Zelensky on May 12 removed Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk from the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the top command and control body for all branches of Ukraine's defense apparatus.
Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
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.
Russian Navy's diesel-electric Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don sails through the Bosphorus Strait on the way to the Black Sea past Istanbul on Feb. 13, 2022. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Ozan Kose/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine's military said on Aug. 3 that a Ukrainian missile strike the day before sunk a Russian Black Sea Fleet submarine and damaged a S-400 air defense system in Russian-occupied Crimea.
In a statement on Telegram, the military said that the Ukrainian strike had "significantly damaged" four launchers of Russia's modern S-400 Triumph air defense system.
The military named the Kilo-class submarine Rostov-on-Don as the submarine that it says sunk in the port of Sevastopol.
"As a result of the hit, the boat sank on the spot," the General Staff said in the statement.
The military said that the submarine, capable of launching Kalibr cruise missiles, had sustained "significant damage" in an earlier September Ukrainian missile attack but it had been repaired. The estimated value of the submarine is $300 million, according to the military.
The Kyiv Independent could not independently verify Ukraine's claims.
The Russian Defense Ministry has not reacted to Ukraine's claims over the reported strike.
A day before on Aug. 2, residents in Crimea reported hearing multiple blasts in Sevastopol, Simferopol, and Yevpatoria in the occupied peninsula, the Telegram channel Crimean Wind reported.
Mikhail Razvozhayev, the Russia-installed proxy head of Sevastopol, also claimed without evidence on Aug. 2 that fragments of drones and U.S.-made missiles were found in the city after being downed by air defenses.
Razvozhayev has not commented on Ukraine's Aug. 3 statement that it sunk the submarine or damaged the missile system.
The statement comes as Ukraine continues to target Russia's Black Sea Fleet and military targets in Crimea, illegally occupied by Russian troops since 2014.
Ukraine has repeatedly struck Russia's vessels since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, leaving around 30% of Russia’s Black Sea Fleet is lost or disabled, according to the Ukrainian military.
Successful Ukrainian strikes on occupied Crimea forced Moscow to pull out much of its naval forces from the peninsula to the Russian port city of Novorossiysk, which has become a key port for the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
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Igor Kossov
