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.
"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.
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas speaks to reporters in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec. 15, 2023. (Miguel Medina/AFP via Getty Images)
Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas said on Feb. 20 that authorities had "successfully stopped a hybrid operation by Russia's security services on our territory."
The Estonian media outlet ERR reported earlier on Feb. 20 that the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) detained 10 people in connection with a series of crimes committed in late 2023, including vandalism of a car belonging to Estonian Interior Minister Lauri Laanemets. Authorities believed at the time that it was a targeted attack.
ISS director Margo Palloson said that most of the individuals detained had a preexisting criminal history. The ISS said they believed the individuals "acted on behalf of the Russian special service" in order to "sow fear and create tension in Estonian society."
"We know the Kremlin is targeting all of our democratic societies," Kallas said.
"It is clear that Russia is systematically trying to undermine our society by organizing hybrid operations against our state, our people and our security. It is also clear that we will not break and for us, there is nothing surprising about Russia's hybrid activities," said Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna.
Estonia's Foreign Ministry said it would summon Russia's top diplomat in Estonia over the incident.
The attack on Laanemets' car was just one of a number of similar low-level crimes, mostly consisting of vandalism directed at officials and journalists, but there was concern that it was indicative of a larger trend that extended beyond Estonia.
Latvia's State Security Service (VDD) also said on Feb. 20 that a dual citizen of Estonia and Russia had been arrested for vandalizing a monument to Latvian soldiers who fought against the Red Army in WWII.
The individual was also suspected of vandalizing other monuments throughout the Baltics and has also been accused of working on behalf of Russian intelligence services.
The VDD said it was working closely with its counterparts in Lithuania and Estonia to investigate the incidents.
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.
Olena Goncharova
