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.
Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.
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.
Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel speaks about the future of the EU-led special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and its role in bringing Russia to justice.
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.
Photo for illustrative purposes. The U.S. Capitol dome is seen through American and Ukrainian flags on the East Plaza of the U.S. Capitol on April 23, 2024. (Bill Clark/CQ-Roll Call, Inc via Getty Images)
U.S. diplomats are urgently seeking an exemption for Ukraine-related programs from a 90-day foreign aid freeze imposed by Secretary of State Marco Rubio, according to documents reviewed by the Financial Times (FT) and sources familiar with the situation.
The sweeping directive, which took immediate effect, also includes "stop work" orders on existing projects.
Senior diplomats in the State Department’s Bureau of European and Eurasian Affairs requested a full waiver to exclude U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID) operations in Ukraine, citing national security concerns.
"We do not know at this time whether this request will be approved — in whole or in part — but there are positive signals thus far out of Washington," an email sent to USAID staff in Ukraine on Jan. 25 read, according to the FT.
USAID in Ukraine temporarily delayed issuing "stop work" orders to its partners, aiming to provide clarity while assessing how programs align with Rubio’s directive to make the U.S. "safer, stronger, and more prosperous." Despite this, by the evening of Jan. 25 in Kyiv, some organizations began receiving official "stop work" orders, halting operations until further notice from contracting officers.
The freeze has left hundreds of foreign aid contracts, valued at over $70 billion in the 2022 fiscal year, in limbo as a review process unfolds over the next 85 days, according to the FT. Ukrainian officials and NGOs warned that the pause could jeopardize critical initiatives, including support for schools, hospitals, and infrastructure development.
Military assistance to Ukraine, which amounts to $65.9 billion since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, remains unaffected by the freeze, a Ukrainian government official confirmed to the outlet. "Military aid to Ukraine is intact," the official said. "At least as of now, and it is certainly not part of this 90-day freeze."
President Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed this during a press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu on Jan. 25. Zelensky said that the U.S. had not stopped military aid to Kyiv.
"I am focused on military aid; it has not been stopped, thank God," he said, while declining to discuss whether the freeze affected humanitarian aid projects.
Rubio’s order, however, excludes specific exemptions for Ukraine within non-military programs, unlike the approved waivers for Israel, Egypt, and emergency food aid.
Andrea Januta
