Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
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.
Illustrative image of a tanker transiting through the Great Belt of Denmark off the coast of Agerso, Denmark, on Thursday, Aug. 15. 2024. (Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
NATO allies met on Dec. 30 to address the security of critical infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, following damage to undersea cables connecting Estonia and Finland several days earlier.
The Estlink 2, a 170-kilometer (106-mile) undersea power cable connecting Finland and Estonia, sustained significant damage on Christmas Day. Authorities are treating the incident as a potential act of sabotage.
At a press conference on Dec. 26, Finnish police announced that damage to the cable in the Gulf of Finland was likely caused by a Russian tanker suspected to be part of Moscow's so-called "shadow fleet." The shadow fleet refers to a network of ships allegedly used by Russia to bypass sanctions, such as those restricting oil sales.
The damaged cables, currently under investigation by Finnish authorities, are among several recent incidents in the Baltic Sea being examined as potential sabotage.
As a response to the incidents, NATO is increasing its military presence in the Baltic Sea to bolster vigilance, enhance situational awareness, and deter future threats. Allies are also exploring further measures to safeguard critical undersea infrastructure, leveraging support from NATO’s Maritime Centre for Security of Critical Undersea Infrastructure, established in May of this year.
German Foreign Minister Annalena Baerbock has also raised concerns about the "shadow fleet" following recent damage to undersea cables across Europe.
"Almost every month, ships are currently damaging important undersea cables in the Baltic Sea," Baerbock told Germany’s Funke media group on Dec. 28. She described suspicious activities by ship crews, including dropping anchors and dragging them along the seabed for kilometers without explanation.
"Ship crews lower anchors into the water, drag them for kilometers across the seabed for no apparent reason, and then lose them when they pull them up," she said, adding that the string of incidents over recent months is unlikely to be coincidental.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Abbey Fenbert
