"Only member states can take out loans within the 150 billion euros instrument, but they can use these funds for joint procurement with Ukraine," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
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.
The deepening labor shortage reflects growing strain on Russia's workforce as the Kremlin aggressively recruits men for its war against Ukraine.
"The clock is ticking — we still have twelve hours until the end of this day," German government spokesperson Stefan Kornelius reportedly said.
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.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the founder of Russia's Wagner mercenary group, said on Feb. 15 that Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast could be surrounded in March or April, Russian state-controlled news outlet Ria Novosti reported.
Prigozhin added, though, that it is "hard to predict," and Russia's success in surrounding the town partially depends on the amount of Western weaponry supplied to Ukraine.
On the same day, Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said on national TV that Russian troops had lost 119 people killed and 163 wounded near Bakhmut over the last 24 hours. "The fierce fighting continues," he added.
On Feb. 11, Prigozhin claimed that it could take two years for Moscow to capture the entire Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, as reported by Reuters.
He added, "if we have to get to the Dnipro River, then it will take about three years."
Along with the Russian military, the Wagner Group has been taking part in the months-long fierce battle for Bakhmut.
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a D.C.-based think-tank analyzing the war in Ukraine, said in early February that conventional Russian forces had begun replacing the exhausted Wagner mercenaries after capturing the salt-mining town of Soledar.
Capturing Bakhmut would allow Russia to disrupt Ukraine's supply lines in the area and open up the main road leading to the two key Ukrainian cities of Kramatorsk and Sloviansk.

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