You missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes summarizes for you every evening. Here is the essential news of Saturday, May 23, 2026, the 1,550th day of the conflict.
Event of the day
An fire broke out in an oil refinery in Novorossiysk, on the Black Sea in southern Russia, as a result of a Ukrainian drone attack, the city’s mayor announced on Saturday. “The fall of drone debris caused a fire in the oil refinery. Several technical and administrative buildings caught fire. Fragments of drones also fell on the oil terminal site,” wrote the mayor, Andrei Kravchenko, on Telegram.
The attack injured two people, he added, specifying that emergency and specialized services were working on site.
Located at the end of several pipelines from the oil fields of southern Russia and the Caspian Sea, the Novorossiysk oil terminal is one of the main points for oil export in Russia.
Quote of the day
“Without Ukraine, there can be no fully accomplished European project, and Ukraine’s presence in the EU must also be fully accomplished – with all related rights to accession.“
Message from Volodymyr Zelensky on social media this Saturday, after earlier in the week, facing delays in Ukraine’s EU accession, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz had suggested an “associated member” status without voting rights for Ukraine.
Number of the day
18. The minimum number of people who died in a Ukrainian drone strike on a dormitory and a vocational school in Starobilsk (Starobelsk in Russian) in a region of eastern Ukraine controlled by Russia, according to a new toll provided by Russian authorities on Saturday. Three people are still missing after the strike that occurred from Thursday to Friday night.
Russian President Vladimir Putin called the strike on Friday a “terrorist act,” stating that it “was not accidental” and promising a military response.
Trend of the day
War is now a possibility, even according to the Prime Minister himself. Neighboring Russia in the far North, Norway is switching to “total defense” mode, preparing its population for the worst in light of the conflict in Ukraine.
“Today, we have about 18,600 shelters, covering just under 50% of the country’s population (5.6 million inhabitants),” explains Jostein Knudsen, head of the Norwegian civil defense. “Many need to be modernized: they were built during the Cold War, they are damp, old.”
As a member of NATO, the Scandinavian kingdom wants to reinstate the obligation to equip new large buildings with anti-aircraft shelters, a requirement that was lifted in 1998 as a “peace dividend” following the collapse of the USSR.
The idea is not to build expensive shelters, but to offer basic protection against threats like drones now widely present on the battlefield. Shelter construction is one of the 100 proposals put forward last year in a White Paper.
The government also aims to increase the Civil Defense’s workforce by 50%, to 12,000 men and women, require all municipalities to establish a “local preparedness council,” and achieve 50% food self-sufficiency by 2030.
Households are also encouraged to stock up on supplies to last for seven days.
