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.
Illustrative purposes only: Solar panels are seen destroyed by Russian shelling in the front-line village of Novovorontsovka, Kherson Oblast, on June 23, 2022. (Andrii Gorb)
Russian forces carried out a targeted attack on a solar power plant in Ukraine's rear for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, the head of Ukraine's state grid operator Ukrenergo, said at a press conference on April 4.
"Yesterday (on April 3), the enemy targeted a solar power plant. This is the first case, at least in my memory, of a targeted attack on a renewable energy facility," Kudrytskyi said, without disclosing the location of the solar power plant.
Kudrytskyi said that there is no acute shortage in the power system, as total electricity consumption is falling due to the warm weather. There is a seasonal increase in production at solar power plants, according to Kudrytskyi.
Russia's March 22 strike destroyed the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, which is among the largest in Kharkiv Oblast, according to the state-owned energy company Centrenergo.
Recent attacks also damaged all power units of the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and the Ladyzhyn Thermal Power Plant in Vinnytsia Oblast.
The Hydroelectric Power Station-2 (HPS-2), one of the two stations of the latter, is in critical condition following the attack. The dam itself suffered damage as well, but officials said that there was no risk of a breach.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Martin Fornusek
