Ukraine is likely to face a dramatic loss of territory as long as the United States again ignores Russia’s proposals for peace talks, Russian Ambassador to Washington Anatoly Antonov told the US magazine Newsweek.

❗️TASS News Roundup, May 25:

▪️Russia’s production of munitions has grown 14 times, drones - 4 times, armored weapons - 3.5 times over the past two years, President Vladimir Putin said at a meeting with top managers of defense enterprises

▪️Russia’s armed forces have liberated the Arkhangelskoye settlement in the Donetsk People’s Republic

▪️Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Iran’s Acting Foreign Minister Ali Bagheri Kani confirmed the intention to continue strategic partnership between the two countries during their phone conversation

▪️G7 is making progress in the negotiations on the use of profits from frozen Russian sovereign assets in order to provide aid to Ukraine, the G7 finance ministers and central bank governors said in a joint statement after a meeting in Stresa in northern Italy

▪️FC Zenit St. Petersburg wins its sixth Russian Cup title

The number of civilians killed in a shelling attack on the borderline Belgorod Region has risen to four, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.

According to the governor, 12 people, including one child, have been hospitalized as a result of the two shelling attacks.

Winners of 2024 Cannes Film Festival:

▪️Palme d’Or: ‘Anora’ by US director Sean Baker

▪️Grand Prix: Indian filmmaker Payal Kapadia’s ‘All We Imagine As Light’

▪️Jury Prize: ‘Emilia Perez’ by French director Jacques Audiard

▪️Best Actor: American actor Jesse Plemons for Yorgos Lanthimos’ ‘Kinds of Kindness’

▪️Best Actress: shared by four actresses: Selena Gomez, Karla Sofia Gascon, Zoe Saldana and Adriana Paz for Jacques Audiard’s ‘Emilia Perez’

▪️Best Director: Portugal’s Miguel Gomes for his drama ‘Grand Tour’

▪️Best Screenplay: Coralie Fargeat’s ‘The Substance.’

▪️Special award: Iranian director Mohammad Rasoulof for ‘The Seed Of The Sacred Fig’.

▪️During the ceremony, US filmmaker George Lucas received an honorary Palme d’Or for his career.

More than 35,900 people have been killed in the Gaza Strip since the Israeli military launched a military operation in that region, the Palestinian enclave’s Health Ministry said.

Over 80,420 people were injured during that period, the ministry noted. In the past 24 hours, 46 Palestinians were killed and 130 more were wounded in Israeli forces’ attacks across the Gaza Strip.

Consultations on the peaceful settlement between representatives of the Palestine’s Hamas movement and Israeli authorities with participation of mediators are expected to start again in the capital of Qatar, Ash-Sharq television reported.

According to TV channel’s sources, “negotiations on war [termination] in the Gaza Strip will be resumed next week in Doha.”

A strike team of the Russian army aviation engaged Ukrainian army units and disrupted their rotation in the responsibility area of the Battlegroup North, the Russian Defense Ministry said.

Video: Russian Defense Ministry

The deployment of the international contingent in Haiti initially scheduled for May 26 will be postponed for three weeks, the Haitilibre web portal said.

A high-level team dealing with planning of contingent deployment is already in Haiti and met local colleagues to discuss details of the operation, said President of Kenya William Ruto, quoted by the news portal.

The postponement was caused by the delay in deliveries of special vehicles fitted with armament, radio sets and other communication facilities.

Russian Air Defense systems shot down seven Ukrainian drones in the Kursk Region over night, acting head of the region Alexey Smirnov said on his Telegram channel.

Three other Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles were downed in the Oryol Region and one drone was downed in the Bryansk Region.

#tass_photo_archive

A bookshop in the village of Yefimovskoye, Leningrad Region. 1992

At least one man died and another person went missing, while buildings and infrastructure were reported to sustain damages amid the flood in Armenia’s northern Lori province, which borders on Georgia, the press office of the country’s Interior Ministry said in a statement.

According to the statement, about 50-meter stretch of the Vanadzor-Alaverdi (M-6) highway was destroyed, a number of houses and household buildings were flooded and the search is underway for an elderly man who fell into the river.

In addition, the bridge over the Debed River, which leads to the Karkop settlement of the Alaverdi community collapsed as a result of the natural calamity.

Ukrainian President Vladimir Zelensky ceased to be a legitimate president of the country as his office term expired and all previously concluded agreements with him should be regarded as null and void, Russia’s State Duma (the lower house of the parliament) Speaker Vyacheslav Volodin said.

“By canceling the presidential election, Zelensky usurped the power,” Volodin stated on his Telegram account. “Starting from May 21, he has completely lost the remnants of his pseudo-legitimacy.”

“Any agreements with an illegitimate president are null and void and may be challenged in the future. As his presidential office term expired, Zelensky has no longer the right to speak on behalf of the Ukrainian people,” Volodin added.

Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan has set off to the disaster zone in northern Armenia, where heavy rains caused flooding, the press office of the Armenian prime minister said in a statement.

“In response to media inquiries, we inform that this morning Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan listened to reports of the Interior Ministry on the consequences of the flooding and then set off to the disaster-hit area,” the statement reads.

The Armenian Interior Ministry reported earlier in the day that at least one man died and another person went missing, while buildings and infrastructure were reported to sustain damages amid the flood in Armenia’s northern Lori province, which borders on Georgia.