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.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Polish truckers plan to restrict freight traffic at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's State Border Guard said on May 12.
"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
A Ukrainian soldier prepares 155mm artillery shells in his fighting position in Donetsk Oblast on Aug. 6, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Diego Herrera Carcedo/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Russia is mostly firing shells produced in 2022 and 2023, showing their ammunition supply is "running smoothly," Roman Holodivskyi, a battery commander in Ukraine's 43rd Artillery Brigade, told the Kyiv Independent in an interview published on Feb. 22.
Kyiv has warned that Ukraine is being confronted with a critical shortage of artillery shells, as $61 billion in funding from the U.S. remains stuck in Congress, causing defense aid deliveries to run dry.
Ukraine's withdrawal from the city of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast on Feb. 17 demonstrated Ukraine's need for more artillery shells, as well as air defense systems, long-range weapons, and fortifications, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said.
Umerov had said earlier in February that Ukraine was unable to fire more than 2,000 shells per day, around a third of Russia's average daily shell usage.
Holodivskyi reported receiving limits on how many shells can be used on a target at the front line. He was recently given permission to fire five shells, when ten were needed to fully defend against an enemy assault group.
His unit reserved 155mm shells when they were more available but "now, the stores that we saved up are only half-full, and they deliver a lot fewer and a lot less often," Holodivskyi said.
Meanwhile, on the Russian side, recovered fragments and unexploded shells show that they are fresh off the production line, according to Holodivskyi.
"The shells they are mostly shooting with now, they were produced in 2022 or 2023," Holodivskyi told the Kyiv Independent.
"They don't have any hunger, their production lines are running smoothly."
Estonia's Foreign Intelligence Service reported on Feb. 13 that as well as producing new shells, Russia refurbishes Soviet stocks of artillery ammunition, allowing it to produce as many as 4 million units in 2023.
"It is almost certain that Western ammunition deliveries to Ukraine in 2024 will not be able to keep pace," and the gap "in available artillery ammunition between Ukraine and Russia is expected to widen even more in 2024," the report said.
The EU aims to deliver over 1 million shells to Ukraine by the end of 2024.
Francis Farrell
