More than 1,000 Russian government entities and 1,200 private companies are involved in the economy of occupied Mariupol, a major southeastern city occupied by Russia after it invaded Ukraine in 2022, according to a research paper published on May 14.
The measures target almost 200 ships of Russia's "shadow fleet," 30 companies involved in sanctions evasion, 75 sanctions on entities and individuals linked to the Russian military-industrial complex, and more.
The government has approved "reform roadmaps in the rule of law, public administration, and democratic institutions, as well as Ukraine’s negotiation position," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
The statement did not name the ex-official by name, but details of the case indicate it relates to Oleh Hladkovsky, a former deputy secretary of Ukraine's top security body who has been wanted since mid-April.
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.
"Trump needs to believe that Putin actually lies," Zelensky told journalists in Kyiv. "And we should do our part. Sensibly approach this issue, to show that it’s not us that is slowing down the process."
The EU plans to significantly increase tariffs on Ukrainian goods after the current duty-free deal lapses on June 6, the Financial Times reported on May 14, citing undisclosed diplomatic sources.
The blockade ended at 10:30 p.m. local time. Truck traffic in both directions is now moving as usual, according to Ukraine's State Border Guard's statement.
Russia seems to be preparing a significant offensive in Ukraine as it is moving troops toward key positions on the front, the Financial Times reported on May 13, citing undisclosed Ukrainian intelligence officials.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, but said both leaders are ready to fly to Istanbul if Russian President Vladimir Putin chooses to attend the talks there.
A net covering a statue of Alexander Pushkin in a Kyiv park posted on Oct. 24, 2023. (Solomianski Cats/Telegram)
Local activists in Kyiv hung a brightly-colored camouflage net over a centrally located statue of famed Russian writer Alexander Pushkin as a protest of the continued Russian cultural imperialism in Ukraine, Ukrainska Pravda said on Oct. 24, citing the activists' Telegram post.
The "mask" was intended to "remind the society and the authorities that the symbols of Russian imperialism still stand quietly in our cities and the process of de-Russification should take place more actively," said the group, named "Solomianski Cats."
The group also called on others to participate in drawing attention to the numerous remaining Russian and Soviet sculptures by placing their own 'masks' and sharing them on social media.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, Ukraine has continued an ongoing process of “de-Russification” that gained momentum after the Euromaidan Revolution in 2014. As part of these efforts, monuments to Russian historical figures have been dismantled, and streets named after Russians or Soviet history have been renamed.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a law in April 2023 that prohibits naming geographic sites in Ukraine after Russian figures or historical events associated with Russian aggression.
Titled “On Geographical Names,” the law aims to address the “decolonization of toponymy” and to regulate the use of place names in Ukraine, according to the text of the law.
The law prohibits naming geographical sites with titles that “glorify, perpetuate, promote, or symbolize” Russia or its “prominent, memorable, historical and cultural places, cities, dates, events, and figures who carried out military aggression against Ukraine and other sovereign countries.”
It also bans geographic markers associated with “state totalitarian policies and practices related to the persecution of opposition figures, dissidents and other persons” who criticized “totalitarian Soviet and totalitarian Russian regimes.”
Last spring, monuments to Pushkin were dismantled in cities like Ukraine’s southern port city of Mykolaiv, Ukraine’s western city of Ternopil, and in the western Zakarpattia Oblast.
In August, the Soviet coat of arms (hammer and sickle) was removed from Kyiv's Motherland Monument, Ukraine's tallest statue and a fixture of the city's skyline. It was replaced with Ukraine's coat of arms, the trident.
In a survey conducted after the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, 85% of respondents supported the idea of replacing the Soviet emblem on the Motherland statue's shield with the trident.
Anastasiia Lapatina
