Pressure on Ukraine's backers, from drones to courtrooms
A look back at 19 May 2025, when Russia banned Amnesty International and Lithuania took Belarus to the International Court of Justice.
What did a single day reveal about the pressures surrounding Ukraine's war? On 19 May 2025, Russia banned Amnesty International as an undesirable organisation, accusing the group of openly supporting Ukraine in its war with Russia. The same day, Lithuania filed a lawsuit against Belarus at the International Court of Justice.
A weekend of escalation
The ban came after a violent weekend. On 17 May 2025, a Russian drone struck a bus evacuating civilians near Bilopillia in Sumy Oblast, killing nine people and injuring five others.
On 18 May 2025, Russia launched 273 drones at Ukraine, the largest such attack since the beginning of the war. As reported at the time, it came a day after a round of direct peace talks between the two countries, and a day before a scheduled call between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin.
Two moves on 19 May
Against that backdrop, Russia's decision to label Amnesty International undesirable rested on an explicit accusation: that the organisation openly supported Ukraine. The designation targeted a human rights group, not a combatant, and its stated rationale tied it directly to the war.
Lithuania's filing took a different route, the courtroom. It accused Belarus of orchestrating a migrant crisis and violating international law. Later background describes how that crisis began in August 2021, when Belarus began sponsoring an influx of migrants, mostly from the Middle East and North Africa, to the borders of Lithuania, Poland and Latvia. Belarus denied involvement, but the European Union and independent observers viewed it as hybrid warfare. Attempted crossings fell sharply the following year, then began rising again in the spring of 2024, though they remained well below the 2021 peak.
What the day showed
Taken together, the events of 19 May 2025 show pressure applied through very different instruments: drones and a ban on one side, a legal case on the other. Diplomacy was also in motion, with the Trump–Putin call scheduled for that day. Later accounts of the peace negotiations set out the competing aims: Putin sought recognition of occupied land as Russian and guarantees that Ukraine would never join NATO, while Volodymyr Zelenskyy sought a ceasefire, full withdrawal of Russian troops and security guarantees.
