Ukrainian Supreme Court official charged with supporting Russian invasion
A Ukrainian Supreme Court official has been declared suspected of supporting Russia's invasion, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Feb. 5.
Team
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independence. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
A Ukrainian Supreme Court official has been declared suspected of supporting Russia's invasion, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported on Feb. 5.
The shelling of a bakery in Russian-occupied Lysychansk in Luhansk Oblast on Feb. 3 killed a minister of Russia's illegal occupation administration, Russian state-controlled news agency RIA Novosti claimed on Feb. 5, citing a source in law enforcement.
Yandex NV, the Dutch parent company of the Russian tech giant and search engine Yandex, will restructure and sell its Russian businesses in a deal worth $5.2 billion, the company announced in a press release on Feb. 5.
France is set to sign security agreements with Ukraine in the coming weeks, Ukraine's President's Office said on Feb. 3. The agreement with Germany is also "largely finished," Deputy Prime Minister Olha Stefanishyna said in an interview with the Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung on Feb. 2.
Journalists who were filming an anti-mobilization protest outside the Kremlin were detained by the police, independent Russian media outlet Meduza reported on Feb. 3.
Sections of road near the border with Russia in Sumy Oblast have been closed to civilian vehicles after a Russian reconnaissance and sabotage group shot dead two people on Jan. 27, the region's military administration reported on Feb. 3.
A total of 6.3 million metric tons of goods were exported through ports in and around the city of Odesa in January 2024, which was "almost equal" to levels seen before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov reported on Feb. 3.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said he agreed to the 50 billion euro ($54 billion) EU funding package for Ukraine on Feb. 1 because there is a control mechanism in place and Hungary's funds "will not end up in Ukraine."
Military intelligence denied reports from Ukrainian investigative outlet NGL Media on Feb. 1 that Oleksiy Arestovych, a controversial blogger and former president's office aide, could leave Ukraine with their permission.
One of Russia's top narratives is that it invaded Ukraine to "denazify" this multi-ethnic democracy led by a president with Jewish roots and holocaust survivors in his lineage. In fact, Russia's public obsession with "fighting Nazis" masks how its closest relations among European political parties are with those on the
Ukraine has certain "tools" at its disposal that means it can strike Russian military targets occupying Crimea "methodologically and regularly," Yurii Ihnat, a spokesperson for Ukraine's Air Force, said in an interview with Radio Svoboda on Feb. 1.
Russia has closed the border crossing between Ivangorod in Leningrad Oblast and the Estonian city of Narva to vehicles, claiming reconstruction works are being carried out, the Estonian Police and Border Guard (PBGB) reported on Feb. 1.
All 27 leaders of EU member states agreed on an additional 50 billion euro support package for Ukraine within the EU budget, European Council President Charles Michel announced on Feb. 1.
Chief among the claims was a request to declare Russia responsible for the downing of MH17 in 2014, which killed 298 people, the majority of whom were Dutch citizens.
Balbek airfield in Russian-occupied Crimea was hit in an attack, Air Force Commander General Mykola Oleshchuk said on Telegram on Jan. 31.
The European Commission proposed that import duties on Ukrainian exports to the EU should remain suspended until June 2025, though exceptions will apply to certain agricultural products, according to a Jan. 31 announcement.
Three Moldovan companies continued to supply aircraft parts worth around $15 million to Russia in 2023 despite European sanctions, RFE/RL Moldova reported on Jan. 31.
Russia violated an international convention on prohibiting terrorist financing by supporting its proxies in Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts in 2014, the UN International Court of Justice in The Hague ruled on Jan. 31.
Kyiv would prefer to have control over the aid given to Ukrainian refugees abroad, to avoid a situation where Ukrainians receive support from both their host country and home country, Zelensky said during an interview with German broadcaster ARD.
The Netherlands has allocated €122 million ($132 million) to support Ukraine's ammunition supply, equipment, and cybersecurity, Dutch Defense Minister Kajsa Ollongren announced on Jan. 29.
The European Union has agreed to set aside billions of euros of profits from frozen Russian Central Bank assets, paving the way to allow the profits to be transferred to Ukraine, the Financial Times reported on Jan. 29, citing a draft text.
Editor's Note: This is a developing story. Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi may have been dismissed on Jan. 29, according to sources of the Kyiv Independent and several other Ukrainian media. No official decree has been published on President Volodymyr Zelensky's website yet. A Kyiv Independent source in the General Staff
The government has submitted a draft law on restructuring the Economic Security Bureau, which is one of the conditions of the International Monetary Fund's (IMF) financing to Ukraine, Taras Melnychuk, the government's representative in parliament said on Jan. 29.
Russian journalist and opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza has been transferred to an unknown location, his wife, Evgenia Kara-Murza, reported on Jan. 29.
President Volodymyr Zelensky held a phone call with Greek Prime Minister Kyriakos Mitsotakis and discussed preparations for the second Ukraine-Balkans summit, Zelensky announced on social media on Jan. 29.
High-ranking Russian officials were supposed to be on board the Il-76 aircraft that crashed in Belogorod Oblast on Jan. 24, but the Federal Security Service (FSB) did not allow them to board at "the last moment," Andrii Yusov, Ukraine's military intelligence spokesperson, told RFE/RL on Jan. 25.
Preliminary evidence suggested "that the explosion occurred as a result of the men's careless handling of a hand grenade, which they said they had found," the police said.
Lithuanian Foreign Minister Gabrielius Landsbergis announced that he arrived in Kyiv on Jan. 25.
Photos and videos from the site of the Russian Il-76 plane crash, in which Russia claims 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war were killed, do not indicate "any signs that there were such a large number of people on the plane," Chief Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said on air on Jan. 25.
Latvian President Edgars Rinkevics said at a press conference on Jan. 24 that he would support a ban on the import of Russian grain "both for political and economic reasons."
Martin Herem, the commander of the Estonian Defense Forces, said that NATO underestimated Russia's ability to supply its war in Ukraine, and Russian production of artillery shells is far outstripping European efforts, Bloomberg reported on Jan. 24.
Splitting the two issues would be "quite a shift in strategy," as border security has been "painstakingly negotiated with Senate Democrats and the White House over the past six weeks," the Hill said.