Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to to Antalya, Turkey, for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting from May 14–16, where he is expected to address the war in Ukraine and push for stronger Allied defense commitments.
The Kremlin said the leaders held a detailed discussion about the Russian initiative and Erdogan expressed full support, reiterating Turkey’s readiness to provide a venue and assist in organizing the negotiations.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
The Rivne Nuclear Power Plant, in Varash, Rivne Oblast, on Sept. 10, 2023. (Photo by Roman Pilipey /AFP via Getty Images)
The U.K. Defense Ministry said on Sept. 14 that the refueling of a reactor in Ukraine's Rivne Nuclear Power Plant using Western supplies signifies a major step in the country's energy sector's decoupling from Russia.
On Sept. 10, Ukrainian state-owned nuclear energy operator Energoatom announced that a reactor in the Rivne plant was loaded with the first batch of nuclear fuel produced by the Westinghouse Electric Sweden AB company.
The U.K. report pointed out that all Ukraine's nuclear power stations are based on Soviet designs, and until February 2022 relied on Russia in terms of fuel.
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Ukraine expedited the plans to diversify its supply to reduce dependency on Moscow, the ministry said.
London suggested that since nuclear energy covers roughly half of Ukraine's electricity, Energoatom's success in installing Western fuel "is a major waypoint in Ukraine's long-term decoupling from Russia."
The Rivne plant in western Ukraine is one of the country's four active nuclear power stations, including the Khmelnytskyi plant, the South Ukraine plant, and the largest Zaporizhzhia plant, which has been occupied by Russia since March 2022.
Ukraine's energy infrastructure has come under significant strain during the last fall and winter as Russia attempted to cripple it through massive strikes, resulting in regular blackouts.
Kyiv officials warned that Moscow is likely to attempt a similar strategy during the fall and winter of 2023-2024. On Sept. 13, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said that the country's energy infrastructure will be ready for the next winter season within a month.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Alexander Query
