The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, the Boeing-777 was shot down by Russian proxy forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile above Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
"I am grateful for the support and the readiness at the highest level to promote diplomacy," President Volodymyr Zelensky said of the phone conservation with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan. "We share the same view on the need for a ceasefire."
The convictions mark a significant development in Britain's efforts to counter Russian intelligence operations amid heightened tensions stemming from Moscow's war against Ukraine and repeated Kremlin threats toward Kyiv's allies.
According to the Verkhovna Rada's website, Ukraine completed the ratification of the U.S.-Ukraine minerals agreement on May 12. President Volodymyr Zelensky signed the deal.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
Chairman of the Mejlis of the Crimean Tatar People Refat Chubarov speaks at the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Antalya, Turkey on March 02, 2024. (Hakan Nural / Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Mejlis, the representative body of the Crimean Tatar people, will reject any international recognition of Russian-occupied Crimea as Russian territory, Refat Chubarov, the body's chairman, said in a statement published on Facebook on April 22.
Crimean Tatars are the indigenous people of Crimea, a Ukrainian peninsula that has been under Russian occupation since 2014.
Any move by the U.S. to recognize the peninsula as Russian would mark a break with a decade of bipartisan consensus in Washington and would violate international law.
Chubarov said the Mejlis' stance is grounded in international law and aligns fully with Ukrainian legislation.
"Crimea is the homeland of the indigenous Crimean Tatar people and an integral part of Ukraine. Accordingly, no one can decide the fate of Crimea under any circumstances, except for the Ukrainian state and the Crimean Tatar people," he wrote.
Russia illegally annexed Crimea following a sham referendum held under military occupation and without international observers. For resisting Russian occupation, Crimean Tatars have come under harsh repression by the Russian occupation authorities.
Crimean Tatars are represented by the Mejlis, a high representative and executive body with 33 members, and the Kurultai, a national congress with 350 delegates.
Crimean Tatars, historically the majority on the peninsula before Russia's conquest in 1783, have faced widespread persecution under Russian rule.
Since 2014, Moscow has used intimidation, religious profiling, and politically motivated terrorism charges to suppress dissent among Crimean Tatars.
Many Crimean Tatars have joined Ukraine's Armed Forces since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, with some serving in the volunteer "Crimea" Battalion formed after the 2014 occupation.
Ukraine's response to the U.S. proposal is expected at a follow-up meeting in London on April 23. Washington has indicated it may withdraw from ceasefire efforts in the coming days if no progress is made.
Ukrainian lawmakers have also opposed the proposal. Oleksandr Merezhko, chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, warned that recognizing Russia's annexation of Crimea would have global consequences "much worse than Munich in 1938."
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Asami Terajima
