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.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Friedrich Merz, CDU Federal Chairman and CDU/CSU parliamentary group leader in the Bundestag, sits at the Bundestag during the ARD summer interview in Berlin, Germany, on July 14, 2024. (Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Friedrich Merz, an opposition candidate for the German chancellor, said he is open to supplying Taurus long-range missiles to Ukraine but under some conditions, N-TV reported on Oct. 14.
Despite providing extensive military aid to Kyiv, German Chancellor Olaf Scholz has been adamant in his position not to approve the supply of the Taurus missiles, citing a fear of escalation.
"I wouldn't do it just like that," Merz said on the ARD channel regarding the supply of the Taurus missiles.
At first, there should be an appeal to Russian President Vladimir Putin to stop attacking civilian targets in Ukraine. If Moscow does not concede, Ukraine should be free to use already delivered weapons without restrictions, said the German opposition leader.
Merz is the parliamentary leader and chancellor candidate of the center-right CDU/CSU, which is leading the polls one year before the federal parliamentary elections. This makes him currently the most likely candidate to unseat social democrat Scholz.
"And the second step would be to supply the Taurus missiles. Then it is up to (Russian President Vladimir) Putin to decide how far he wants to escalate this war," Merz said.
Taurus is a joint German-Swedish cruise missile with a range of over 500 kilometers (310 miles). It boasts a longer reach than missiles that Ukraine has received from other partners, such as the British-French-made SCALP/Storm Shadow and American ATACMS.
Merz criticized the ruling coalition for allowing Moscow to know all the details of its strategy by discussing its steps publicly. The opposition leader added that the decision on the Taurus supply should be made at the European level and that European countries should become less dependent on the U.S. regarding support for Ukraine.
While Ukraine has deployed Western long-range arms for strikes against Russian military targets within Ukrainian territory, Kyiv's partners have not permitted their use on Russian soil.
Washington and Berlin have permitted the use of certain German and American weaponry just across the Russian border to disrupt Russia's offensive operations.
Kateryna Denisova
