MOSCOW, May 5. /TASS/. Russia warns Ukraine against violating the Victory Day ceasefire; US actions in the Strait of Hormuz undermine the peace process; and Moscow insists that non-nuclear European countries should abandon nuclear ambitions. These stories topped Tuesday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.
Izvestia: Russia warns Ukraine against violating Victory Day ceasefire
The Russian Defense Ministry has declared a Victory Day ceasefire on May 8-9. The ministry warned that downtown Kiev would be targeted in case of provocations. However, experts interviewed by Izvestia believe that Ukraine will very likely try to derail the truce.
Right after the Russian ceasefire plan was announced, Vladimir Zelensky said that Kiev had not received any official ceasefire proposals. Still, he immediately stated that Ukraine intended to observe a ceasefire starting at midnight on May 5-6.
Kiev is trying to seize the initiative and demonstrate that Ukraine also seeks peace in order for US President Donald Trump to react favorably, Valdai International Discussion Club expert Andrey Kortunov explained.
Analysts believe that Ukraine should be expected to stage provocations again. "The Ukrainian leadership wants to force us to take disproportionately tough measures as it uses its own population as human shields," Oleg Karpovich, deputy rector of the Diplomatic Academy, pointed out. "Ukraine may carry out various acts of provocation, only to hold the attention of its Western partners," Denis Denisov, an expert at the Financial University under the Russian Government, added.
Meanwhile, by announcing the ceasefire, Russia is sending a clear message to its partners and Western nations, Oleg Lyakhovenko, senior researcher at Moscow State University’s Department of Political Sciences, noted.
"This is in no way a unilateral concession that the other party could take advantage of. The signal is very clear: any unfriendly steps or attempts to disrupt the ceasefire, let alone carry out demonstrative acts of terrorism against the Russian population, will be met with an immediate and serious response," he emphasized. In fact, Russia’s opponents have once again been reminded that kindness should not be confused with weakness, the expert concluded.
Media: US actions in Strait of Hormuz undermine peace process
The United States’ operation to ensure the free passage of ships through the Strait of Hormuz may complicate the negotiation process with Iran, experts told Izvestia. Analysts believe that both parties retain the potential for a military confrontation in the region.
The new US operation can be seen as an attempt to raise the stakes and increase pressure on Iran by creating a constant threat off its coast, Middle East expert Leonid Tsukanov said. "Trump makes no secret of Washington’s plans to continue betting on a prolonged naval blockade in order to force Iran to engage in talks on its terms," he pointed out. "However, neither side has so far opted for a major escalation, preferring to exchange only public threats," the analyst added.
Meanwhile, Tehran is capable of seriously complicating navigation through the strait, military expert Yury Lyamin believes. "It would be enough to show that the US is unable to guarantee safety," he explained. According to the expert, Iran would not have to destroy ships to achieve the goal as inflicting limited damage would do. Further developments will largely depend on how far the parties will be willing to go, Lyamin added.
The assets the US currently has in the region are sufficient for a short-term operation to reopen the strait and restore shipping traffic, Sergey Sudakov, corresponding member of the Russian Academy of Military Sciences, told Vedomosti. In his opinion, Iran will retain the initiative in the long run because the US is quickly running out of ammunition. "This is why Trump will now have to choose between a bad and a very bad option: he either agrees to accept unfavorable conditions set forth by Iran or launches a ground operation," Sudakov explained. According to him, the latter option looks unlikely because Trump is worried that his approval ratings could collapse, hurting the Republican Party's chances in the November midterm congressional elections.
Izvestia: Russia insists non-nuclear European countries abandon nuclear ambition
The risk of nuclear weapons spreading across Europe has increased, Gennady Gatilov, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations Office in Geneva, told Izvestia. He stressed that Moscow did not oppose dialogue but its opponents were not yet prepared for a constructive conversation.
Earlier, Finland’s government suggested allowing the import and storage of such weapons, while authorities in Poland and France intend to conduct nuclear strikes on Russia and Belarus. Paris has also announced plans to extend its nuclear umbrella to other European Union countries.
Geographically dense deployment of NATO countries’ nuclear capabilities and high-precision medium-range non-nuclear weapons is dangerous because such systems can be used both for attacks deep inside Russia and strikes on Moscow’s strategic nuclear forces and missile attack early warning infrastructure, Tigran Meloyan, an analyst with the Center for Mediterranean Studies at the Higher School of Economics, pointed out.
Dmitry Stefanovich, researcher with the Center for International Security at the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of World Economy and International Relations, believes that the potential deployment of French nuclear weapons to Poland and Finland will hardly change "the threat map" for Russia as the high-precision long-range non-nuclear weapons that Warsaw and Helsinki already have pose a major challenge.
Stefanovich believes that Russia won’t have to take any additional steps to address the new threats because the country’s strategic deterrence forces and operators of non-strategic nuclear weapons have repeatedly held exercises in western and northwestern regions, which partly involved Moscow's ally Belarus. "The recently re-established Leningrad Military District has a special role here, and increasing its combat capabilities remains a priority. Besides, greater transparency in terms of the nuclear potential of Russia’s westernmost Kaliningrad Region could be a possible response to actions by Finland, Poland and France," the expert said.
Media: Armenian capital hosts European Political Community summit
A summit of the European Political Community has taken place in the Armenian capital of Yerevan. This was the first time the event was hosted by a member of the Eurasian Economic Union (EAEU), Vedomosti writes.
The European Political Community is largely focused against Russia, Vladislav Belov, deputy director of the Russian Academy of Sciences’ Institute of Europe, believes. The Ukraine conflict usually dominates discussions on the platform, though not always directly, the analyst noted.
Attempts are underway to make Yerevan establish special relations with the European Union and NATO, wooing the country away from Russia. European politicians seek to turn Armenia into a second Moldova - a country drifting towards European integration. However, Alexander Kamkin, associate professor at the Financial University under the Government of the Russian Federation, believes that Armenia won’t be granted full EU membership but will only get funds for specific projects and see an increase in the presence of European NGOs.
It’s important for the EU to prove its worth, and a geographical expansion could give it a sense of purpose and fresh momentum, said Artyom Sokolov, a researcher at the European Studies Institute of the Moscow State Institute of International Relations. Armenia fits the goal as Yerevan is clearly choosing European integration over Russia’s EAEU project.
The goal the EU and the West in general pursue is not only to gain a foothold in the region but also to support Turkey’s influence there, Aik Khalatyan, head of the Yerevan-based Analytical Center for Strategic Studies and Initiatives (ACSSI), told Izvestia. The West can benefit from Turkey’s influence in the South Caucasus as it means a weakening of Russia’s and Iran’s positions, the expert added.
Russia has a military base in Armenia, and if Yerevan is drawn into the EU’s orbit, Europe will get an opportunity to pressure Moscow, St. Petersburg University Professor Leonid Tkachenko pointed out. The expert stressed that if Moscow moves to withdraw the base from Armenia, the country will become a kind of another Lebanon or Iraq, that is, a nation that is surrounded by enemies and faces domestic instability. Tkachenko also said that Armenia would get no economic benefits from orienting towards Europe.
Kommersant: Bitcoin price rises faster than digital asset market
Bitcoin’s price has climbed to a three-month high. Investor optimism stems from a de-escalation of the conflict in the Middle East and expectations of a softer US monetary policy after the Senate approved Kevin Warsh as Federal Reserve chair, Kommersant reports.
Meanwhile, the overall situation on the cryptocurrency market remains weak: the market faced a major collapse in early 2026, one of the biggest in history, and the price of the world’s leading cryptocurrency remained at the lowest levels since 2024 between January and April.
Unlike Bitcoin, other digital currencies have not shown significant growth. Ethereum’s price has risen by just 8% since April, and Solana has gone up by 5%. The reason is that a large part of investors see Bitcoin as "the most sustainable and stable asset," Technobit Director General Alexander Peresichan points out.
According to Mikhail Smirnov, communications director at the EXMO crypto exchange, institutional investments were initially focused on Bitcoin as a macro asset, not on all cryptocurrencies. That said, even though the number of assets has multiplied, their liquidity remains low, and Bitcoin still occupies about 60% of the market share, according to CoinGecko data. "The full-fledged growth of altcoins requires a stronger movement of Bitcoin, which would attract speculative capital and pave the way for an inflow of liquidity," Alexander Kraiko, leading analyst at the Cifra Markets crypto broker, notes.
Market participants say that Bitcoin’s price should not be expected to increase much in the near future because inflation and geopolitical risks are still high. An inflow of investment may start only after the US Fed reduces the interest rate, Smirnov believes. However, if unhindered shipping through the Strait of Hormuz is resumed and investment into exchange-traded funds continues, investors will be able to hope that Bitcoin’s price will stabilize at about $80,000 and even "continue to rise slightly," Peresichan pointed out.
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