"Only member states can take out loans within the 150 billion euros instrument, but they can use these funds for joint procurement with Ukraine," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
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.
IAEA Director General Rafael Grossi speaks at a press conference during the IAEA Board of Governors meeting on March 06, 2023 in Vienna, Austria. (Thomas Kronsteiner/Getty Images)
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), said on June 12 that he was on his way to visit President Volodymyr Zelensky in Ukraine to present an assistance program for the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
Concerns over the nuclear plant have surged after the Kakhovka dam in Kherson Oblast collapsed on June 6, since the plant relies on water from the reservoir to provide power for its turbine condensers. The Ukrainian authorities say the dam was blown up by Russian forces to prevent a Ukrainian counter-offensive.
The Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, based in the town of Enerhodar in Zaporizhzhia Oblast, has been under Russian occupation since March 2022. Russian forces have used it as a military base to launch attacks on Ukrainian-controlled territory.
In early May, IAEA officials warned that the situation at the plant was "increasingly unpredictable and potentially dangerous" due to the frequency of shelling nearby.
In the immediate aftermath of the Kakhovka dam's destruction, the IAEA said that there was "no immediate risk" to nuclear safety at the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant.
According to Grossi, he will present an assistance program for the nuclear plant, survey the situation there, and conduct an expert rotation "with a strengthened team."
IAEA experts have been on site monitoring the situation at the nuclear power plant since last fall.
Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent. The U.S. publisher Deep Vellum published her co-translation of Ukrainian author Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker in 2024. Some of her other writing and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine.
Alexander Query
