Russian President Vladimir Putin began his fifth term as President of Russia on May 7 and emphasized the need for undisputed autocratic rule of Russia while indirectly calling for victory in Ukraine.
Russian ultranationalists hailed the start of Putin's fifth term as a historic event, and explicitly endorsed the autocratic tradition in which Putin fits, with one hailing him as an "emperor" - the official title of the Russian tsars from the time of Peter the Great.
Russian ultranationalists have also expressed hope that Putin will continue to deepen the anti-Western ideology that the Kremlin has been working hard to develop since the start of the full-scale invasion.
The current Russian cabinet and Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin officially resigned on May 7, as required by the constitution, and the ministers who return to office and those Putin replaced will show who enjoys Putin's favor and will signal his political priorities for his fifth term.
Belarus has announced a surprise nuclear readiness review, likely part of the Kremlin's re-intensified campaign of reflexive control aimed at Western decision-making.
On May 7, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced that it had uncovered a network of Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) operatives who planned to assassinate Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and other high-ranking Ukrainian intelligence and military officials .
On May 7, Russia's General Prosecutor's Office declared the American non-governmental organization (NGO) Freedom House an "undesirable organization", possibly as part of an ongoing effort to strengthen control over the domestic information space and further deny Russians access to the organizations of civil society and independent assessments of civil and political rights in Russia.
Russian forces have recently confirmed their progress near Avdeevka, the city of Donetsk and in the western Zaporozhye region.
Russian occupation officials continue to make efforts to forcibly recruit Ukrainian civilians into the Russian army in the occupied Kherson region.
The Kremlin is working with occupation administrators to strengthen Russian control over the child welfare system in occupied Ukraine.