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.
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.
The aftermath of Russia's attack on Kyiv, Ukraine, on Nov. 25, 2023. (Kyiv City Military Administration/Telegram)
Russia launched a record number of drones into Ukraine over the course of six hours on Holodomor Memorial Day on Nov. 25. According to the Kyiv City Military Administration, "this was the largest drone attack since the beginning of the full-scale invasion."
The Ukrainian Air Force announced that Russia launched a "record number of Shahed-131/136 type drones over Ukraine" with the "main direction of the attack" being Kyiv. As a result of the attack, five people were injured, including an 11-year-old child, and several buildings were damaged across the city.
The Kyiv City Military Administration reported that "the overhead line (in Kyiv) was de-energized and as a result, 77 residential buildings and 120 institutions in the central part of the city were left without electricity."
Kyiv Mayor Vitalii Klitschko highlighted the gravity of the attack on Telegram amid the worldwide remembrance of Holodomor, a man-made famine engineered by the Soviet Union in the 1930s that murdered millions of Ukrainians. The Memorial Day for Holodomor is supposed to take place every fourth Saturday of November.
"Today is a tragic date for Ukrainians," the post reads. "More than 10 million Ukrainians were starved to death by totalitarian Russia...Today, Russia seeks to destroy Ukrainians with missiles and drones, to leave them without heat and light in winter, and to destroy our cities and villages. It is once again committing genocide against the Ukrainian people."
The attack lasted for six hours and has become the most intense attack on the capital since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Details about casualties and damage to civilian infrastructure continue to be released.
Rachel Amran is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked on the Europe and Central Asia team of Human Rights Watch investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Rachel holds a master's degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Regional Studies from Columbia University.
Rachel Amran
