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.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Illustrative purposes only: A soldier with a NATO Steadfast Defender patch during the NATO Brilliant Jump 2024 exercise in Drawsko Pomorskie, Poland, on Monday, Feb. 26, 2024. Liesa Johannssen/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Nordic Response 24 NATO exercises begin in northern Finland, Sweden, and Norway on March 4, for the first time with the participation of Finland as a NATO member, the Finnish public broadcaster YLE reported.
The Norwegian-led drills, scheduled to last until March 15, are part of the largest NATO military exercises in decades, called Steadfast Defender 24.
Nordic Response will take place on land, at sea, and in the air, involving around 20,000 soldiers from 14 countries.
"The exercise will demonstrate NATO's operating capability, cohesion, and will to defend all of the Alliance's area," the Finnish military said in a statement.
"As Steadfast Defender 24 will be the most substantial training exercise of NATO in decades, its preparations and those of Nordic Response 24 have been underway now for a number of years already."
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said on Jan. 19 that Russia has launched an information campaign to cast NATO's Steadfast Defender as a provocation aimed against Moscow.
Steadfast Defender 2024 began on Jan. 22 with the participation of 90,000 troops from NATO countries and Sweden, becoming the alliance's biggest exercise since the Cold War.
Tensions between NATO and Russia have been mounting since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, with several Western officials warning of a possible large-scale conflict between the two powers in the coming years.
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.
Alexander Khrebet
