General Staff: Russia launched 5 missile attacks on Dec. 17

"The main thing is that Donetsk Oblast and Luhansk Oblast remain Ukraine," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Vladimir Plahotniuc was Moldova's wealthiest businessman and de facto controlled the country's government in the 2010s in what critics described as a "captured state." His fall from grace is seen by his opponents as part of Moldova's alignment with European liberal and democratic values.

14 settlements in Luhansk Oblast are not under Russian control, Ukraine's military told the Kyiv Independent.

"Everything is ready… so I hope we can start very soon, even under the Cyprus presidency for cluster one," EU's Enlargement Commissioner Marta Kos told the Kyiv Independent.

The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Denisova sits down with Dmytro Kuleba, Ukraine's former foreign minister, to discuss U.S.-led peace talks, Donald Trump’s approach to Ukraine, Europe’s role in ending the war, and why he believes neither Washington nor Moscow can impose a settlement on Kyiv.

The news comes after Hungary and Slovakia said Ukraine had resumed oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline, with the first deliveries expected by April 23.

Out of the 2,100 children, 150 have been returned to Ukraine since the beginning of 2026.

It is increasingly likely that the European Union will formally back a new court with a mandate to prosecute Russia's leadership for the crime of aggression, a senior official in the EU's diplomatic arm told the Kyiv Independent.

EU ambassadors agreed on the 20th package of sanctions imposed against Moscow in response to its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on April 22, after Hungary and Slovakia lifted their veto over the measures.

The number includes 1,140 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.

"We have imposed sanctions on those individuals, the Russian participants. And we are now raising the issue to ensure they are not granted visas. We very much hope that we will be heard... and expect that visas will not be issued," Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said.

Russian forces launched 215 drones against Ukraine overnight, of which 189 were downed or jammed.

The U.S. has run through over half of its stockpiles of key air defense missiles during the nearly two-month war on Iran.