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.
Photo for illustrative purposes: The entrance to the Russian city of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, on May 28, 2023. (Olga Maltseva / AFP via Getty Images)
The governor of Russia’s Belgorod Oblast, Vyacheslav Gladkov, declared a state of emergency on Aug. 14, citing an "extremely difficult" and tense situation due to ongoing attack from Ukrainian forces.
Gladkov reported extensive damage, including destroyed homes and civilian casualties, and announced that the regional emergency would be followed by a request for a federal state of emergency.
Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine’s Kharkiv Oblast and is adjacent to Kursk, has been targeted by Ukrainian drones, resulting in a fire and structural damage to an apartment building in Shebekino. Despite the attacks, there have been no reported casualties from the drone strikes.
This escalation follows a recent significant cross-border attack by Ukrainian forces into Kursk, where a state of emergency was declared last week.
Ukraine’s Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 12 that Ukrainian troops controlled about 1,000 square kilometers of Russian territory in Kursk Oblast, while President Volodymyr Zelensky said the next day that Ukraine holds 74 settlements.
In response to the incursion, Russian leader Vladimir Putin called to expel Ukrainian forces from Russian soil. Alexei Smirnov, acting governor of Kursk Oblast, said that 121,000 people had been evacuated or left Kursk Oblast on their own. The authorities are planning to evacuate 180,000 people from the region, he added.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Oleg Sukhov
