Ukraine appoints new prosecutor general
Kravchenko, 35, is now head of the state tax administration, and before that chaired the Kyiv region military administration.
He was involved in the recording and prosecuting of alleged Russian atrocities in the town of Bucha, which was occupied for 33 days in the early stages of Moscow's full-scale invasion. Russia denies accusations of numerous executions, rapes and torture during the occupation.
Kravсhenko was also a prosecutor in Ukraine's ousted President Viktor Yanukovych's treason case.
The prosecutor general's post has remained vacant since October, after Andriy Kostin resigned following a scandal around officials receiving fake disability status and avoiding military service.
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The Independent
4 minutes ago
- The Independent
This was worse than the last time Trump met Zelensky. It was also deeply weird
After Friday's red carpet love-in with Russian president Vladimir Putin, President Trump sat down with Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky today at the Oval Office to talk peace and the world hoped it would go better than the last White House meeting between the U.S. and Ukraine. Before meeting with Zelensky, or any other world leaders in town for the event, Trump was already telling reporters that peace could come 'almost immediately' if Zelensky ditched NATO and gifted Putin Crimea - the diplomatic equivalent of telling someone to end a mugging by handing over their wallet and the deed to their house. Zelensky, of course, is a man in the awkward position of being the democratically elected leader of the country Trump's friend is currently trying to dismantle. And the body language of today's meeting told its own story: gone were the grinning asides and admiring jokes, replaced with the brittle civility of a man forced to pose with the victim while still swooning over the perpetrator. Zelensky, perched on the edge of his seat while Trump leaned back, opened by thanking Trump for arranging the meeting. Inevitably, he wore a suit rather than his signature military fatigues. Anyone who witnessed the horror of their last Oval Office encounter will recall how he was repeatedly chided by the president, J.D. Vance and far-right reporter Brian Glenn for not 'suiting up.' Zelensky was also criticized for not being 'grateful' enough — which explains why today he began by thanking Trump for arranging the meeting. Luckily for Zelensky and unluckily for the rest of us, it became clear that Trump wasn't going to do a repeat performance of February's attack — because he had other things on his mind anyway. Questions from the gathered media were direct: 'Is today's meeting 'deal or no deal?'' asked one. Trump equivocated. 'I can never say that.' What could he say, then? Well, it soon became unfortunately apparent. 'This isn't my war, this is Joe Biden's war. He's the one who —' There was a pause, where it seemed like the president was genuinely about to suggest that Biden started the war in Ukraine himself, before he ended up at '—had a lot to do with that happening.' No mention of Putin, of course. I mean, why would there be? And then it went on. And on, and on, and on. Asked directly about what was happening in Ukraine, Trump would wheel out an irritated, detail-free 'We're going to have lasting peace,' before going right back to his own agenda. 'I used to get great publicity. Now I get the worst publicity that anyone's ever had in office,' he said, after an unconnected question. Moments later, apropos nothing: 'Joe Biden's a very corrupt politician — not a smart man, by the way. Go back 40 years and he wasn't smart then, either.' This tirade continued for a while, took a left turn into how the 2020 election was supposedly stolen from him, and ended with a Biden jab: 'He was a horrible, corrupt president!' Zelensky had only minutes to talk about a one-and-a-half-year-old child who had just been killed in Kharkiv by Russian missiles. And Trump went right back to carrying on. Trump wants to end 'corrupt' mail-in ballots and 'the machines' (never mind the defamation lawsuits already lost by right-wing media spreading conspiracy theories about voting machines giving inaccurate results.) Mail-in voting is 'a fraud' and 'the Democrats want it because it's the only way they get elected.' By the way, they also want 'transgender for everybody.' And 'they love crime'. Zelensky was, at this point, shifting a little uncomfortably in his chair. Utterly nonplussed, Trump continued. His freewheeling narrative alighted, for a second, on immigration: 'In 90 days, not one person came in illegally to our country. Even I find that hard to believe!' And some more stuff about how the Democrats had let the southern border get out of control. A final question, attempting to get the president back onto a topic even remotely related to the Ukrainian leader seated opposite him, ended up with: 'I love the Ukrainian people but I love all people. I love Russian people. I love them all.' The stand-out moment was probably when Zelensky responded to a reporter's question about why elections are difficult to arrange during active wartime, in terms of logistics. Having taken a while to explain how much extra security is needed, he then added that democratic elections in Ukraine would soon be arranged. And with a laugh, Trump said, ''So you're saying if we happen to be in a war with somebody, no more elections?' For any other politician, this might mark somewhat of a career low point. But of course today, under the Trump administration, it was just Monday. And so, somehow, Biden — who isn't even in the room, who hasn't been for months — became the central villain of the narrative, eclipsing both Putin and the ongoing missile strikes killing civilians. It's a remarkable inversion: the man praising the aggressor, lecturing the victim and saving his deepest rage for his domestic rival. If you want to know what obsessions animate Trump's foreign policy, don't look to maps of Ukraine; look to the 2020 election. I'll admit to believing that it couldn't get worse than the school bully-style treatment of Zelensky last time he visited Washington, but this was worse. To listen to this press conference, you'd think Biden really was the one rolling tanks into Donetsk. A grievance recital that used the background of war for the foreground of Trump's hurt feelings is so much less than what the world deserves. We all saw the red carpet on Friday, the festival-style 'ALASKA 2026' and the photo-ops. We all saw the apathy today. Civilians die in Kharkiv, Europe flies in en masse to prop up Ukraine and Trump still finds a way to make the story about his ratings, his stolen thunder, his petty personal rants. If Friday was Broadway-style theater, today was a tragicomedy. And somehow, in the midst of war and mourning, the only thing that got center stage was Trump's ego.
Daily Mail
33 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
QUENTIN LETTS: The encounter was electric with jeopardy... It was worse than watching a chess match when the pieces are live grenades
Zelensky survived. The Ukrainian president's Oval Office rematch passed without diplomatic incident. The trap door under his seat was not activated. He was not served poisoned tea. This time there was no muscling in on him by vice-president Vance. An elaborately grateful Mr Zelensky - he must have said 'thank you' more than 20 times - was even complimented on his black jacket by the Trumpian suck-up in the press corps who previously attacked him. 'You look fabulous,' drawled the reporter. Mr Zelensky joked that the newsman himself was wearing the same dodgy suit as last time. That elicited a laugh from Donald Trump. Same setting: the two principals sat by a chimney-piece that has been given serious bling treatment since Joe Biden 's day. A study in gilt. Below them, on two sofas, sat three sidekicks from each side. A knot of reporters stood, shouting questions. Mr Trump loves it when they do that. The air fills with urgent squawks, all aimed at him. He lets it continue, face froggy with satisfaction, until he chooses one of the hacks. Pure, egomaniacal theatre. Both men were fidgety. Zelensky, with frowns and much dropping of chin to chest, could have been a man fighting indigestion. Trump, hunched, swung his bullish head from side to side, weighing options, controlling his demons, or maybe just bored. The encounter was electric with jeopardy. One wrong remark, one ill-judged jest, and the touchy old bruin could be triggered. His vanity is a Ming vase, to be handled only by qualified Sotheby's porters with green-baize gloves. One incautious trip and - smash - World War Three could erupt. It was worse than watching a chess match when the pieces are live grenades. Meanwhile, all in a nearby room sat the European leaders including Sir Keir Starmer. 'Seven great leaders of seven great countries,' said Mr Trump with a straight face. Volodymyr's posse. Anxiety levels must have been hellish. As they sat there, wringing their hands, waiting in frightful uncertainty, was their ally Zelensky being pushed to the floor and given another kicking by bully-boy Vance and his pals? The presence of the Europeans took an already unusual day to another level of extraordinary. Here was Nato and western Europe dancing attendance on a mercurial 79-year-old narcissist. The very future of the West was swinging. No more could the United States be counted a steady bet. Had Uncle Sam really joined the axis of evil? Why was Mr Trump so suddenly sounding like a mouthpiece of Moscow? In the Oval Office Mr Trump appeared not to be too fussed about the gravity of it all. He started talking about how he had made the streets of Washington DC safe enough to allow rich couples to go out to dinner. All while a murderer in the Kremlin makes an entire continent shrivel. He even went into a long rant about postal voting and the threat to democracy. Irony-meters danced crazily. Once Mr Zelensky had survived the initial ordeal in the lion's den, the European leaders were allowed to join the action. Everyone took part in a televised meeting at a large, highly polished table. Mr Trump chaired this meeting, calling contributions from the Europeans. They took it in turns to praise him for his diplomatic brilliance, for his far-sighted political genius, his munificence, his humanity. It was perjury on the grand scale. Only one person was swallowing all this guff, surely. But it was the man that mattered. Nato's Mark Rutte, such an eager bundle of limbs, was officer in charge of treacle. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, had dragged himself away from his surf board. The president of Finland, Alexander Stubb, was prominent. He plays golf with Mr Trump, you see. 'It's Team Europe and Team United States helping Ukraine,' said golf buddy Stubb. Fore! Balls aloft! By the way, don't tell the White House dress-code monitors but a male flunkey accompanying the EU's Ursula von der Leyen was wearing blue trainers.
Reuters
35 minutes ago
- Reuters
Trump says he expects Putin to release Ukrainian prisoners
WASHINGTON, Aug 18 (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Monday said he expected Russian President Vladimir Putin to release over 1,000 Ukrainian prisoners soon after a trilateral meeting was set up with Ukrainian leader Voldymyr Zelenskiy. "I think you'll see that President Putin really would like to do something also," Trump said at the start of a meeting with Zelenskiy and seven European leaders, forecasting some "really positive moves" after a trilateral meeting was agreed. "I know there's over 1,000 prisoners, and I know they're going to release them. Maybe they're going to release them very soon, like immediately, which I think is great," Trump said.
