Sweden Delivers $2.7B Aid Package to Ukraine, Gripen Fighters

The day's anchor was a deal years in the making. At Uppsala Air Base, Volodymyr Zelenskyy and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson signed a defence declaration formalising Sweden's largest single aid package for Ukraine to date -- about $2.7 billion -- around a Gripen JAS 39 transfer that Stockholm had paused in 2024 in deference to F-16 deliveries. Sweden will donate 16 older Gripen C/D fighters from early 2027 and Ukraine will buy 20 to 22 new Gripen E/F using €2.5 billion drawn from the EU's €90 billion Ukraine Support Loan, with deliveries from 2030. The package also commits nearly $400 million to drone production and includes long-range Meteor air-to-air missiles, with Defence Minister Pål Jonson saying pilot and technician training had already begun and would expand this autumn. Saab shares were up 4.4 percent at 1141 GMT, leading European gainers; chief executive Micael Johansson called it "a big day" for the company. Zelenskyy said he expected the first Gripens "in December or January" and -- pointedly -- "we would very much like some of our other partners... to be just as consistent" as Sweden.

The institutional layer hardened around it. European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said after a call with Zelenskyy that Ukraine would be "fully integrated" into Europe's air-defence, drone and counter-drone effort, and that the Ukraine Support Loan would provide €28.3 billion ($32.9 billion) to Kyiv's military this year. After an informal meeting of EU foreign ministers in Cyprus, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Russia was on the back foot militarily, economically and diplomatically, insisted that an unconditional ceasefire was a prerequisite for talks, and announced the bloc was preparing another sanctions package. EU diplomats told Deutsche Presse-Agentur the bloc would not yet appoint a Russia envoy. Separately, Zelenskyy wrote to President Trump and the US Congress -- the letter was seen by Reuters -- urging faster Patriot deliveries; he called Russia's ballistic missiles Moscow's "last great battlefield advantage" and said Ukraine was ready to buy the interceptors it needed but that the current pace through the European-funded PURL initiative was insufficient. He warned the Iran war risked thinning supply further.

The Russian fire continued unbroken. On the night of 27-28 May Russia launched a Kinzhal aeroballistic missile and 147 long-range drones from Bryansk, Kursk, Oryol, Millerovo, Primorsko-Akhtarsk and occupied Crimea; Ukrainian air defences shot down or suppressed 138 drones, and the Kinzhal plus nine drones hit seven locations, injuring three in Dnipropetrovsk region, where homes, a lyceum and a gas station were damaged. A Russian daytime missile strike on Odesa injured 11 people, including two children aged 11 and 12, and started a 1,800-square-metre fire that damaged a pet shop, a liquor store and a post office. Russian forces ran roughly 40 separate attacks on Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, hitting Nikopol, Synelnykove and Pavlohrad districts and injuring 12 people, including six children, with two adults in serious condition. A Russian drone struck two civilians on a field road in the Velyka Pysarivka community of Sumy region at around 08:00, killing a man and a woman; the Sumy Regional Prosecutor's Office opened a war-crimes investigation under Article 438 of the criminal code. In Kherson the three-year-old girl and her mother wounded in Tuesday's playground attack remained in critical condition after surgery in Mykolaiv, where doctors removed shrapnel from the toddler's head; her six-year-old sister was in moderate condition and the children's father had been killed.

Ukraine pushed back. Three tankers linked to Russia's shadow fleet were struck by Ukrainian sea drones in the Black Sea near Turkey's northern coast: the Palau-flagged James II took a hit in the engine room about 80 km north of Turkeli, while the Sierra Leone-flagged Altura and Velora were struck during a ship-to-ship transfer; no crew casualties were reported, and Ankara dispatched coast-guard vessels to the scene. Ukrainian forces also reported striking the Tuapse oil refinery overnight, with fire and smoke seen at the site -- another in a string of Tuapse hits this spring. The Institute for the Study of War, summarising 19-26 May, recorded Russian forces with a net loss of 38 square miles of Ukrainian territory, while DeepState's count for 28 April-26 May had Russia gaining 20.9 square miles.