The sanctioned oil tankers have transported over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to Downing Street. The U.K. has now sanctioned more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.
Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
"This is a historic decision, as weapons for Ukraine will be purchased at the expense of the proceeds from frozen Russian assets through the European Peace Fund," Denys Shmyhal said.
Azerbaijani servicepeople stand guard at a checkpoint at the Lachin corridor, Nagorno-Karabakh's only land link with Armenia, on Dec. 26, 2022. (Tofik Babyev/AFP via Getty Images)
The president of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, Samvel Shakhramanyan, signed a decree on Sept. 28 dissolving all official institutions of the breakaway state from Jan. 1, 2024, Karabakh authorities announced.
The government of the self-declared republic will "cease to exist" as an entity from that day, the decree said.
The news came as the latest development in a sudden shift of the situation in the ethnically-Armenian breakaway Nagorno-Karabakh Republic (NKR), recognized internationally as part of Azerbaijan.
On Sept. 20, Nagorno-Karabakh authorities capitulated to Azerbaijani forces after a lightning offensive on Sept. 19 left them with “no choice but to cease hostilities."
Since then, events have moved rapidly, as the Nagorno-Karabakh defense forces agreed to disband and disarm, protests broke out in Yerevan over Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan’s refusal to help the breakaway region, and more than 65,00 ethnic Armenians left Nagorno-Karabakh for Armenia.
Azerbaijan fought against ethnic Armenians in Nagorno-Karabakh and forces from the Republic of Armenia from 1988-1994, which ended in an Armenian victory.
In 2020, Armenia and Azerbaijan fought a war in which the latter's forces successfully reclaimed a large portion of the territory before a ceasefire was mediated by Moscow, which sent a "peacekeeping" force of several thousand Russian troops to the region.
In the following years, tensions did not subside, with Azerbaijan blockading the Lachin corridor, the only road connecting Armenia and Nagorno-Karabakh, leading to a humanitarian crisis widely condemned by UN member states and international organizations.
The situation culminated in Azerbaijan’s 24-hour successful offensive on Sept. 19, 2023. Despite the announcement regarding the dissolution of the self-declared Nagorno-Karabakh Republic, a number of diplomatic issues remain.
The international community has become involved, and representatives from the U.S., Germany, Turkey, and other countries have participated in talks about the situation on the ground and concerns of a humanitarian crisis.
Francis Farrell
