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.
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.
Workers demolish a bombarded block of flats amid reconstruction efforts in Irpin, Kyiv Oblast, on May 13, 2023. Irpin was targeted by indiscriminate Russian bombardments at the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. (Dominika Zarzycka/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
The roughly $300 billion in Russian assets that have been frozen by Ukraine's allies in the West will not be returned until Moscow pays for Ukraine's reconstruction, Assistant Secretary of State for European and Eurasian Affairs James O'Brien said at a U.S. Senate hearing on Nov. 8.
O'Brien said the frozen assets gave the U.S. and its allies "leverage" in discussions about how to get Russia to pay.
When asked what the U.S. would do if Russia refused to pay and blocked attempts to be forced to do so via its UN Security Council veto, O'Brien agreed with the suggestion that the "U.S. should consider all options" to force Russia to pay.
Russian officials issued strongly worded responses to O'Brien's statement, with some saying that it was an admission the assets would be seized.
Vyacheslav Volodin, speaker of the Russian parliament's lower house, characterized it as a declaration to "steal" the assets but then also claimed it would not affect the Russian economy.
Kremlin Press Secretary Dmitry Peskov said that Russia would challenge any attempt to seize the money and that it would entail "very serious judicial and legal costs for those who make such decisions." Peskov also threatened that Russia would respond with retaliatory measures, which would be "unlikely to be minor ones."
Earlier on Oct. 27 European leaders had expressed support for a proposal to use billions of euros in windfall taxes from Russian assets tied up in the West to rebuild Ukraine.
Russian officials also reacted unfavorably to the notion, referring to any confiscation of assets as "theft" and threatening to do the same to European assets.
During Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine’s allies have frozen over $300 billion from Russia's central bank reserves, including 211 billion euros in the EU.
There have been suggestions since shortly after the beginning of the full-scale invasion that seized Russian assets should be used to pay for Ukraine's reconstruction, but concrete measures have not been taken yet.
Estimates on the cost of Ukraine's reconstruction have varied. A report by the World Bank in March 2023 put the figure at $411 billion, but others have put the number at higher than $1 trillion.
Alexander Query
