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.
Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko speaks to journalists in his office in the Ukrainian stronghold of Kramatorsk on Dec. 22, 2022. (Photo by Kyodo News via Getty Images)
Donetsk Oblast Governor Pavlo Kyrylenko on Jan. 11 denied that Russian forces captured Soledar, saying that the "fiercest battle" is still raging in and around the small salt-mining town.
Speaking to the Kyiv Independent from Ukraine's eastern stronghold of Kramatorsk, Kyrylenko said that Russia's attempt to encircle and capture Soledar has "not succeeded" and that Russians are suffering from "huge losses in manpower and equipment" as a result.
Kyrylenko claimed that the fight was unfolding in the western and northern parts of the town, including inside the salt mine.
"The Ukrainian military is fighting for every centimeter (of Donetsk Oblast), including Soledar," Kyrylenko said.
Russia also denied earlier claims that Soledar, 10 kilometers north of Bakhmut, was under Moscow's control.
"Airborne units blocked Soledar from the north and south," the Russian Defense Ministry said. "Fighting is ongoing."
The comments come after Russian militants in eastern Ukraine and Kremlin-run Wagner mercenary Wagner Group said late on Jan. 10 that Russia had captured the town of Soledar.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, founder of Wagner Group and close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin, has released photos and videos of what he said were his mercenaries in the salt mines of Soledar.
Soledar is located 10 kilometers north of Bakhmut, a city Russia has attacked for over five months.
The U.K. Defense Ministry said on Jan. 10 that Russia and Wagner's mercenaries have "likely" occupied most of Soledar over the past four days.
Capturing Soledar would be Moscow's most significant achievement since July.
Occupying Soledar does not guarantee Russia's success in Bakhmut, a city that Kyrylenko predicted Russia aims to seize as part of a "propaganda operation" amid its stalled war efforts elsewhere.
Capturing Soledar and Bakhmut would help Russia press toward the key Ukrainian strongholds in Donetsk Oblast – Kramatorsk and Sloviansk – located 40 kilometers west.
Russia continues to use its siege tactics, Kyrylenko said during the interview, trying to capture the ruins after "practically destroying" settlements.
He said it is likely because Ukraine fortified eastern cities, such as Kostiantynivka, very well, and seizing them without inflicting destruction would be much harder.
More than 80% of Soledar and about 60% of Bakhmut is "completely destroyed," according to the governor.
The governor claimed that Russia had not inflicted "significant, huge losses" on the Ukrainian troops fiercely fighting in Soledar, which contradicts Prigozhin's description of the battle as "a meat grinder."
However, a soldier fighting in Soledar told CNN on Jan. 10 that "the situation is critical" and "no one counts the dead" because the death toll is so high.
Kyrylenko said he is forbidden to talk about Ukraine's casualties, but he added that the casualty ratio is one to five as a rule, with a larger loss inflicted on those launching an offensive.
The Kyiv Independent couldn't confirm the governor's assessment.
Amid the heavy fighting in the area, the governor said that water and gas supplies have been nonexistent in Soledar since May, and it became "impossible" to keep repairing constantly shelled electricity lines as of September.
No evacuation or humanitarian aid convoys have been allowed to enter Soledar since Jan. 6 for safety reasons, Kyrylenko said.
Some 550 civilians currently remain in Soledar without heating in subzero weather, according to Kyrylenko.
Regarding when Ukraine would view its withdrawal from Soledar as imminent, Kyrylenko said that it’s possible “only” when Russian artillery gets so intense that it becomes impossible for Ukrainian troops to hide from it and hold the defense.
Kyrylenko claimed this hasn’t happened yet, saying that “our fighters are (currently) giving the most valuable – their lives – for our freedom and independence.”
Asami Terajima is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent covering Ukrainian military issues, front-line developments, and politics. She is the co-author of the weekly War Notes newsletter. She previously worked as a business reporter for the Kyiv Post focusing on international trade, infrastructure, investment, and energy. Originally from Japan, Terajima moved to Ukraine during childhood and completed her bachelor’s degree in Business Administration in the U.S. She is the winner of the Thomson Reuters Foundation's Kurt Schork Award in International Journalism 2023 (Local Reporter category) and the George Weidenfeld Prize, awarded as part of Germany's Axel Springer Prize 2023. She was also featured in the Media Development Foundation’s “25 under 25: Young and Bold” 2023 list of emerging media makers in Ukraine.
