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.
Ukrainian soldiers on February 23, 2023 near Salisbury, England, U.K. (Finnbarr Webster/Getty Images)
More than 30,000 Ukrainian recruits have received training in the U.K. under the British-led Operation Interflex since June 2022, the U.K. Defense Ministry announced on Nov. 10.
This brings the total number of Ukrainian soldiers trained in the U.K. under Interflex and its predecessor, Operation Orbital, since the start of Russian aggression in 2014 to more than 52,000.
Interflex aimed to provide combat and survival skills to 30,000 Ukrainian volunteers with little to no military experience by the end of 2023, meaning this milestone was reached ahead of schedule.
The project is supported by 10 other partner countries, including Canada, New Zealand, Norway, Denmark, Finland, Sweden, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Australia, and, since Nov. 10, Romania.
"I'm delighted we will exceed the target for this year and thank the U.K. trainers and our international partners who have worked night and day to reach the milestone ahead of schedule," U.K. Defense Minister Grant Shapps said.
"I also pay tribute to the determination and resilience of the brave Ukrainian recruits that arrive on British shores."
"We notice the greater fighting capacity of the servicemen and women of the Armed Forces of Ukraine who successfully completed the Interflex training course," said Major General Oleksii Taran, the head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces' training department.
"They have warfare and basic weapon handling skills, are trained to conduct combat operations in trenches and urban areas, have basic military medical training according to international protocols, and are knowledgeable about the Law of Armed Conflict," the general noted, also highlighting the recruits resilience under enemy fire.
The U.K. belongs to Ukraine's leading military donors, with $5.6 billion in defense assistance committed to Ukraine since the start of the full-scale invasion. The support provided by London to Kyiv includes Storm Shadow long-range missiles, Challenger 2 tanks, logistical support, and more.
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.
Daria Shulzhenko
