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.
European foreign ministers approved the creation of a special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine during a meeting in Lviv on May 9. The tribunal, which will operate under the auspices of the Council of Europe, aims to prosecute Russia's top political and military leadership, including President Vladimir Putin. Ukraine expects the tribunal to start work in 2026. The Kyiv Independent’s Kateryna Hodunova spoke with Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel about the future tribunal and its role in bringing justice for Ukraine.
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.
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.
A model of the "Beaver" long-range attack drone shown in a video released on Nov. 16, 2023. (Come Back Alive/Twitter)
The Ukrainian secret military technology project "Black Box," was shown to be a long-range attack drone, named the "Beaver," that can fly up to 800 kilometers, Ukraine's military charity Come Back Alive announced on Nov. 16.
The Black Box project is a collaborative effort of Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR), the Come Back Alive fund, and Ukrainian blogger Ihor Lachenkov.
Details of the project were kept secret until the Nov. 16 announcement, although HUR, as along with Ukrainian intelligence officials, had hinted about what it might be in the past.
Ukrainian military chief Kyrylo Budanov said in June 2023 that more than $700 million would be contributed to the Black Box project, adding that it had already caused more than $700 million in damage to Russian forces over just the previous month.
The Beaver drone is only one of the components of the Black Box project.
Come Back Alive was founded in 2014 to provide assistance and funding for Ukraine's military. As of September 2023, it has raised over $249 million, according to its website.
The fund's Nov. 16 announcement said that in the first eight months of 2023, the Beaver, along with other Black Box components, had caused more than $900 million in damages to Russian forces, attacking them in Crimea and other parts of occupied Ukraine, as well as in Russia.
The Beaver has struck a variety of critical targets, including Russian missile production and storage facilities, the announcement said.
Hr 15 million ($414,000) had been raised to buy vehicles that would help Ukrainian special forces get closer to occupied parts of Ukraine, as well as Russian territory, in order to increase the range of potential future attacks using the Beaver.
There have been numerous Ukrainian drone attacks on Russian territory since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, including in Moscow and other locations hundreds of kilometers from the Ukrainian border. Moscow usually blames Ukraine, while Kyiv rarely takes direct responsibility for strikes on Russian soil.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Francis Farrell
