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.
U.S. Speaker of the House Mike Johnson in Washington, U.S. on Dec. 12, 2023. (Drew Angerer/Getty Images)
U.S. House Speaker Mike Johnson said on Dec. 4 that he will not put to a vote a request for an additional $24 billion in aid to Ukraine following reports that President Joe Biden was quietly asking Congress to green light further assistance to Kyiv before he leaves office.
Roughly $16 billion of the sum could be used to restock U.S. arsenals, while the remaining $8 billion would go to the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative (USAI), Politico reported.
When asked if he would add aid for Ukraine to a continuing resolution to fund the government, Johnson rejected such a move.
"I’m not planning to do that," he said during a press briefing.
According to Johnson, Donald Trump's victory in the U.S. presidential election will "change the dynamics" of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
"It is not the place of Joe Biden to make that decision now, we have a newly elected president, and we are going to wait and take the new commander in chief’s direction on all that, so I don’t expect any Ukraine funding to come up now," he added.
Johnson, a Republican and staunch Trump supporter, contributed to a delay in aid to Kyiv last fall by refusing to hold a vote on various iterations of a $61 billion foreign assistance bill, but eventually reached a deal to pass the bill.
The Biden administration is trying to ship in as much aid to Ukraine as possible before Trump, who has criticized military support for Kyiv, takes office in January.
Trump has consistently said he would seek to get the U.S. "out" of the war and bring Kyiv and Moscow to the negotiating table. While the details of his plan remain unclear, some reports indicate it might entail Ukraine ceding territory and at least temporarily foregoing its NATO aspirations.
Olena Goncharova
