Zelensky on May 12 removed Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk from the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the top command and control body for all branches of Ukraine's defense apparatus.
Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
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.
A portrait of Alexei Navalny, candles, and flowers are left at a memorial in Paris on Feb. 16, 2024, after the announcement that the Kremlin's most prominent critic had died in an Arctic prison. (Ian Langsdon/AFP via Getty Images)
Alexei Navalny's memoir "Patriot" will be published posthumously on Oct. 22.
The memoir is compiled from the Russian opposition leader's prison diaries and was edited in part by his widow, Yulia Navalnaya. The book will be released in 22 languages, including Russian.
Navalny died on Feb. 16 in a penal colony in northern Russia, after being convicted in several fabricated criminal cases as part of the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent. Leaders around the world have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death.
In "Patriot," Navalny wrote that he expected to die in prison.
"I knew from the outset that I would be imprisoned for life — either the rest of my life or until the end of the life of this regime," he wrote in a March 2022 diary entry.
"I will spend the rest of my life in prison and die here."
Navalnaya has said she hopes the memoir ensures that her husband won't be forgotten and that his political activism continues to inspire the Russian opposition movement.
"I want his voice to be heard loudly even after his death," she told the BBC's Russia service in an interview ahead of the book's release.
Navalnaya has accused Putin of murdering her husband and vowed to continue Navalny's political work. A Moscow court ordered her arrest in absentia in July, charging her with "participating in an extremist organization" due to her involvement with the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an organization founded by her late husband.
Navalnaya would "go to the elections as a presidential candidate" if she ever returned to Russia, she told the BBC.
The Kremlin has denied any role in Navalny's death.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Oleg Sukhov
