The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
Kurt Volker said that now "there is more alignment" between Ukraine and the U.S. under the Trump Administration than at the beginning of 2025.
The approval marks a key step in international efforts to hold Moscow accountable for what is considered the gravest violation of international law committed against Ukraine.
Although Moscow declared on April 28 that it would halt all military actions from May 8 to midnight on May 11 to mark Victory Day, strikes on civilian areas have continued.
Under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's rule, millions of Ukrainians died during the Holodomor, a man-made famine in 1932–1933. The dictator also oversaw mass deportations, purges of Ukrainian intellectuals and leaders, and the suppression of the Ukrainian language and culture.
According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), this marks the first time Ukrainian authorities have exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network conducting activities harmful to Ukraine.
Delegations from 35 countries and the Council of Europe gathered in Lviv as EU officials prepare to approve both new defense aid and steps toward establishing a tribunal for Russian leadership.
The ruling marks a significant victory for RFE/RL amid growing concerns about U.S. funding cuts to independent media countering Russian disinformation.
Pro-Russian lawmaker Shufrych accused of financing Russia's National Guard in Crimea
Pro-Russian lawmaker Nestor Shufrych, who is already suspected of treason, was charged with financing Russia's National Guard in occupied Crimea on Feb. 8, the State Bureau of Investigation reported.
Shufrych, elected for the now-banned party Opposition Platform — For Life, was arrested on Sept. 15, 2023, after being accused of subversive activities against Ukraine.
Shufrych was spreading pro-Kremlin narratives in Ukraine, such as that Ukraine is an artificial entity or that Russians and Ukrainians are a single nation, among other accusations, according to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU).
Ukrainian law enforcement has found new evidence of Shufrych's "anti-Ukrainian activities," the bureau wrote.
According to the investigation, Shufrych paid Russia's National Guard for guarding his elite real estate in Crimea, illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.
"In just 3 months of 2016, the company controlled by him paid the occupiers more than half a million Russian rubles (over $5 million) for these services," reads the report.
The real estate in question is an unfinished recreational facility with a total area of over 4,500 square meters, located near the sea in the Crimean village of Simeiz, according to the bureau. The building purportedly lies on a land plot of 1.5 hectares that borders the elite property of exiled pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk.
Liliane Bivings
Shufrych bought the property from enterprises whose beneficial owner was Medvedchuk's wife, Oksana Marchenko, and the relevant contract was signed by a company headed by Shufrych's personal lawyer, the bureau said.
The Shufrych-controlled company then allegedly signed a contract with Russia's National Guard for the protection of the property and regularly paid taxes and fees to the Russian state budget.
The lawmaker and his lawyer were charged with "financing actions committed for the purpose of violent change or overthrow of the constitutional order or seizure of state power, change of territory or state border of Ukraine."
When announcing Shufrych's treason charge in September last year, the SBU said the lawmaker had cooperated with a former Ukrainian official and an agent of Russian intelligence, Volodymyr Sivkovych.
Sivkovych, who served as the deputy chairman of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council from 2010 to 2013 under pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych, was charged with treason in July last year. He is currently hiding in Russia.
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