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.
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.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
Polish soldiers are seen during a training session at the Nowa Deba training ground on May 6, 2023 in Nowa Deba, Poland. (Artur Widak/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Close to 50% of Poles believe that a Russian attack on Poland is "likely," according to a survey released by the Polish media outlet RMF24 on Feb. 22.
The survey results correspond with growing concerns that the West doesn't take the risk of a potential war between Russia and NATO in the near future seriously. NATO militaries have strengthened their capacity and preparedness since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but NATO officials have warned in recent months that such preparations may not be enough to avert a continent-wide war.
The 47% of Polish respondents who said that a Russian attack on Poland was probable represented a 16% increase from when a similar poll was conducted in May 2023.
The poll also found that Poles were pessimistic about the prospects of a Ukrainian victory, with only 17% believing it would be possible. The figure aligned with a poll released by the European Council on Foreign Relations (ECFR) on Feb. 21, in which on average, only 10% of Europeans thought Ukraine would win the war.
While only 14% of respondents to the RMF poll said that they thought Russia would win, a plurality (47%) believed that the war "will last for many years and will result in the destruction of both countries."
Recent polling in the U.S. resulted in similar conclusions.
A survey released on Feb. 13 by the Quincy Institute and the Harris Poll found that only 12% of Americans believed Ukraine would win the war.
Almost 70% said that the administration of U.S. President Joe Biden should push for Ukraine to "engage in diplomatic negotiations with Russia and the U.S. as soon as possible" to end the war.
At the same time, according to another poll released by the Pew Institute on Feb. 16, an overwhelming majority (74%) of U.S. respondents said that the war in Ukraine was important to national interests.
As the U.S. commitment to NATO is increasingly in question due to presidential candidate Donald Trump's potential election in 2024 and his controversial remarks about the alliance, Poland has pledged to significantly increase the size of its armed forces.
Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said in September 2023 that he believed Poland would soon amass a force of 300,000 soldiers, making it the largest land army in Europe.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Nate Ostiller
