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.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had appealed to his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, to ask Putin if he was willing to conclude a peace agreement.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko enters a hall during the Commonwealth of Independent States summit on Oct.13, 2023, in Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko said over the weekend that Russia and Ukraine need to engage in negotiations as both sides find themselves in a protracted frontline stalemate.
"There are enough problems on both sides and in general the situation is now seriously stalemated: no one can do anything and substantively strengthen or advance their position," Lukashenko said in a Q&A video posted on the website of the Belarusian state news agency BelTA.
Lukashenko, who allowed his country's territory to be used as a base for Russian President Vladimir Putin's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, emphasized the importance of addressing Ukraine's call for Russia to withdraw from its territory through diplomatic means so that "nobody dies."
Lukashenko's comments come amid Ukraine’s peace plan talks that kicked off in Malta on Oct. 28, with the participation of 66 countries. Russia and Belarus didn't participate in Malta talks.
In his evening address, President Volodymyr Zelensky said it is "very symbolic that such a strong display of international unity we have (...) on October 28, the day when in Ukraine we commemorate the Second World War and the anniversary of the expulsion of the Nazis from our territory."
"We can see now that the architecture created then did not work. But unity will certainly work effectively," Zelensky said. "The unity of all who help Ukraine defeat Ruscism. And we will defeat it. For sure. And the unity of everyone in the world who works together with us, together with all our partners, to restore the strength of international law and the real weight of the principles and norms of the UN Charter."
The two-day meeting of national security delegates is the third round of such talks in recent months. Ukraine sees them as an opportunity to win support for Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan from countries around the globe.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Dominic Culverwell
