The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
European foreign ministers approved the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine during a meeting in Lviv on May 9. The tribunal, which will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aims to prosecute Russia's top political and military leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine expects the tribunal to start work in 2026. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel about the future tribunal and its role in bringing justice for Ukraine.
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.
A German police officer. Illustrative purposes only. (Getty Images)
German authorities have accused three Ukrainian nationals of an alleged Russia-orchestrated plot to send out parcels with explosives in Europe, Der Spiegel news outlet reported on May 14.
Two of the suspects were reportedly detained over the weekend, and the third on May 13, during police raids in Germany and Switzerland.
The West has accused Russian intelligence services of a number of sabotage attacks across Europe as Moscow hopes to destabilize countries supporting Ukraine.
Vladyslav T., Daniil B., and Yevhen B. are suspected of plotting aggravated arson and bombing attacks on behalf of Russian authorities.
The investigators said that the suspects had already begun preparations by sending test parcels with GPS trackers to Ukrainian addresses.
Yevhen is believed to have purchased the trackers in Switzerland and sent them to the two other men in Cologne and Konstanz, from which they were shipped to Ukraine. This was meant to help the suspects identify the transport routes.
Earlier this week, Poland charged two Ukrainians in connection with suspected Russian-backed arson attacks at an IKEA store in Vilnius and a Warsaw shopping mall in 2024.
Russia is also believed to be responsible for a fire that broke out in July 2024 in an airport hub run by the DHL courier in Leipzig, Germany. A flammable package was reportedly sent from Lithuania by plane and marked for delivery to a fake address in Birmingham, U.K.
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.
Alex Cadier
