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.
"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
Zelensky arrives in France for D-Day commemorations on June 6, 2024. (Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram)
President Volodymyr Zelensky has arrived in France ahead of the commemorations of the 80th anniversary of D-Day in Normandy on June 6.
The event marks the day on June 6, 1944, when 7,000 boats carrying nearly 160,000 troops from eight Allied countries landed on five Normandy beaches. The landing was the starting point for the liberation of France, and eventually the rest of Western Europe, from Nazi Germany.
Zelensky will join French President Emmanuel Macron, U.S. President Joe Biden, U.K. Prime Minister Rishi Sunak, and Canadian Prime Minister Justin Trudeau, among other leaders and surviving veterans in attendance.
Zelensky said he was "very honored to take part" in the event, which serves as a "reminder of the courage and determination shown for the sake of freedom and democracy."
Macron is expected to preside over an international ceremony at 3 p.m. local time. World leaders will then gather in the nearby city of Caen for talks later in the day.
"As we reflect on the sacrifices made on D-Day, we are reminded that freedom is not free and it has never been guaranteed," Biden said in a statement ahead of the commemoration on June 4.
According to Politico, France initially invited a representative from Russia to take part in the commemoration due to the Soviet Union's role in the war against Nazi Germany, but this invitation was revoked after the U.S., U.K., and "two other World War II allies expressed concerns."
Russian President Vladimir Putin attended the D-Day commorations in 2004 and again in 2014, months after Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea and invasion of Donbas.
During this year's commemoration, Macron is reportedly expected to make an announcement on support for Kyiv. News emerged at the end of May that Paris could soon send its military trainers to Ukraine.
Zelensky's attendance at the commemoration in France follows his visit to Qatar, a country that has acted as a mediator between Kyiv and Moscow to bring back Ukrainian children illegally held by Russia.
Zelensky's next international visit is expected to be to Italy for the Group of Seven (G7) summit on June 13, where he will likely call on Western partners to seize Russian assets to help fund Ukraine's defense and reconstruction.
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independence. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
Chris York
