News from Ukraine, Eastern Europe

Herman Halushchenko, Ukraine's former energy minister, was charged of money laundering and involvement in a criminal group as part of the country's major corruption scandal, the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) announced on Feb. 16.

Dismissing any approximations to Article 5 as mere "rhetorical expressions," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys named financial support for Ukraine's military or future EU membership as more realistic guarantees.

Zagreb is ready to help resolve the disruption in compliance with EU law and the U.S. Treasury Department's Office of Foreign Assets Control (OFAC) regulations, Croatian Economy Minister Ante Susnjar said.

Members of the public, businesspeople, and journalists will be able to upload information about dodgy dealings in the fuel market to the a chat bot called StopShadowBot on the popular messaging app Telegram.

The 7th Corps report comes as Ukraine clings to its last positions in Pokrovsk and Myrnohrad in eastern Donetsk Oblast, both of which have mostly been occupied by Russia, Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst with the Black Bird Group, told the Kyiv Independent.

The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) has classified the car bombing as a terrorist attack and opened a criminal investigation, the agency said.

The strikes targeted areas where Moscow had concentrated its troops, along with a Russian communications hub and a drone control center, the report read.

Two districts on the east bank of the Dnipro River were the most affected, leaving 1,100 residential buildings without heating, Kateryna Pop, a spokesperson for the Kyiv City Military Administration, said.

"This is a second time for the past year, when a Ukrainian woman who is a refugee and is hiding for safety in North Carolina, gets murdered by a man," said the brother of the late Kateryna Tovmash.

Russian forces attacked Ukraine with four Zirkon anti-ship hypersonic missiles, an Iskander-M ballistic missile, a Kh-31 medium-range missile, and 62 drones, of which about 40 were Shahed-type, the Air Force said.

The number includes 1,180 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.