Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
More than 1,000 Russian government entities and 1,200 private companies are involved in the economy of occupied Mariupol, a major southeastern city occupied by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to a research paper published on May 14.
The measures target almost 200 ships of Russia's "shadow fleet," 30 companies involved in sanctions evasion, 75 sanctions on entities and individuals linked to the Russian military-industrial complex, and more.
The government has approved "reform roadmaps in the rule of law, public administration, and democratic institutions, as well as Ukraine’s negotiation position," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
The statement did not name the ex-official by name, but details of the case indicate it relates to Oleh Hladkovsky, a former deputy secretary of Ukraine's top security body who has been wanted since mid-April.
Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor, during a news conference following a Special European Council summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Thursday, April 18, 2024. (Simon Wohlfahrt/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
European Union countries failed to approve a new sanctions package targeting the Russian gas industry after German authorities intervened to block the deal at the last minute.
The measures would have banned EU member states from re-exporting Russian liquified natural gas (LNG) from EU ports and financing planned Arctic and Baltic LNG terminals. German officials reportedly expressed concern about an expanded measure that would force EU companies to guarantee their customers cannot go on to sell sanctioned goods to Russia.
This restriction previously only applied to firearms, military equipment, and dual-use goods with both a military and civilian application. Berlin is concerned that the expansion of this measure to non-dual-use civilian products, such as chemicals or metalworking equipment, could harm German small businesses.
Belgium was forced to split talks on the new sanctions package into two separate discussions following Germany's opposition to new sanctions against Belarus.
Both France and Germany opposed EU sanctions on Belarus, which were introduced to close a trade loophole that has allowed Russia to import luxury cars and other banned goods produced in Western countries.
This latest package would have been the 14th round of EU sanctions against Russia since the beginning of the full-scale invasion in February 2022.
An anonymous source told Politico that the European Commission is now working with the German chancellery to convince Berlin to lift the veto.
Initially a hesitant partner, Berlin has become Ukraine's second-largest military donor after the U.S., although German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is still reluctant to supply some key capabilities, namely Taurus long-range missiles.
Rachel Amran is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked on the Europe and Central Asia team of Human Rights Watch investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Rachel holds a master's degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Regional Studies from Columbia University.
Elsa Court
