In July, four men attacked poet Serhiy Savin and busker Maksym Verba in Lviv, believing they were gay.
On Nov. 15, one of the attackers was sentenced to four years and one month in prison. It’s the first sentencing of its kind, according to the LGBTQ rights group Insight. Another attacker got a four-year suspended sentence. The two remaining men have not yet been convicted.
Ukrainian police are often reluctant to classify such attacks as hate crimes. Savin and Verba’s attackers had initially been charged with simple hooliganism. The charges were later modified to “hooliganism with a homophobic motive.”
Savin told Espresso TV that there are “thousands, if not millions of similar cases.”
Artur Korniienko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, currently on a leave to serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He previously reported on Ukrainian literature, art, music, film and social issues for the Kyiv Post, including the controversial Babyn Yar memorial and other development projects opposed by the community. In 2021, he ran a podcast about Ukrainian migrant workers for RFE/RL on the Vaclav Havel Fellowship in Prague. With a Master's in Journalism from the Ukrainian Catholic University, Korniienko had also worked as a freelance journalist and a TV correspondent.
The Norwegian defense company Kongsberg and Ukraine's DevDroid announced on June 30 a collaboration to produce ground drones equipped with state-of-the-art weapons systems, aiming to supply Ukraine and other European countries.
The payment is part of the initial 6-billion-euro ($7-billion) tranche dedicated to drone procurement under the 90-billion-euro ($103 billion) Ukraine Support Loan.
The EU's new steel allocation, set to enter into force on July 1, was introduced in response to global steel overcapacity, which has been hurting EU producers. The measure aims to restrict tariff-free steel imports to 18.3 million metric tons per year, a 47% reduction.
"I proposed what I believe was a very fair, partnership-based approach: MiGs in exchange for drones," Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said. "The Ukrainians initially accepted it but did not follow through, so there are no MiGs for Ukraine because there are no drones, or drone capabilities, for Poland."
According to the French news outlet BFM TV, the blast injured Ukrainian businessman Vadym Yermolaiev, his partner, and 13-year-old daughter. Authorities are investigating the incident as a possible terrorist attack.
Swedish defense company Saab announced on June 29 that it had signed a $4.83 billion contract with Poland to supply three A26 submarines, as Poland and Sweden deepen defense cooperation under the Baltic Sea Pact.
President Volodymyr Zelensky and Danish Defense Minister Jeppe Bruus discussed a potential drone cooperation agreement and expanded efforts to strengthen anti-ballistic capabilities during a June 29 meeting.
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