The agency chose a drawing by eight-year-old Ukrainian Yarina Zakalyuzhna to decorate its Ariane 5 heavy-lift rocket during its 2023 mission to Jupiter.
Zakalyuzhna’s illustration will be printed on a giant sticker and placed on the tip of the rocket. Ariane 5 will take eight years to reach Jupiter and spend three years investigating the planet and three of its largest moons.
Zakalyuzhna’s drawing was chosen out of submissions by more than 600 children from 63 countries.
Daryna Antoniuk is a tech reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She worked in the same role at the Kyiv Post and has focused on Ukrainian startups, investment and the fintech market. Antoniuk previously was a tech reporter for Forbes Ukraine. Her work has also been published at Sifted and The Record. She graduated from Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv with BA in journalism and communications.
"A Budapest-style piece of paper will not satisfy Ukraine. Ukraine does not need a Minsk-style meticulously drafted trap. My signature will be under a strong agreement," Zelensky said in his address on Dec. 31.
Early in the morning on Dec. 31, the Finnish telecommunications service provider Elisa reported that an undersea cable linking Finland and Estonia had been damaged. The cargo ship Fitburg, sailing from Russia, may have been responsible.
The four independent members of the new board have been unanimously approved, Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko said. Three additional state representatives will be selected for the board in the beginning of January 2026.
Ukraine's military reportedly struck oil depots in the various Russian and Russian-occupied regions late on Dec. 30, Russian Telegram media channels reported.
Targets included Russia's Tuapse Oil Refinery, the Tamanneftegaz oil terminal, a Rosreserv oil base, a temporary military base for river boats, and ammunition depots in occupied Ukraine, the General Staff said.
The Kyiv Independent's Tim Zadorozhnyy speaks with Meaghan Mobbs, head of the R.T. Weatherman Foundation and the daughter of President Donald Trump's outgoing special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.
U.S. President Donald Trump said Dec. 29 that Russian President Vladimir Putin told him Ukraine had tried to attack Putin's residence, an allegation Kyiv has denied. "I learned about it from President Putin today. I was very angry about it," Trump said.
