"Only member states can take out loans within the 150 billion euros instrument, but they can use these funds for joint procurement with Ukraine," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
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.
The Kursk Nuclear Power Plant, Russia. (Wikimedia Commons/RIA Novosti)
Russia is preparing to stage a provocation at its Kursk Nuclear Power Plant involving the evacuation of some of the local population, Ukraine's National Resistance Center reported on Aug. 15.
According to the report, authorities in Kursk Oblast are currently preparing for evacuation "in the event of an accident at the nuclear power plant" and subsequent radioactive contamination. The National Resistance Center managed to obtain a register listing people who are to be evacuated.
In total, 21,000-57,000 people living in Kursk and its surroundings are to be sent away, the Center reported. As the organization noted, the population of Kursk Oblast is more than 1 million, meaning that the evacuation should concern around 2-5% of the total number of its residents.
The evacuees will be transported to four settlements in the northern part of the oblast, namely to Zheleznogorsk, Bolshoye Soldatskoye, Shchigry, and Gorshechnoye, according to the report.
The National Resistance Center said that the provocation is part of Russia's strategy to divert attention from its occupation of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Station in Ukraine.
Russian forces occupied the Ukrainian power station, which is the largest nuclear plant in Europe, in March 2022. In late June, Ukrainian officials issued a warning that Russia may be preparing a terrorist attack at the occupied plant through radiation leakage.
On July 6, Ukraine's military intelligence chief Kyrylo Budanov said that the danger of a terror attack at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant is "quietly going down."
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
