Shoppers pay at the cash registers in a Zara store, that belongs to the Spanish Inditex group, during brand store reopening in the Respublika Park shopping mall on April 3, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Spanish multinational clothing company suspended its operations in Ukraine. (Yurii Stefanyak/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
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Zara, Bershka, Pull&Bear, and other foreign brands reopened some of their stores in Kyiv on April 3.
Shoppers wait in line for fitting rooms in a Zara store, that belongs to the Spanish Inditex group, during brand store reopening in the Respublika Park shopping mall on April 3, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Spanish multinational clothing company suspended its operations in Ukraine. (Yurii Stefanyak/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry confirmed in March that Inditex, a Spanish-owned multinational company that owns Zara and other brands, would gradually resume operations in Ukraine.
Approximately 20 physical stores will reopen in Kyiv.
Many foreign brands suspended their business in Ukraine following the outbreak of the full-scale war in 2022.
Yellow and blue shirts hang on hangers on a rack in a Zara store, that belongs to the Spanish Inditex group, during brand store reopening in the Respublika Park shopping mall on April 3, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Since Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the Spanish multinational clothing company suspended its operations in Ukraine. (Yurii Stefanyak/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
McDonald's, H&M, the Danish jeweler Pandora, and French cosmetics company Yves Rocher are among some of the major foreign retailers that have reopened in Ukraine since then.
The foreign ministry said in a statement in March that it would continue to work on restoring international business in Ukraine, bringing in new companies in order to "deepen the country's integration into the global economy."
Russian attacks on Kherson Oblast injured eight people and damaged residential infrastructure on June 16, according to local authorities. The strikes targeted multiple settlements using artillery and drones.
Russia wants to end the war in Ukraine "as soon as possible," preferably through peaceful means, and is ready to continue negotiations — provided that Kyiv and its Western allies are willing to engage, Vladimir Putin said.
The U.S. Senate is postponing action on a bipartisan Russia sanctions bill until at least July, as other legislative and foreign policy priorities dominate the agenda, Semafor reported on June 18.
Russia’s hardline nationalist elite reportedly argues that only a formal war declaration would permit true escalation—full-scale mobilisation, regular missile strikes, and potentially the use of tactical nuclear weapons.
Mykhailo Hrytsai, a senior collaborator with the Russian occupation authorities, was shot dead in the city with a silenced PM pistol, according to a source.
The Slovak police reportedly also seek to detain a former Defense Ministry official and have detained an ex-head of the Konstrukta Defense state company in a move denounced by Nad's opposition Democrats party as politically motivated.
"Russia uses these vessels to circumvent international sanctions and sustain its illegal and immoral war against Ukraine," Australia's Foreign Ministry said in a statement.
"This issue is certainly not on the NATO agenda and nobody has formulated an expectation that there will be an invitation in The Hague, nor have we heard that from the Ukrainians themselves," Lithuanian Foreign Minister Kestutis Budrys said in comments quoted by the LRT broadcaster.
According to the Guardian, some in Kyiv are unsure if President Volodymyr Zelensky's presence at the summit would be worthwhile without a confirmed meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on June 18 brushed off Moscow's demands for Kyiv to destroy or dismantle Western-supplied weapons as a condition for a ceasefire, saying it shows disregard for U.S. peace efforts.
The legislation passed with the support of 253 lawmakers "after months of obstructions... unblocking 600 million euros ($690 million) in EU funds," lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
Kravchenko, a former military prosecutor and most recently head of Ukraine's tax service, replaces Andrii Kostin, who stepped down in October 2024 following a scandal involving fraudulent disability claims by dozens of prosecutors in Khmelnytskyi Oblast.
According to public broadcaster Suspilne, a crowd gathered to assert control over the church, which had recently voted to switch allegiance from the UOC-MP to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine (OCU) — an autocephalous (autonomous) Ukrainian church not affiliated with Moscow.
Ukraine's parliament on June 18 supported a bill allowing Ukrainian citizens to hold passports of foreign countries, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
Elsa Court
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