Pentagon after the conclusion of the second Ukraine Contact Group meeting on Monday. 

The US has increased its troop presence on the ground, at sea and by air since the war in Ukraine began, Milley added. 

“At sea, we have over 15,000 sailors in the Med and the Baltics, on 24 surface combatants and force subs, up from six surface combatants back in the fall,” Milley said. “In the air, we have currently 12 fighter squadrons and two Combat Aviation brigades, and on the ground we have two corps, two divisions, and six Brigade Combat Teams, along with a variety of enablers.”

CNN reported last week that the US is expected to keep 100,000 troops stationed in Europe for the foreseeable future.

Denmark has agreed to provide Ukraine with a Harpoon launcher and missiles to “help Ukraine defend its coast,” US Secretary of Defense Lloyd Austin said at the conclusion of the second Ukraine Contact Group meeting hosted by Austin on Monday. The second contact group meeting was held virtually. 

The Czech Republic also agreed to send “substantial support” to Ukraine including “a recent donation of attack helicopters, tanks and rocket systems,” Austin said at a press conference at the conclusion of the meeting.

Overall, 20 countries “announced new security assistance packages,” after the meeting, Austin said, including “donating critically needed artillery ammunition, coastal defense systems and tanks and other armored vehicles.”

“Others came forward with new commitments for training Ukraine’s forces and sustaining its military systems,” Austin added.

A total of 47 countries participated in the contact group’s second meeting, Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff Gen. Mark Milley said.

Secretary Austin will host the third meeting of the Ukraine Contact Group in person in Brussels on June 15, Austin said at the conclusion of the second virtual meeting of the contact group Monday. 

“I will convene the Contact Group for our third meeting next month and will gather in person this time, on June 15, in the margins of the NATO defense ministerial in Brussels,” Austin said. “Of course, it won't be a NATO event, but we want to keep up the, up, keep up the tempo of these meetings and I wanted to use my travel to Europe to ensure that we're building on our momentum.”

Ukrainian refugees in Germany will be able to exchange banknotes of their currency — the Ukrainian hryvnia — into euros from Tuesday without exchange rates, as agreed by the German finance ministry, German Federal Bank, the German banking industry and the National Bank of Ukraine.

"Refugees can exchange a total amount of up to 10,000 hryvnia into euros at participating German banks and savings banks,“ the German finance ministry said Monday in a press release.

Germany will cover for exchange losses, it noted.

At least one person has been killed in a Russian missile attack on Malyn, in the Zhytomyr region, west of Kyiv, according to the Ukrainian military.

Ukraine’s Air Command Center said Russian forces fired "naval-based cruise missiles" from the southeastern direction at infrastructure facilities in Zhytomyr on Sunday.

Bunechko's comments were reported in a Telegram post by Ukraine's Center for Strategic Communications and Information Security.

The center added that its air defense units had destroyed four Russian cruise missiles.

Three missiles were destroyed by aircraft, and one by an anti-aircraft missile unit of the Ukrainian air force, they added.

See moment missiles flew over Zhytomyr during a CNN interview: