The United States embassy in Kyiv on May 9 issued a warning that Russia could launch "a potentially significant" attack in the coming days, despite Putin's self-declared Victory Day "truce."
The sanctioned oil tankers have transported over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to Downing Street. The U.K. has now sanctioned more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.
Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
Andrii Smyrnov, the now-former deputy head of the Presidential Office, in July 2020. (Wikipedia)
Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court set the bail for Andrii Smyrnov, the former deputy head of the Presidential Office at Hr 10 million ($247,000), the Special Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) said on May 28.
The National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) said the former deputy head had been charged on May 22 with illicitly enriching himself by Hr 15.7 million ($388,000) while in his former position, but did not name the suspect. Later in the day Ukrainska Pravda reported, citing sources, that it was Smyrnov.
Beyond the bail, the defendant will be unable to leave Kyiv and is required to regularly report on his whereabouts to the court and other relevant authorities.
Smyrnov held the position of deputy head from September 2019 until March 2024, when President Volodymyr Zelensky dismissed him without naming a reason.
According to the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU), the suspect acquired assets worth more than Hr 17 million ($426,000) between 2020-2022, although he officially reported his salary and savings for the time period as Hr 1.3 million ($32,500).
Smyrnov reportedly purchased two luxury cars, two motorcycles, several parking spaces, an apartment in Lviv, and plot of land in Zakarpattia Oblast.
In an apparent effort to obfuscate his ownership of the assets, NABU said that he transferred the majority of the property assets to his brother, but secretly retained access.
Martin Fornusek
