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 Russian national flag flies atop the Russian State Duma, the nation's lower house of parliament, July 14, 2023. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)
The Russian parliament passed a budget for 2024 that increases military spending to more than one-third of total government expenditures, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported on Nov. 23.
If combined with funding for domestic law enforcement agencies, the figure rises to 40%.
According to Meduza, state expenditures on Russia's military sector will exceed social payments for the first time.
The budget has passed through all but one of the necessary steps in order to become a law, with only the signature of Russian dictator Vladimir Putin remaining to bring the budget into force.
The budget had gone through 900 amendments since its first draft, Meduza wrote, with an additional 725 billion rubles ($8.2 billion) being allocated to the country's military sector in the second draft.
In addition, Russia has earmarked a significant amount of money, at least $2.6 billion, to be spent on the territories of Ukraine that it illegally annexed in September 2022.
In order to fund the increased military expenditures, Russia will need increased revenue. Funding the first draft of the budget, which was smaller than the final version passed, would reportedly require a 22% increase in government revenue from 2023.
The Russian government is considering raising taxes to account for the discrepancy, sources told Meduza.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Oleksiy Sorokin
