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.
A view of the crash site where an Azerbaijan Airlines plane with 67 people on board, traveling from Baku, Azerbaijan, to Grozny in Russia's Chechen Republic crashed near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, on Dec. 25, 2024. (Emergency Situations of Kazakhstan/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Azerbaijani Transport Minister Rashad Nabiyev said on Dec. 27 that an Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in Kazakhstan was due to 'external interference,' with authorities investigating "the type of weapon used in the interference."
"This is evidenced by the appearance of the aircraft debris on the ground and eyewitness accounts," Nabiyev said during a news conference, Azerbaijani media outlet Report reported.
The plane, en route from Baku on Dec. 25, carried 67 passengers, including 42 Azerbaijani citizens, 16 Russians, six Kazakhs, and three Kyrgyz citizens. Thirty-eight people have been confirmed dead.
Initial reports suggest it could have been downed by a Russian surface-to-air missile.
Footage of the plane shows traces of a large surface-to-air missile impact on the tail section of the plane, according to Russian independent media outlet Meduza. Similar-looking holes in the fuselage have reportedly been documented in numerous images and videos of military and civilian aircraft downed by surface-to-air missiles.
Two passengers who survived the crash also heard a loud bang as the plane approached its original destination of Grozny, Reuters reported on Dec. 27.
Kazakhstan’s Transport Minister Marat Karabayev said on Dec. 26 that the plane had deviated from its course ahead of landing in Grozny. Online flight tracking website Flightradar24 said on social media that the plane was "exposed to GPS jamming and spoofing near Grozny."
"The issue of turning off the GPS on board the plane also needs to be clarified," Nabiyev said.
The comments by Nabiyev appear to be the first public acknowledgements made by Azerbaijani officials that a weapon was involved in the crash. Russia's Federal Air Transport Agency (Rosaviatsiya) initially claimed that the plane collided with a flock of birds, prompting the pilot to attempt an emergency landing.
Nabiyev's conclusions align with those of Azerbaijan Airlines who said on Dec. 27 that "physical and technical external interference" led to the crash.
The airline added that it was suspending flights to eight different locations within Russia.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
