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.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Members of the local Belarusian and Ukrainian diaspora, joined by dedicated activists, gather at the central Market Square in Krakow for the 'Freedom to Political Prisoners of Belarus' protest on May 21, 2023, in Krakow, Poland. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The Investigative Committee of Belarus launched a "special investigation" against 20 analysts, sociologists, and economists who have given comments for independent Belarusian media, Radio Svaboda reported on Jan. 25.
Alexander Lukashenko's regime regularly targets those who have voiced opposition to his rule or openly hold pro-democracy views and continues to crack down on those with links to the mass protests that followed the Belarusian presidential election in 2020.
The committee claimed that the 20 analysts and experts "took an active part in the development and implementation of the concept of destructive activities aimed at harming the national security of the Republic of Belarus and also contributed to the incitement of social enmity and strife in society," as cited by Radio Svaboda, the Belarusian service of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL).
Among the suspects is Yury Drakakhrust, Radio Svaboda's journalist and analyst, as well as several employees of Belarusian opposition leader Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya's office.
The committee called all the suspects "analysts of Tikhanovskaya," but her press secretary, Anna Krasulina, who was also included in the list, said it was a wrong description because some of these analysts criticize Tikhanovskaya.
"There is no particular logic to this list, they just put as many people on this list as possible to intimidate them," Krasulina told Radio Svaboda.
"These brave people are guilty of nothing but love for our country and seeking a way out of the political crisis in Belarus created by the dictator," Tikhanovskaya commented.
Belarusian authorities usually launch "special investigations" to prosecute in absentia political opponents who have left the country due to the repressions, according to Radio Svaboda.
Belarusian security services (KGB) conducted mass searches, interrogations, and detentions of relatives and loved ones of political prisoners as well as those who previously served sentences for political cases on Jan. 23, as reported by Viasna, a Belarusian human rights center.
One of the persecuted on that day was Siarhiej Dubaviec, a Belarusian writer and journalist living in exile, whom the Lukashenko regime accused of "discrediting the state," "inciting social enmity," and "genocide denial," among a range of other charges.
Maria Yeryoma
