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.
Polish President Andrzej Duda during a joint press conference with President Volodymyr Zelensky and Lithuanian President Gitanas Nausėda on June 28, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by Valentyna Polishchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine needs more international assistance as it most likely does not field enough weapons to change the balance of the war, Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with the Washington Post on Aug. 10.
"The question is: Does Ukraine have enough weapons to change the balance of the war and get the upper hand? And the answer is probably no," Duda said.
"And we know this by the fact that they're not currently able to carry out a very decisive counteroffensive against the Russian military."
Duda however added that Western long-range artillery supplies could mean that "Ukraine now has much more modern military capabilities than Russia."
The Ukrainian counteroffensive has been underway in at least three directions in Ukraine's southwest and east since early July. President Volodymyr Zelensky described the campaign as "challenging" while adding that Ukraine still holds the initiative.
Ukrainian armed forces' Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi told the Washington Post that Ukrainian troops are making limited gains daily despite the lack of much-needed supplies, including F-16 fighter jets and artillery ammunition.
The counteroffensive's relatively slow progress prompted skepticism among Western observers about whether it can help Ukraine reach a decisive strategic success.
On Aug. 8, CNN wrote, citing U.S. and Western officials, that the initial expectations regarding the counteroffensive were "unrealistic," adding that the Western leadership receives increasingly "sobering" assessments of the progress.
The Polish Head of State also said during the interview that he does not believe that Russia will use its nuclear arsenal in response to Western arms supplies for Ukraine. Such a step would require a collective decision, not dependent solely on the country's dictator Vladimir Putin, Duda said.
However, the president raised concerns regarding potential "nuclear accidents" at Ukraine's nuclear plants. Since March 2022, Russian forces occupy the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, the largest nuclear station in Europe.
In late June, Ukrainian officials warned that Russia is considering a terrorist attack at the plant through a deliberate radiation leakage.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Martin Fornusek
