"Only member states can take out loans within the 150 billion euros instrument, but they can use these funds for joint procurement with Ukraine," EU Defense Commissioner Andrius Kubilius said.
"We agreed to pursue ambitious measures to reduce Russia's ability to wage war by limiting Kremlin revenues, disrupting the shadow fleet, tightening the Oil Price Cap, and reducing our remaining imports of Russian energy."
Zelensky on May 12 removed Lieutenant General Ivan Havryliuk from the Headquarters of the Supreme Commander-in-Chief, the top command and control body for all branches of Ukraine's defense apparatus.
Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
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.
Two women hug as they start to clean up after a missile attack in the center of Chernihiv, Ukraine, that killed seven and injured 129 people on Aug. 19, 2023. (Photo by Paula Bronstein /Getty Images)
As of 7 p.m. local time, the number of wounded in the Russian missile attack on Chernihiv on Aug. 19 has risen to 129 people, including 15 children and 15 police officers, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko reported.
The search and rescue operation is reportedly complete, Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
Russian forces targeted the city center of Chernihiv in northern Ukraine on the morning of Aug. 19, killing at least seven people, including a six-year-old child.
"A 12-year-old girl is urgently taken to Kyiv by ambulance. The child is in serious condition," Klymenko wrote on Telegram.
According to Chernihiv Oblast Governor Viacheslav Chaus, 140 people sought medical help, and 41 were hospitalized, he wrote on Telegram.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said the missile strike impacted Chernihiv's central square, polytechnic institute, and theater.
"Here's what it means to be neighbors with a terrorist state, here's what we are uniting the entire world against," President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram.
"A regular Saturday turned into a day of pain and loss caused by Russia."
U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brinks expressed solidarity with the victims, saying she was "horrified by news of today’s daytime attack on the historic center of Chernihiv."
"Innocent men, women, and children enjoying a beautiful Saturday - a holiday in Ukraine - should never end up killed or wounded," Brinks wrote on Twitter.
"Russia’s missile and drone strikes on Ukraine’s cities, ports, and people reflect the depths to which Russia has sunk and must stop."
According to Chaus, Russian troops likely used a ballistic missile to attack the city.
Following the attack, there have been unconfirmed reports in Ukrainian media that the missile targeted the site where Ukrainian drone producers were holding an exhibition.
The Kyiv Independent confirmed that an exhibition of drone producers was planned for Aug. 19 in Chernihiv, but the location was kept secret. The registered visitors were going to receive the address hours before the event.
Russian government-controlled RIA Novosti news site reported, citing unnamed sources, that the attack on Chernihiv “hit the gathering place of Ukraine’s Armed Forces military specialists on combat drones, which was disguised as a drone festival.”
The media posted what it claims was an invitation to the event that asked visitors not to bring weapons and wear civilian clothes “to avoid identifying the event as being related to the military sphere.”
Klymenko earlier said most of the attack's victims were people in cars, those crossing the road nearby, and people returning from church service.
The attack occurred on one of the biggest Eastern Orthodox holidays – the Feast of Transfiguration, known in Ukraine as the Apple Feast of the Savior or Apple Spas.
One of the photos from the scene shows a body with a traditional church basket next to it.
Klymenko said that “everyone who was in the drama theater went down to the shelter in time,” as police officers “tried to take everyone to the shelter” after the air raid alert went off.
“There is also a large park behind the drama theater. Mothers were walking there with their children since morning,” he said.
Alexander Query is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the former business editor at the Kyiv Post. He worked as a TV correspondent and an anchorman at UATV in Ukraine, and received a BA in modern literature from La Sorbonne, in Paris.
Daria Shulzhenko
