May 10, 2024
Ukraine war in the live ticker
+++ 03:14 Russia: Drone intercepted near Moscow +++
Moscow Mayor Sergei Sobyanin announced on the messaging app Telegram that Russian anti-aircraft units had intercepted a drone south of Moscow. There were no injuries or damage from falling debris, writes Sobyanin.
+++ 01:20 Zelenskyj promotes his country’s accession to the EU +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is once again calling for his country to join the EU. “Our state, our people deserve it, and the European Union also needs this step – not just politically,” says Zelenskyj in his daily video address. The EU also draws its strength from not letting anyone out the door who believes in European values. Kiev is counting on the actual accession negotiations to begin in June.
+++ 23:22 Artillery shells from the Czech Republic’s initiative are expected to arrive in Ukraine in June +++
The first batch of ammunition purchased by allied EU countries under the Czech Republic-led initiative is expected to arrive in Ukraine in June, Czech President Petr Pavel tells ARD. Pavel said in February that Prague had identified 500,000 155mm grenades and 300,000 122mm grenades outside Europe that could be purchased and sent to Ukraine once the necessary funds for the initiative were allocated. Several countries, including Belgium, the Netherlands, Germany, Sweden, Canada, Poland, France, Denmark and Slovenia, have now committed funds to the Czech initiative, which could lead to the delivery of 1.5 million bullets to Kyiv. The first 180,000 pieces of ammunition are to be delivered in June, and “there are already contracts for a further five to six-digit number of bullets,” Pavel now tells ARD.
+++ 22:01 Kyiv restricts street lighting +++
Kiev city authorities will restrict evening street lighting after Russian attacks on Ukraine’s energy system caused severe power shortages across the country, Serhii Popko, the head of Kyiv’s military administration, announced. On Wednesday night, Russia carried out a major attack on the oblasts of Poltava, Kirovohrad, Zaporizhzhia, Lviv, Ivano-Frankivsk, Kiev and Vinnytsia, which mainly affected the energy infrastructure. At least two hydroelectric power plants were forcibly shut down as a result of the attack.
+++ 21:32 EU ambassador to Ukraine: Kiev can join the EU in 2030 +++
The year 2030 is a very realistic date for Ukraine’s accession to the European Union, says Katarina Mathernova, the EU ambassador to Ukraine. Still, Mathernova stresses that predicting exactly when Ukraine would become a member of the EU is “the same as looking into a crystal ball to make predictions.” In November 2023, the European Commission recommended starting accession talks with Kyiv, but stated that four additional reforms needed to be carried out. The European Council then decided to start accession talks with Ukraine the following month.
+++ 20:59 Zelenskyj dismisses head of his bodyguard after foiled assassination attempt +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky fires the head of his bodyguard after a foiled assassination attempt. Zelensky publishes a decree on the “dismissal of Serhiy Leonidovich Rud from the post of head of the Department of State Security of Ukraine.” Two officers were previously arrested this week for an alleged planned assassination attempt. The Ukrainian domestic secret service SBU said on Tuesday that it had dismantled a “network of agents” controlled by the Russian secret service FSB who were “preparing the assassination of the Ukrainian president.”
+++ 20:32 Ukrainian oligarch in custody for alleged contract murder of lawyer +++
On May 9, a Kiev court issued an arrest warrant for oligarch Ihor Kolomoisky in a murder case. He will remain in custody until July 7 without the right to bail. Kolomoisky, one of Ukraine’s most notorious business tycoons, was arrested on September 2, 2023 on charges of fraud and money laundering related to his oil and gas holdings. On Wednesday, the Prosecutor General’s Office announced that he was also suspected of ordering the murder of the head of a law firm in Crimea more than 20 years ago. After that lawyer rejected Kolomoisky’s demands to annul a decision made at a shareholders’ meeting, the oligarch allegedly hired hitmen to assassinate him, the investigation found.
+++ 20:14 Zelenskyj shoots the commander – and brings him back after two months +++
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reappoints Dmytro Hereha as commander of Ukraine’s support forces after replacing him with Oleksandr Yakovets in March. After Zelensky’s reshuffle of leadership positions within the Ukrainian military, which included the dismissal of Ukraine’s top military commander Valeriy Zalushny, the Ukrainian leader decided to fire Hereha and replace him with Yakovets. Yakovets was later fired after just two months in office. The Ukrainian Armed Forces Support Forces are one of the main formations of the Ukrainian military responsible for operational support of the troops.
+++ 19:59 The manhunt for Kiev’s president disappears from the Russian Interior Ministry website +++
The wanted notices for Volodymyr Zelensky and Petro Poroshenko, the current and former president of Ukraine, have disappeared from the Russian Interior Ministry website, Russian media outlet Mediazona reports. The wanted posters disappeared shortly after they were accidentally discovered by the Russian news agency RIA Novosti on Saturday. Mediazona reports that the two Ukrainian presidents were put on the wanted list by a Russian Interior Ministry office in the occupied part of Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast. This probably happened at the end of February.
You can read all previous developments here.