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.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
Illustrative image: A Naftogaz gas company worker adjusts valves after an opening ceremony of the newly built Bobrovnytska gas compressor and holding station in the village of Mryn, about 130 kilometers from Kyiv on Dec. 16, 2008. (Sergei Supinsky /AFP via Getty Images)
Russia attacked 34 facilities of Ukrgasvydobuvannya, Ukraine's largest gas producer and part of the state Naftogaz Group, last winter, leading to a loss of almost 50% of gas production, the company reported on April 21.
Russian forces regularly attack Ukraine's energy infrastructure, leading to power and heat shortages across the country.
The energy situation was most critical in the cities of Kryvyi Rih, Mykolaiv, and Kherson. Constant Russian attacks and the current state of the gas network could have left more than 1 million people without heating and electricity, the company's statement read.
Emergency crews were said to work around the clock, and the company raised more than Hr 5 billion ($121 million) in humanitarian donor aid to avoid collapse.
Naftogaz also imported 800 million cubic meters of gas and began restoring the damaged infrastructure to withstand the autumn and winter of 2024-2025 and compensate for losses.
In March, Ukrgasvydobuvannya restored more than half of the production volumes lost because of the attacks, the company said.
Naftogaz's interim CEO, Roman Chumak, said the company is already preparing for the next winter period.
Since the beginning of 2025, Naftogaz has contracted 1.5 billion cubic meters of gas, of which 400 million cubic meters will be supplied in preparation for the 2025-2026 autumn-winter period.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Natalia Yermak
