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.
The dismantling of a Soviet-era WWII monument in Riga, Latvia, on Aug. 25, 2022. (Kaspar Krafts/f64/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia's Internal Affairs Ministry has added a number of former and current officials from Baltic countries and Poland to its list of wanted persons, Russian media reported on May 16. The charges relate to allegations that the officials were responsible for the destruction or damage to monuments to the Red Army.
Russia has previously added many high-ranking Western officials to its wanted list, such as Estonian Prime Minister Kaja Kallas, many of whom are accused of dismantling monuments to Soviet soldiers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky was also added to the list earlier in May, but the entry was subsequently taken down.
The new additions include Elmar Vaher, the former chief of Estonia's Police and Border Guard, former Estonian Foreign Minister Urmas Reinsalu, and other current lawmakers and local politicians from the Baltics and Poland.
The process of decommunization in former Soviet and Warsaw Pact countries has been ongoing since the collapse of the Soviet Union, but has intensified since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
The Ukrainian parliament outlawed most Soviet and communist symbols, street names, and moments in 2015 as part of the decommunization process. Monuments around the country have since come down or been changed, although the sheer number of Soviet-era statues and symbols has prolonged the completion of the project.
Nate Ostiller
