U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), this marks the first time Ukrainian authorities have exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network conducting activities harmful to Ukraine.
George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right AUR party, who won the first round of the presidential election with nearly 40% of the vote, reiterated that if elected, he would oppose any further assistance to Ukraine and shift Romania’s focus inward.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed their countries' relationship on May 8, vowing to increase cooperation in all areas, including military ties.
"There is Turkey, which maintains channels of communication. And then, above all, there is the People's Republic of China, which, more than anyone else, has the means to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin come to the negotiating table and soften his demands," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on May 8.
The United States will be ready to "walk away" from the negotiating table if it does not see Russia making progress in negotiation to end the war, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on May 8.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived in Moscow on May 9 to celebrate Victory Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
US President Donald Trump on May 8 called for a "30-day unconditional ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia. Writing on Truth Social, Trump expressed his hope for "an acceptable ceasefire," with both countries "held accountable for respecting the sanctity of... direct negotiations."
President Volodymyr Zelensky had a "constructive" phone call with United States President Donald Trump on May 8, discussing the war, continued pressure on Russia, and a potential ceasefire.
The survey, conducted between April 24 and May 4, shows that 56.9% of respondents would not be willing to compromise on either territorial integrity or Ukraine’s pro-Western direction in any potential talks with Moscow.
Despite the Kremlin’s announcement of a May 8–11 truce, heavy fighting continued in multiple regions throughout the day.
There is no indication that Ukraine's infrastructure agency has misused foreign funds, the EU Delegation to Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent on July 7.
Ukraine's Finance Ministry accused the State Agency for Reconstruction and Development of Infrastructure of misusing Western funds in a comment to the Ukrainian online newspaper Ekonomichna Pravda, which was published earlier on July 5.
The ministry claimed that the EU Delegation to Ukraine was unhappy with the agency failing to use 150 million euros allocated by the European Commission.
Mustafa Nayyem, who previously headed a state infrastructure agency, on July 5 denied the accusations that the agency had misused foreign partners' funds.
"The Ministry of Finance went public with a number of strange comments," Nayyem told Ekonomichna Pravda. "Since this is the official position of the state body, which has manipulated facts and figures and called into question the work of the agency's entire team, I consider it necessary to provide an explanation."
According to Nayyem, the Finance Ministry said the agency had received UAH 7.8 billion ($192.3 million) but was yet to spend any of the money. Nayyem said, however, that there was a mistake in the figures, and the total amount of money being discussed was actually UAH 7.6 billion ($187.4 million).
"I am a bit surprised by the Finance Ministry's mistake of Hr 200 million in the official communication regarding the funds of international financial institutions," he said.
"The EU Delegation to Ukraine confirms that in 2023, it has allocated 250 million euros of budget support for Fast Recovery Needs in a variety of sectors. The first disbursement of 150 million euros was made in December 2023, on the basis of Ukraine meeting all conditions linked to this payment," the EU Delegation said in a comment to the Kyiv Independent on July 7.
"Thereafter, the EU Delegation has highlighted on several occasions the importance of a prompt use of these funds for fast recovery projects. Given Ukraine’s massive financial need for recovery assistance, the EU Delegation can only re-iterate the need to swiftly finalize the ongoing internal procedures, thus allowing for the use of the funds of the first payment and the release of the second."
Nayyem resigned as head of the Agency for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure on June 10 after being prevented from attending the upcoming Ukraine Recovery Conference on June 11-12 in Berlin.
In a lengthy post on Facebook, Nayyem named a series of complaints about the "systemic obstacles" that had limited his ability to do his job, ultimately leading to his decision to resign.
The Financial Times (FT) reported on June 10, citing unnamed Ukrainian and Western officials, that Nayyem's resignation from the agency and other firings and reshuffles strained relations between Kyiv and Western allies and raised concerns about how Ukraine can deal with fixing the country's energy infrastructure as it comes under repeated attacks by Russia.
Former investigative journalist, Nayyem, became a reformist MP and anti-corruption activist in 2014. He was a deputy infrastructure minister from 2021 to 2024 and head of the Agency for the Restoration and Development of Infrastructure from 2023 to 2024. The agency was created to spend Western donors' funds on rebuilding infrastructure destroyed as a result of the war.
Chris York
