"Only member states can take out loans within the 150 billion euros instrument, but they can use these funds for joint procurement with Ukraine," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
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.
The report details several “horrific” cases with testimony from victims describing “relentless, brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention.”
“One Ukrainian soldier, who was detained and tortured by Russian authorities in several detention facilities, recounted his experience in the correctional colony in the town of Donskoy, Tula region, where he was repeatedly subjected to torture and left with broken bones, broken teeth and gangrene on an injured foot,” the report reads.
“‘I lost any hope and the will to live,’ the soldier said, adding that he had tried to kill himself but perpetrators subjected him to further beating.”
The document also highlights “incidents of rape and other sexual violence committed against women in circumstances which also amount to torture” as well as “incidents of torture with a sexualized dimension and threats of rape against male prisoners of war.”
Speaking to journalists in Geneva after the release of the findings, the chair of the commission, Erik Møse, said: “Victims' accounts disclose relentless brutal treatment inflicting severe pain and suffering during prolonged detention, with blatant disregard for human dignity.”
The torture and execution of Ukrainian POWs has been well-documented throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion.
In March of last year, the UN Human Rights Office’s mission in Ukraine released a report based on interviews with 203 Ukrainian POWs, who reported that Russian soldiers and Federal Security Service (FSB) officers “tortured and ill-treated them in order to obtain military information, to intimidate or humiliate them, or take revenge.”
According to the report, "the conditions of detention of many Ukrainian prisoners of war in Russian captivity were shocking."
An investigation by the Kyiv Independent in December revealed the inhumane conditions of detention, hunger, and torture found at one Russian camp in particular – Olenivka prison, located in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, recording dozens of interviews with the servicemen and civilians who witnessed gross violations of international law.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
