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.
"Trump needs to believe that Putin actually lies," Zelensky told journalists in Kyiv. "And we should do our part. Sensibly approach this issue, to show that it’s not us that is slowing down the process."
An area in Kherson Oblast retaken by Ukrainian forces photographed on October 07, 2022. The road leads to the regional capital, which is still held by Russians. (Metin Aktas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
As Ukrainians push toward occupied Kherson, the Russian occupiers on Oct. 18 said they would move up to 60,000 Ukrainian civilians to occupied parts of Ukraine or Russia.
The occupation authorities called it an “evacuation,” saying that Ukrainian forces are likely to attack the city. The Russians have already subjected more than a million Ukrainians throughout the country to forcible deportation and resettlement.
It is not clear how many Kherson Oblast residents agreed to go. Social media suggested at least several hundred waited for ferries in the eponymous regional capital on Oct. 19.
As of the evening of Oct. 19, Kherson-based Telegram channels reported loud explosions on the outskirts of the city. An anonymous Ukrainian soldier, who was not authorized to talk, told the Kyiv Independent there are signs that Ukraine is preparing another offensive in the region. The Ukrainian Armed Forces are maintaining strict silence for operational security.
Kirill Stremousov, one of the top Russian proxies in Kherson Oblast, said on Oct. 19 that Ukrainian forces might soon start advancing on Kherson and called on locals to flee.
Volodymyr Saldo, a Ukrainian politician and Russia collaborator who’s been put in charge of the occupied parts of the region, said 60,000 people would be “evacuated” in six days.
On various online channels, Russians and collaborators in Kherson claimed to have moved all governing institutions to the eastern bank of the Dnipro, Ukraine’s largest river — Kherson sits on the western bank. Serhiy Khlan, an aide to the Ukrainian regional governor, said the Russians are organizing deportation of doctors and teachers, which he called “frightenting.”
The Kremlin said it was introducing martial law to the four Ukrainian regions it partly occupies and tried to annex after holding fake referendums there. Most countries rejected Moscow’s illegal claim that this land now belongs to Russia and 143 voted to condemn it. In the occupied areas that Russia now considers under “martial law,” people are not allowed to enter or leave at their own will.
Russian media posted a brief video of a row of people standing waiting for ferries that would take them across the river, where enough buses to accommodate 1,000 people supposedly stood waiting. Occupation authorities have even printed off pamphlets for locals about the move. These pamphlets recommend relocation “to other parts of the Russian Federation.”
These claimed that evacuees will get certificates allowing them to buy a house or an apartment in any region of Russia.
“At night, messages started coming to people that evacuation starts at 7 a.m. — people were to arrive at the river port,” Khlan said at a news conference on Oct. 19. “People did arrive but Russians didn’t start deportation, waiting for more to gather to film their propaganda.”
Pictures shared on local Telegram channels showed only a few hundred people gathered by the ferry. A local Twitter user’s posts bear this out — she wrote that hundreds of people stood in line at the river port with bags and suitcases. She said people who were leaving included the elderly, Russia appreciators and families with children.
On the other hand, she posted that Russians came to a refugee center and declared evacuation but people refused to go. “The orcs left, mad,” she wrote. Many people also lined up in front of ATMs to withdraw the daily maximum.
“I got information that people might not be relocated to just Crimea but to Russia, all the way beyond the Urals, in the finest of deportation traditions,” said Khlan. He compared it to Russia’s forcible resettlement of Crimean Tatars in the middle of the 20th century. It also mirrors what the Russians did in Donetsk Oblast earlier in the war.
Mykolaiv Oblast governor Vitaliy Kim believes that Russians will stage a provocation by shelling the city and claiming Ukrainians are doing it.
“Knowing Russian tactics, knowing that they’re digging fortifications in the Chaplynka district to hit Kherson accurately, I get the feeling that the Russians are preparing to fire on the city,” Kim stated. There is also a possibility of Ukrainian civilians being used as human shields.
Ukrainian forces have renewed their offensive in the region, north of the city, according to open source intelligence analysts on Twitter. Ukrainian forces have gained ground in the region over the past month, taking dozens of villages and collapsing Russian defenses.
Additional reporting by Oleg Sukhov.
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Note from the author:
Hi, this is Igor Kossov, I hope you enjoyed reading my article.
I consider it a privilege to keep you informed about one of this century's greatest tragedies, Russia's ongoing invasion of Ukraine. With the help of my colleagues, I will continue to bring you in-depth insights into Ukraine's war effort, its international impacts, and the economic, social, and human cost of this war. But I cannot do it without your help. To support independent Ukrainian journalists, please consider becoming our patron. Thank you very much.
Igor is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously covered conflict in the Middle East, investigated corruption in Ukraine and man-made environmental damage in Southeast Asia. He has a Master’s in Journalism from the CUNY Graduate School of Journalism and was published in the Kyiv Post, USA Today, The Atlantic, Daily Beast and Foreign Policy.
