"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.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The entrance to the Russian city of Belgorod, some 40 kilometers from the border with Ukraine, on May 28, 2023. (Olga Maltseva / AFP via Getty Images)
Residents in Russia's Belgorod Oblast are deliberately exposing their property to Ukrainian drone strikes to claim government compensation, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said during a May 12 regional government meeting.
"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," Gladkov said.
Russia's Belgorod Oblast, which borders Ukraine's Sumy, Kharkiv, and Luhansk oblasts, is regularly used as a staging area for Russian attacks on Ukrainian territory.
Russian officials have accused Ukraine of launching repeated strikes on Belgorod Oblast and the city of Belgorod since the war began.
According to the governor, some local residents have started mass requests for state-funded resettlement, citing alleged fears of ongoing attacks to secure new housing.
"Or else the war will end and we will still be living in old houses," Gladkov said, summarizing the alleged logic of those applying for relocation.
"It is not one, not two, and not three settlements where we see that groups are beginning to form, which are trying to be led by individual residents and try to get state aid, in fact having no grounds for it," he said.
By the end of 2024, Belgorod authorities had paid 15.1 billion rubles ($187 million) in compensation to residents who lost property due to attacks, supporting over 2,500 families, Gladkov claimed in January.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 7 that Ukrainian troops are present in Belgorod Oblast. Ukrainian officials have said the move aimed to force Russia to divert resources from eastern Ukraine
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Chris York,
