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 measures target almost 200 ships of Russia's "shadow fleet," 30 companies involved in sanctions evasion, 75 sanctions on entities and individuals linked to the Russian military-industrial complex, and more.
The government has approved "reform roadmaps in the rule of law, public administration, and democratic institutions, as well as Ukraine’s negotiation position," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
The statement did not name the ex-official by name, but details of the case indicate it relates to Oleh Hladkovsky, a former deputy secretary of Ukraine's top security body who has been wanted since mid-April.
Evan Gershkovich during his trial in the city of Yekaterinburg, the Sverdlovsk Region, Russia on June 26, 2024. (Sverdlovsk Regional Court/Anadolu via Getty Images)
A Russian court on July 19 sentenced Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in jail on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges of espionage.
The sentence – slightly under the 18 years prosecutors had asked for – will be served in a maximum security penal colony.
Gershkovich was arrested in Yekaterinburg in late March 2023 while working on a story about the Wagner mercenary group's recruiting methods, as well as Russian citizens' views on the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
The Wall Street Journal and the U.S. government have denied all the charges against Gershkovich and have called them politically motivated. During the trial, the 32-year-old pleaded not guilty.
The journalist has been in pre-trial detention in Russia for more than a year on espionage charges. His trial began in Yekaterinburg on June 26.
U.N. human rights advocates have said Russia violated international law by imprisoning Gershkovich and should release him "immediately."
In June, the Russian Prosecutor General's office accused Gershkovich of "gathering secret information" on orders from the CIA regarding a military equipment plant located 150 kilometers (90 miles) north of Yekaterinburg. Gershkovich, the Wall Street Journal, and the U.S. government deny that he was a spy.
Russia's Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov claimed on July 17 that there is "irrefutable evidence" that Gershkovich is guilty and claimed that the U.S. and U.K. have a long history of recruiting journalists as spies.
At a U.N. news conference, Lavrov said that Gershkovich's case is unrelated to any "attacks on journalism," according to the Associated Press.
"I would like to assure you that, just as much as you do, we are in favor of journalism and freedom of speech," Lavrov said.
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The Kyiv Independent news desk
