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.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Elon Musk, billionaire and chief executive officer of Tesla, at the Viva Tech fair in Paris, France, on Friday, June 16, 2023. (Nathan Laine/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Businessman Elon Musk appeared in a live conversation on X on Feb. 12 along with Republican senators and former presidential candidate Vivek Ramaswamy, where the participants broadly argued against the passage of $60 billion in U.S. aid for Ukraine.
The bill was passed by the Senate early on Feb. 13 and will now go to the Republican-controlled House, where it still faces significant obstacles.
Musk gained praise across Ukraine at the beginning of the full-scale invasion for helping the country access the internet through his Starlink network. He then made numerous comments that angered Ukrainians, including the suggestion that Ukrainian territory be exchanged for a peace deal with Russia.
Musk has continued to amplify opinions reminiscent of Russian propaganda, drawing public rebukes from Ukrainian officials. Republican Senator JD Vance, who was on the X Spaces conversation with Musk, has been one of the most outspoken opponents of aid for Ukraine in the Senate.
"There is no way in hell" that Russia could lose the war, Musk told the other participants, as cited by Bloomberg.
"This spending does not help Ukraine. Prolonging the war does not help Ukraine," he added.
Senator Ron Johnson agreed, saying that those who think a Ukrainian victory is possible are "living in a fantasy world."
Vance said, "we gotta kill this thing," in reference to the aid bill that was passed by the Senate.
Vance, Johnson, and Senator Mike Lee, who also participated in the conversation, all voted against the bill earlier on Feb. 13.
Musk said he was aware that he has been called an apologist for Russian President Vladimir Putin but said the charges were "absurd."
At the same time, Musk's views on the war were reflected elsewhere online. He retweeted an interview that Vance gave on Feb. 12 with the far-right commentator Tucker Carlson, who gained global attention and condemnation days before for interviewing Putin in Moscow.
In the interview, Vance and Carlson made a series of unsubstantiated claims and controversial comments, which Musk shared with the caption: "this demands closer scrutiny."
Carlson said that Ukraine is not a democracy and claimed that 400,000 Ukrainians have died since the full-scale invasion, but said that the figure came from "reliable estimates in the area" without specifying the source. He also did not say if the figure included military and civilian casualties.
Carlson has a long track record of demonstrably false statements. His lies about the U.S. presidential election in 2020 partially resulted in his former employer, Fox News, losing a $787 million defamation lawsuit.
Ukraine does not publicly disclose its military casualties, but Western estimates are typically significantly lower than the figure Carlson cited. The UN estimated in January 2024 that around 10,000 civilians have been killed since the full-scale invasion, but Ukrainian officials believe the number is likely many times higher.
Speaking again about the aid bill just passed by the Senate, Vance said the legislation was specifically designed to "tie a future President (Donald) Trump's hands."
Trump, who is currently the frontrunner to be the Republican candidate for president, has said his primary goal regarding the war would be to have an immediate peace deal within 24 hours. He has not specified the terms of the potential deal.
"(Congress is) trying to make it impossible for the next president to conduct diplomacy on his own terms," Vance said.
Vance went on to repeat common Republican talking points about the need to focus on what he considers to be more important problems, both domestically and abroad.
"It's a massive campaign to distract people from the real problems in the world," Vance concluded.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
George Monastiriakos
