The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
European foreign ministers approved the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine during a meeting in Lviv on May 9. The tribunal, which will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aims to prosecute Russia's top political and military leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine expects the tribunal to start work in 2026. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel about the future tribunal and its role in bringing justice for Ukraine.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
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.
President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 28, 2022. (Ukrainian President / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Ukraine's Parliament passed in the first reading on July 27 a bill on the restoration of electronic declaration of assets for public officials, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak reported on Telegram.
The e-declarations were instituted as part of the country's fight against corruption following the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014. All top state officials, including lawmakers, judges, local authorities, law enforcement, and military officials were required to declare their assets as part of the reform.
At the start of the full-scale Russian invasion of Ukraine, the requirement for submitting e-declarations was suspended and public access to the declarations was shut down. Officials have still been able to submit them on a voluntary basis.
Since the suspension, there have been growing calls to resume the requirement. Civic watchdogs say that the asset declaration system has been effectively destroyed, arguing that martial law was used as a pretext by corrupt officials.
In February 2023, an online petition for requiring state officials to resume filing their asset declarations collected the 25,000 signatures necessary for presidential consideration.
In response to the petition, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 22 that a bill had been registered by a member of the Parliament to resume the requirement.
Parliament's Speaker Ruslan Stefanchukcalled on lawmakers on July 26 to support the bill.
Restoring asset declarations has also been central to talks on Ukraine ascension to the European Union and borrowing money from the International Monetary Fund.
Earlier on July 27, Zheleznyak said that this most recent version of the asset declaration bill also envisages restoring public access to declarations without disclosing sensitive personal information about the officials during martial law.
Oleg Sukhov
