Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
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.
The aftermath of a Russian strike on the Dnipro Dam in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine, on March 22, 2024. (Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal/Telegram)
Russian troops have struck Ukraine's thermal power plants almost 180 times since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in 2022, Dmytro Sakharuk, the executive director of Ukraine's largest private energy company DTEK, said on April 28.
Moscow has recently intensified its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, launching large-scale attacks on energy facilities across the country on March 22, March 29, April 11, and April 27.
In April, DTEK said it needs at least $350 million to recover the lost capacity caused by Russia's attacks on thermal power plants.
Sakharuk told Hromadske Radio that DTEK is currently assessing the damages of the April 27 attack. Four stations were damaged severely, according to Sakharuk.
Russian forces hit energy facilities in Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, and Lviv oblasts in a mass attack against Ukraine overnight on April 27 that involved 34 missiles.
On April 11, Russia struck the Trypillia Thermal Power Plant in Kyiv Oblast, the main electricity supplier to Kyiv, Zhytomyr, and Cherkasy oblasts.
Centerenergo, Ukraine's state energy company, later announced that the Russian attack against this plant led to the destruction of 100% of company's generation capacity, as on March 22, Russia also destroyed the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant in Kharkiv Oblast.
In late March, Russia launched another large-scale, significantly damaging one of the two power stations of Zaporizhzhia's Dnipro Dam.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Andrea Januta
