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.
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.
This photograph shows a view of the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia on May 18, 2023. (Alexander Nemenov/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia is stepping up its hybrid attacks aimed at the Netherlands and its European allies, the Dutch military intelligence agency MIVD said on April 22.
The news follows multiple reports of damaged undersea infrastructure in the Baltic Sea, arson and sabotage attacks across Europe, and other incidents seen as possible Russian hybrid operations.
"We see that the Russian threat against Europe is increasing, including after a possible end of the war against Ukraine," MIVD director Peter Reesink said in the agency's annual report.
Russian hackers have also targeted an unspecified Dutch public service for the first time, according to Reesink.
"In the Netherlands, we saw the first (Russian) cyberattack against a public service, which was designed to take over the system. The attack was thwarted, but it was the first such case," he added.
The Dutch Interior Ministry said it first detected a Russian cyberattack on the public service's digital operating system last year. The ministry also reported that it had recorded a Russian cyber operation against critical infrastructure in the Netherlands, possibly in preparation for sabotage.
Dutch authorities described Russian interference as a combination of traditional acts of espionage, cyberattacks, and other attempts to influence society.
The Dutch government also reiterated warnings about espionage by Russian entities mapping infrastructure in the North Sea and acts of sabotage aimed at Internet cables, water, and energy supplies.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Mika Aaltola
