The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel speaks about the future of the EU-led special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and its role in bringing Russia to justice.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
More than 1,000 Russian government entities and 1,200 private companies are involved in the economy of occupied Mariupol, a major southeastern city occupied by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to a research paper published on May 14.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky speaks at the 2024 Ukraine Recovery Conference on June 11, 2024 in Berlin, Germany (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on June 14 rejected Russian dictator Vladimir Putin's conditions for peace talks, comparing them to Adolf Hitler's invasion of Czechoslovakia in 1938-1939.
Putin said earlier on June 14 that, as a condition for peace negotiations, Ukrainian troops must leave Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. He added that Ukraine must recognize Russia's illegal annexation of the regions and abandon any ambition to join NATO.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are partially controlled by Russian troops. Russia claims to have annexed the whole territory of those regions despite not controlling two regional capitals - Kherson and Zaporizhzhia.
Speaking to Italy's SkyTG24 news channel at the G7 summit on June 14, Zelensky said that "these messages are ultimatums, and they are no different from any other ultimatums he made in the past."
"What he's doing is a revival of Nazism," Zelensky said. "...He wants us to renounce our occupied territories but he also wants our unoccupied territories. He... doesn't intend to stop, and there will be no frozen conflict."
Zelensky also compared Putin's ultimatum to Hitler's demand for annexing Czechoslovakia's Sudetenland in 1938, when he claimed that he would not go further.
Mykhailo Podolyak, an advisor to Zelensky's chief of staff, said in a post on X that the proposal was "highly offensive to international law and speaks eloquently about the incapacity of the current Russian leadership to adequately assess reality."
He added the demands effectively amounted to "give us your territories.. give up your sovereignty… leave yourselves unprotected."
"It's all a complete sham," he added.
Putin declared the illegal annexation of Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts in September 2022. Moscow also controls all of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
A Ukrainian counteroffensive just weeks later liberated great swathes of the territory claimed by Russia. As of May 3, Russia was in control of around 18% of Ukrainian territory.
"As soon as they declare in Kyiv that they are ready for such a decision and begin a real withdrawal of troops from these regions, and also officially announce the abandonment of their plans to join NATO – on our side, immediately, literally at the same minute, an order will follow to cease fire and begin negotiations," Putin said when making his ceasefire demands.
"I repeat, we will do this immediately. Naturally, we will simultaneously guarantee the unhindered and safe withdrawal of Ukrainian units and formations," he said.
Ukraine has insisted a full withdrawal of Russian troops from all Ukrainian territory is necessary for peace negotiations to begin.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
Chris York
