Zelensky on May 12 removed Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk from the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the top command and control body for all branches of Ukraine's defense apparatus.
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.
A man walks past a recruitment poster for the Russian army in Moscow. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Russia officially withdrew from the Treaty on Conventional Armed Forces in Europe (CFE), the Russian Foreign Ministry announced on Nov. 7.
"Russia is finally saying goodbye to the CFE treaty without regret and with full confidence it is right," the ministry's statement read. It also included a series of complaints about the West's actions, arguing that the U.S. and NATO had long violated the spirit of the treaty, and Russia's withdrawal was a natural reaction.
The treaty, originally signed in Paris in November 1990, was aimed at arms control and was initially agreed upon by 16 NATO members and six countries of the former Warsaw Pact, including the former USSR. It officially came into effect two years later.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin signed a bill in May 2023 denouncing the CFE treaty. As Russia partially suspended its compliance with the treaty in 2007 and fully withdrew from it in 2015, the Nov. 7 confirmation of the official withdrawal will have little practical significance.
Putin also signed a a law revoking Russia's ratification of the Comprehensive Nuclear-Test-Ban Treaty (CTBT) on Nov. 2.
Russia signed the CTBT in 1996 and ratified it in 2000. No country besides North Korea has officially conducted a nuclear test in 25 years.
Steven Pifer
