Ukraine remains the most mined country in the world. Nearly one-third of Ukraine's territory, approximately 174,000 square kilometers, had been mined since Russia began its full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
The phone call comes as Moscow once again rejected a 30-day ceasefire, with Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova claiming that a ceasefire would give "Kyiv a break to restore its military potential and continue its confrontation with Russia."
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.
Mustafa Nayyem, the former head of Ukraine's agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development in a photo on June 28, 2020. (Mustafa Nayyem/Facebook)
Editor's note: This article was updated to include Ukrainska Pravda's reporting on a response from a source in government regarding the rejection of Mustafa Nayyem's request to attend the Ukraine Recovery Conference.
Mustafa Nayyem, the head of Ukraine's Agency for Restoration and Infrastructure Development, has resigned, Nayyem wrote on Facebook on June 10. The NV media outlet, citing sources, said that two other heads of the agency are also reportedly resigning along with Nayyem.
The news follows reporting by Bloomberg the previous day, which wrote that Nayyem had said he was prevented from attending the upcoming Ukraine Recovery Conference scheduled for June 11-12 in Berlin.
Nayyem told Bloomberg in an email that Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal "personally rejected my request for this business trip to Berlin without giving reasons."
Beyond reporting on the resignation of the three officials, NV also shared what appeared to be a document from Shmyhal rejecting Nayyem's travel request.
Ukrainska Pravda then reported, citing unnamed sources in government, that Nayyem's request to join the conference was rejected because the government had scheduled an important meeting regarding the agency's restoration work on June 12, which conflicted with the conference.
"The agency's report was supposed to be heard (at the meeting)," the source said.
"That is why (Shmyhal) did not agree to (Nayyem's) trip."
In a lengthy post on Facebook, Nayyem named a series of complaints about the "systemic obstacles" that have limited his ability to do his job, ultimately leading to his decision to resign.
Among his many grievances, Nayyem said that the budget for road reconstruction had been "completely canceled," the agency had been forced to deal with endless bureaucracy and red tape, and the salaries for agency officials were slashed, resulting in a 25% staff reduction.
Despite the setbacks, Nayyem said he was proud of what the agency had been able to accomplish, but said that the combined impact of Kubrakov's dismissal and his inability to attend the recovery conference made the continuation of his work "impossible."
A native of Afghanistan who moved to Ukraine as a child, Nayyem previously served as a member of Ukraine's parliament from 2014 to 2019. He was appointed as the head of the Restoration and Infrastructure Development in January 2023.
Nayyem has also been credited for being one of the first activists to call for people to demonstrate in Kyiv in November 2013 at the beginning of the protest movement that culminated in the EuroMaidan Revolution.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Sonya Bandouil
