Latest news with #President'sOffice
Yahoo
9 hours ago
- General
- Yahoo
Zelenskyy appoints new Kherson city administration chief
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy appointed Yaroslav Shanko as head of Kherson City Military Administration on 3 June 2025. Source: Zelenskyy in a decree posted on the website of the Ukrainian President's Office; Shanko on Telegram Quote: "Yaroslav Shanko shall be appointed as head of the Kherson City Military Administration of the Kherson district, Kherson Oblast." Details: Shanko previously served as deputy head of Kherson Oblast Military Administration. Quote from Shanko: "I understand the challenging tasks ahead. I guarantee decency, integrity, and openness – no grand promises, only actions. I will soon outline my first steps in office. The priority is protecting people and supporting our brave military." Background: In April 2025, Zelenskyy dismissed Roman Mrochko as head of Kherson City Military Administration. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Spain rejects Ukraine's bid for joint probe into pro-Russian politician Portnov's murder
Spanish law enforcement has declined Ukraine's proposal to form a joint task force to investigate the murder of Andrii Portnov, a lawyer and influential figure linked to Viktor Yanukovych, the pro-Russian former president of Ukraine who fled the country after the Revolution of Dignity in 2014. Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Without trial or investigation. What was Andrii Portnov doing on the eve of his murder? Quote: "Following Portnov's murder, Ukraine proposed forming a joint investigative group with Spanish law enforcement, but the offer was rejected. Spanish investigators have not ruled out the involvement of Ukrainian security services." Details: Sources cited by Ukrainska Pravda suggest two possible motives for Ukraine's interest in a joint investigation. One is to access investigative materials, including Portnov's phones and gadgets, which may contain sensitive information. The other is a desire, particularly from Oleh Tatarov, a key figure overseeing Ukraine's law enforcement, to expedite the investigation and clarify the circumstances of the killing. The Spanish authorities have also refused to release Portnov's body to Ukraine, with expectations that this might occur early next week, according to the publication. For reference: Portnov was deputy head of the presidential administration under pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010-2014. He denied crimes committed by security forces against participants of the Revolution of Dignity in the winter of 2013-2014 and fled Ukraine. He returned in 2019 on the eve of the inauguration of newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Portnov was also considered an influential shadow handler of Ukrainian courts. In 2018, criminal proceedings were opened against Portnov for treason. However, in 2019, Portnov stated on his Telegram that the Security Service of Ukraine had closed the criminal case against him, and published the relevant documents. In 2019, investigative journalists released recordings of conversations from the office of the notorious judge Pavlo Vovk. From the conversations on the tapes, journalists extrapolated that Portnov, together with Vovk and the then head of the President's Office, Andrii Bohdan, illegally influenced the dismissal of the head of the Constitutional Court, Stanislav Shevchuk. In April 2020, at the beginning of Iryna Venediktova's term as Prosecutor General, Portnov blackmailed her, saying that he had compromising information about her illegal activities. In the same year, Oleksandr Sokolov, then acting director of the State Bureau of Investigations, admitted that there were "influence groups" within law enforcement agencies that disclosed confidential information and important details of investigations to former officials, including Portnov. In December 2021, it became known that the US government had imposed sanctions against Andrii Portnov and his charitable foundation. Portnov was 51 years old. Background: Portnov was shot dead on 21 May 2025 outside the American School in Madrid's Pozuelo de Alarcón suburb, shortly after dropping off his children. Spanish police suspect the attack was meticulously planned, possibly by a professional assassin using a silenced pistol, with at least one accomplice and a prearranged escape route. No arrests have been made and motives under consideration include organised crime and political retribution. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
6 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Pro-Russian public figure Portnov met with some Ukrainian top officials on eve of his murder
Andrii Portnov, a shadow handler of the Ukrainian court system and a lawyer close to the fugitive former president Yanukovych, visited Ukraine a few days before his murder in Madrid. There he met with Oleh Tatarov, Deputy Head of the President's Office of Ukraine, and Oleksii Sukhachov, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation. Source: Ukrainska Pravda article Without trial or investigation. What was Andrii Portnov doing on the eve of his murder? Details: Four independent sources confirmed to Ukrainska Pravda that Portnov was in Ukraine on 17-18 May. It was also noted that Portnov had had meetings with top officials during those days. Quote from the article: "During this visit, Portnov met with top officials responsible for law enforcement, including Oleh Tatarov, Deputy Head of the President's Office, and Oleksii Sukhachov, Director of the State Bureau of Investigation." Details: Meanwhile, all of the sources stated that they did not know what topics were discussed at these meetings. For reference: Portnov was deputy head of the presidential administration under pro-Russian President Viktor Yanukovych in 2010-2014. He denied crimes committed by security forces against participants in the Revolution of Dignity in the winter of 2013-2014 and fled Ukraine. He returned in 2019 on the eve of the inauguration of newly elected President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Portnov was also considered an influential shadow handler of Ukrainian courts. In 2018, criminal proceedings were opened against Portnov for treason. However, in 2019, Portnov stated on his Telegram that the Security Service of Ukraine had closed the criminal case against him, and published the relevant documents. In 2019, investigative journalists released recordings of conversations from the office of the notorious judge Pavlo Vovk. From the conversations on the tapes, journalists extrapolated that Portnov, together with Vovk and the then head of the President's Office, Andrii Bohdan, illegally influenced the dismissal of the head of the Constitutional Court, Stanislav Shevchuk. In April 2020, at the beginning of Iryna Venediktova's term as Prosecutor General, Portnov blackmailed her, saying that he had compromising information about her illegal activities. In the same year, Oleksandr Sokolov, then acting director of the State Bureau of Investigations, admitted that there were "influence groups" within law enforcement agencies that disclosed confidential information and important details of investigations to former officials, including Portnov. In December 2021, it became known that the US government had imposed sanctions against Andrii Portnov and his charitable foundation. Portnov was 51 years old. Background: Portnov was shot dead on the morning of 21 May near an American school in Madrid, Spain. Support Ukrainska Pravda on Patreon!
Yahoo
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia 'categorically' rejected unconditional ceasefire in peace talks, Ukrainian official says
Russia's negotiating team in Istanbul has repeatedly stated that "an unconditional ceasefire is categorically unacceptable," Ukrainian Deputy Foreign Minister Serhii Kyslytsia said in an interview aired on March 24 on Ukraine's national telethon. Kyslytsia was present in Istanbul last week, as Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met on May 16 to begin the first direct peace talks between the two countries in three years. The Ukrainian team emphasized during the talks that both the Ukrainians and Americans continue to propose an unconditional ceasefire as the next step in a peace negotiating process, Kyslytsia said. "I do not think that (the Russian negotiating team's) directives had a position that allowed for the possibility of reaching an agreement with the Ukrainian side on a ceasefire," Kyslytsia said. The peace talks in Istanbul concluded after less than two hours with no agreement beween the two sides on a ceasefire. After the talks concluded, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov confirmed that Moscow has no interest in agreeing to a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying on May 21 that "we don't want this anymore." A source in the Ukrainian President's Office briefed on the talks confirmed to the Kyiv Independent that Moscow's delegation insisted that Ukraine retreat from Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, despite Russia not fully controlling any of them. The only concrete agreement from the discussions was the arrangement of a major prisoner swap, which was completed on May 15. Read also: Ukraine brings home 307 POWs in 2nd phase of major prisoner swap with Russia We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
23-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
BREAKING: Ukraine, Russia begin biggest POW swap since start of Russian invasion in 2014
Ukraine and Russia on May 23 began the largest exchange of prisoners of war (POWs) since the start of Russian aggression in 2014, a Kyiv Independent journalist reported from the site of the swap. Russia's Defense Ministry said that 270 soldiers and 120 civilians had returned to Russia as part of the first stage of the swap. The exchange will see 1,000 POWs from both sides return home, in a deal agreed upon during direct talks in Istanbul on May 16, the first such talks between Moscow and Kyiv since 2022. The Ukrainian and Russian governments confirmed they had received the lists of POWs to be exchanged on May 22. President Volodymyr Zelensky announced on the same day that he held a meeting to prepare the exchange and called the agreement on the POW swap the only "real" result of the meeting between the two delegations in Istanbul. "The agreement on the release of 1000 of our people from Russian captivity was almost the only real result of the meeting in Turkey. We are working to ensure this result. We are finding out the details of each person listed on the Russian side," Zelensky said. According to the President's Office chief Andriy Yermak, diplomatic representatives of the Nordic and Baltic countries also participated in preparing for the swap. He added that after the 1000-for-1000 exchange is completed, future direct talks with Russian officials could be arranged. At least 8,000 Ukrainian service members are held captive by Russia, Iryna Vereshchuk, Presidential Office deputy head, said on May 1, citing data from Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of POWs. Kyiv does not release the figures for how many Russian POWs are currently in Ukrainian custody. While ceasefire agreements and peace talks have remained elusive since the start of the full-scale invasion, regular prisoner swaps have remained one of the few areas of ongoing cooperation between the two countries. Ukraine has long advocated for an "all-for-all" exchange, but Russia has so far resisted the proposal. The latest exchange included only soldiers, but Zelensky has previously said that Ukraine is working to return journalists and political prisoners from Russian captivity as well. On May 20, the head of the Ukrainian National Union of Journalists, Serhii Tomilenko, handed over a list of Ukrainian media workers held in Russian captivity to the Vatican's ambassador to Ukraine, Visvaldas Kulbokas. According to the union, at least 31 Ukrainian journalists are being illegally detained by Russia. Russia has a common practice of sentencing captured Ukrainian journalists to long prison terms on fabricated charges and holding them captive in harsh conditions under physical and psychological pressure, which in most cases amounts to torture, Yurii Vitrenko, a permanent representative of Ukraine to international organizations in Vienna, said on April 10 during a regular meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council. Russian forces have also killed 103 media workers during the full-scale invasion, according to the Ukraine's Culture Ministry. Among those killed was Ukrainian journalist Viktoria Roshchyna, whose body Ukraine brought back in April. Roshchyna's body showed signs of torture and was missing some internal organs, which may be deliberately removed to obscure signs of suffocation or strangulation, according to an investigation by the Forbidden Stories journalism network. Russia also illegally detains at least 16,000 Ukrainian civilians, of whom only 174 have been returned, according to Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro stressed that a country that occupies the territory of another has no right to detain civilians, according to the Geneva Conventions. "Unfortunately, international humanitarian law does not answer the question of how to respond if Russia continues this illegal practice," he added. Another area of Ukraine's efforts to bring back its citizens is related to the return of Ukrainian children. Over 19,500 children have been forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or the occupied territories, according to government data. So far, only about 1,300 of them have been safely brought to Ukrainian government-controlled territory. Ukrainian children forcibly taken to Russia or Russian-occupied territories are placed in families or Russian camps, where they are known to be subjected to intense anti-Ukrainian propaganda, and at times, military training. The International Criminal Court (ICC) has also taken up the matter. In March 2023, it issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over their involvement in abductions. On May 8, the European Parliament overwhelmingly passed a resolution condemning Russia's forcible deportation and Russification of Ukrainian children, calling it a "genocidal strategy" aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity and demanding the unconditional return of all abducted minors. Read also: Editorial: Russia just said it doesn't want peace. This is what you need to do We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
