The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
The approval marks a key step in international efforts to hold Moscow accountable for what is considered the gravest violation of international law committed against Ukraine.
Although Moscow declared on April 28 that it would halt all military actions from May 8 to midnight on May 11 to mark Victory Day, strikes on civilian areas have continued.
People hold a giant Ukrainian flag during a demonstration on February 23, 2014 in Warsaw supporting the new government of the Ukraine, after ousted president Viktor Yanukovych fled Kiev to escape retribution for a week of deadly carnage. (Wojtek Radwanski/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine is one of the few among the group of 29 countries evaluated by Freedom House in the Nations in Transit 2024 report that is moving successfully toward democracy amid growing anti-democratic trends.
Freedom House's latest report on the countries from Central Europe to Central Asia concluded that the democratic governance in the region has been in decline consecutively for the 20th year, with only some exceptions.
Ukraine is one of them, as it is the only nation in the "hybrid regime" group that saw an improvement, while the ratings of five other members of the group declined. Four other countries whose democratic governance ratings have improved are already democracies, further contributing to the polarization of the two groups.
The U.S.-based human rights think tank said that the hybrid regimes, that is, countries with both democratic and authoritarian characteristics, are increasingly forced to choose between a bloc of Euro-Atlantic democracies and a bloc of consolidated authoritarian regimes.
"The resurgence of armed conflict has effectively accelerated a geopolitical reordering that was already underway," Freedom House's report read.
The stability of the democratic bloc is further compounded by political changes in the U.S., which put its traditional role as the security guarantor in Europe in question.
Democratic countries "will need to build more robust transnational networks of solidarity, security, and action to reverse the gains that authoritarians have made over the last 20 years."
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Alexander Query
