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U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.

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The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.

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PM Sunak to announce largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine during visit to Poland

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PM Sunak to announce largest-ever military aid package to Ukraine during visit to Poland
Prime Minister Rishi Sunak is addressing Ukrainian MPs during his official visit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on January 12, 2024. (Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)

British Prime Minister Rishi Sunak will announce a 500-million-pound ($617 million) uplift in military support for Ukraine during his visit to Poland on April 23. The announcement will come with a warning that defeating Russia is imperative to halt any further advancement of its troops into Europe.

Sunak's trip to Poland to meet Prime Minister Donald Tusk marks his first international visit in months. The purpose is to demonstrate to his restless party that he remains in control ahead of an upcoming election, which many anticipate he will not win. Sunak will then travel to Germany to meet Chancellor Olaf Scholz in Berlin.

The U.K. has consistently voiced strong support for Ukraine, and the increased funding will bring London's total military assistance for this fiscal year to 3 billion pounds (roughly $4 billion). The action follows closely on the heels of the Ukraine aid approval by the U.S. House of Representatives.

"Defending Ukraine against Russia's brutal ambitions is vital for our security and for all of Europe. If Putin is allowed to succeed in this war of aggression, he will not stop at the Polish border," Sunak said in a statement.

The U.K. will send what it described as its largest-ever single package of equipment, including 60 boats, more than 400 vehicles, including 160 protected mobility ‘Husky’ vehicles, 162 armored vehicles and 78 all-terrain vehicles, over 1,600 strike and air defense missiles and nearly four million rounds of small arms ammunition.

"The United Kingdom will always play its part at the forefront of European security, defending our national interest and standing by our NATO allies," Sunak said.

Ukraine to receive new military aid from US sooner than expected, congressman says during visit to Kyiv
The first batch of U.S. military aid will be delivered to Ukraine “sooner than anyone thinks is possible,” after the final approval, Bill Keating, a Massachusetts Democratic congressman, said during a press conference in Kyiv on April 22.

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Olena Goncharova

Head of North America desk

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.

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