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.
Tank battalion of 59th Motorized Brigade fires artillery towards the Russian positions in Donetsk, Ukraine on December 31, 2023 (Ozge Elif Kizil / Anadolu via Getty Images)
Russian forces in the Lyman sector of Donetsk Oblast violated the one-day Easter ceasefire, used it to regroup, and launched a large-scale infantry assault shortly after its end, Anastasiia Blyshchyk, spokesperson for Ukraine's 66th Separate Mechanized Brigade, told Suspilne media on April 22.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared a symbolic one-day ceasefire on April 19, which President Volodymyr Zelensky said was violated around 3,000 times.
"This so-called truce did more damage to us," Blyshchyk said. "A few hours after Putin announced the ceasefire, our positions came under massive artillery fire."
According to the spokesperson, Russian forces exploited the lull to reposition units and prepare for renewed assaults.
"We saw them pulling up their infantry to the front line along with weapons, including rocket-propelled grenade launchers and machine guns," she said.
"Our aerial reconnaissance recorded more than 120 Russian occupiers dispersing in plantations, forest belts, destroyed buildings, and dugouts during the so-called Easter truce."
Blyshchyk added that once the truce ended, Russian forces launched a large-scale infantry offensive.
The Lyman sector in northern Donetsk Oblast remains one of the most fiercely contested areas along the front line. Its strategic importance lies in its proximity to key transport routes and logistics corridors.
The assault follows statements from Ukrainian military leadership that Russia's anticipated spring offensive is already underway.
On April 9, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi confirmed that Moscow had begun its spring campaign, with intensified attacks across multiple sectors of the front line.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Asami Terajima
