Lawmakers urged the EU and its member states to step up efforts to hold Moscow accountable through international courts and support for Ukraine’s campaign to bring its children home.
The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.
Washington’s involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told Reuters.
The agreement, signed on April 30, establishes a joint investment fund between Kyiv and Washington and grants the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's natural resources.
An operator carries a reusable airstrike drone called Punisher made by the Ukrainian company UA Dynamics during a test in Kyiv Oblast on Aug. 11, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
A drone coalition co-led by the U.K. and Latvia has collected over 500 million euros ($535 million) to purchase drones for Ukraine, Latvian Defense Minister Andris Spruds wrote on X on April 24.
The drone coalition was established in January to bolster Ukraine's arsenal of unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs). Seven countries, apart from the founding states, have joined the alliance, including Germany, Canada, the Netherlands, Lithuania, Sweden, Estonia, and Denmark.
Denmark and the Netherlands announced a joint procurement of drones worth 400 million euros ($535 million), making the largest contribution to the coalition as of now, Spruds said.
According to the Latvian minister, Canada also allocated 70 million euros ($75 million), while Lithuania contributed 3 million euros ($3 million) and Latvia nearly 10 million euros ($11 million).
"This is only the beginning. The active negotiations with other countries of the drone coalition are continuing,"Spruds said.
Latvia previously announced that it would deliver 1 million euros ($1.1 million) worth of drones to Ukraine "soon."
Germany, the Netherlands, and Canada also announced in April new batchs of multi-mission and reconnaissance drones to be sent to Ukraine. Lithuania, in turn, allocated additional funds for Ukraine's first-person-view drone production, Ukraine's Defense Ministry reported.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Kateryna Denisova
