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.
Ukrainian soldiers are seen in a tank as Russia and Ukraine war continues in the direction of Avdiivka in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on Dec. 1, 2023. (Ozge Elif Kizil/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ukraine's strategic goal of reclaiming all of its territory has not changed, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Dec. 19, adding that tactics may be adjusted based on this year's results.
"The strategy cannot be changed, according to our constitution. These are all our territories," Zelensky said in response to a journalist's question whether the lack of breakthrough at the front changes Kyiv's strategic aims.
The long-anticipated counteroffensive in the south and east of the country brought only limited results and failed to achieve its main goals, as Ukrainian troops encountered heavy Russian defenses.
"As for tactics, those may be changed based on the results of our operations in southern Ukraine in 2023, which will be taken into account."
The president refused to reveal further details about Ukraine's military plans for the next year.
Zelensky also added that Russia failed to achieve its own goals during the past year.
"The Kremlin's message remains the same, the 'special military operation' (Russia's term of its war against Ukraine) has the same goals, and they are clear: the occupation of our state," the president added.
Zelensky and other top Ukrainian officials previously acknowledged that the counteroffensive did not live up to expectations.
Ukraine's commander-in-chief, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, pointed out that despite NATO training for Ukrainian soldiers, the campaign was complicated by the lack of air superiority, a key element in NATO's doctrine.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Francis Farrell
