The disclosure follows a warning from Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who on May 6 said Moscow was carrying out an "unprecedented" interference campaign.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had appealed to his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, to ask Putin if he was willing to conclude a peace agreement.
Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.
The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel speaks about the future of the EU-led special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and its role in bringing Russia to justice.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
Donald Trump looks on during a campaign stop to address Pennsylvanians who are concerned about the threat of Communist China to U.S. agriculture at the Smith Family Farm September 23, 2024 in Smithton, Pennsylvania (Win McNamee/Getty Images)
Editor's note: This story was updated with a statement from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
U.S. President Donald Trump signed an executive order on Feb. 10 imposing a 25% tariff on all steel and aluminum imports, with no exceptions, according to the White House.
Steel production is a key sector of Ukraine's economy, the second-largest source of foreign currency after agriculture.
Economy Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko wrote on Facebook that Ukraine’s metallurgical products make up 57.9% of Ukraine's exports to the U.S., or in dollar amounts, $503 million out of $869 million. It’s unclear what time frame those figures represent.
The share of Ukrainian products in U.S. steel products is minimal and won’t have a significant impact on U.S. producers, Svyrydenko noted. But it’s still another blow to the country’s largest exports of metallurgical companies — ArcelorMittal Kryvyi Rih and Interpipe — already hurting due to the war.
"In recent years, we have made every effort to ensure that Ukrainian steel remains outside the 25% tariff limit in the U.S.," Svyrydenko said, implying that these efforts have been unsuccessful.
The minister added that she and her colleagues are “working actively with partners to find an optimal solution by March 12,” when the tariffs come into effect.
Trump defended the tariffs as a way to simplify duties on metals and hinted at retaliatory measures against countries imposing tariffs on American goods.
The European Commission previously vowed to "react to protect the interests of European businesses, workers, and consumers from unjustified measures."
Commission President Ursula von der Leyen reacted to Trump's executive order by saying that "unjustified tariffs on the EU will not go unanswered."
"Tariffs are taxes — bad for business, worse for consumers," she added.
The dispute over steel and aluminum tariffs dates back to Trump's first term, when his administration imposed duties on nearly $7 billion of European exports in 2018, citing national security concerns. The EU retaliated with tariffs on U.S. goods.
A temporary truce was reached in 2021 under the Biden administration, with the U.S. partially lifting tariffs and replacing them with a quota system while the EU froze its countermeasures. Trump's new tariffs threaten to reignite the trade conflict.
The European Commission argued that such restrictions would disrupt the deeply integrated supply chains between the EU and the U.S., raising costs and harming trade between both regions.
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.
Martin Fornusek
