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.
A man digs a grave near tombs of Russian soldiers at a cemetery in the town of Yefremov in the Tula region on March 23, 2023. (Photo for illustrative purposes) (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)
Through open source research, Mediazona, a Russian independent media outlet, together with BBC Russia, confirmed the names of 49,281 Russian soldiers who had been killed since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
Since Mediazona's last update in mid-March, the names of 1,580 Russian soldiers have been added to the list of casualties.
The journalists specify that the actual figures are likely considerably higher since the information they have verified so far comes from public sources, including obituaries, posts by relatives, news in regional media, and reports by local authorities.
Since Russia began its all-out war against Ukraine, over 3,300 officers, with 386 holding the rank of Lieutenant Colonel or higher have been killed in combat in Ukraine.
To date, Lieutenant General Oleg Tsokov, Russia's deputy commander of the Southern Military District, is the highest-ranking Russian military official to have been killed during the war.
A majority of those killed in action come from Rostov, Sverdlovsk, Bashkiria, Chelyabinsk, as well as the Buryatia republic.
On Feb. 24, in a joint study with independent Russian media outlet Meduza, Mediazona reported that at least 83,000 Russian soldiers had been killed in Russia's war, although total estimates of Russia's casualties since the full-scale invasion vary widely.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg estimated on March 14 that Russia has lost over 350,000 troops in Ukraine since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Stoltenberg's estimates refer to the total number of killed and injured Russian soldiers, and are seemingly in line with estimates made by U.S. officials last month that claim that over 315,000 Russian troops had either been killed or injured so far in the war.
Late last month, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky claimed for the first time that 180,000 Russians have been killed in war, as opposed to 31,000 Ukrainian soldiers. Zelensky added that the exact amount is unknown and it would only be possible to find out once the territories were liberated.
As of March 29, the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces says that Russia lost 440,790 troops in Ukraine since the beginning of its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Igor Kossov
