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IMF staff reaches agreement with Ukraine on $690 million disbursement under aid program

The International Monetary Fund (IMF) and Ukraine have reached a staff-level agreement on the first review of Kyiv's four-year Extended Fund Facility (EFF) program, potentially unlocking approximately $690 million in additional funding, the IMF announced on June 12.

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Ukraine war latest: Sweeping new reforms to terms of service announced in effort to ease manpower crisis

Key developments on June 12:

  • Ukraine announces landmark military service reforms with record pay raise for infantry
  • Russian rubber plant, oil refineries struck by Ukrainian drones in latest overnight attack, military confirms
  • Ukrainian drone maker Skyfall partners with Airbus on defense innovation
  • Sumy hit by morning artillery bombardment as Russian

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EU confirms launch of formal accession talks with Ukraine and Moldova on June 15, Zelensky welcomes move

"We will open the cluster on fundamentals; the backbone of the accession process," European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on June 12. "It covers the core values and principles on which the EU is built, from the rule of law to strong democratic institutions."

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When Ukraine takes key step toward Europe, Russian star will be performing next door

As Ukraine and Moldova move closer to the European Union on June 15, Russian opera star Anna Netrebko will take the stage at the Philharmonie Luxembourg next door.

The contrast reflects a growing, worrying trend across Europe where some of the Russian cultural figures once boycotted after 2022 for their

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Why Ukraine's financial intelligence chief is facing an anti-corruption probe

Detectives from Ukraine’s anti-corruption bureau searched the country’s State Financial Monitoring Service as part of an investigation into the agency’s head, Filip Pronin, who is a suspect in a multimillion-dollar embezzlement scheme, an official close to the matter confirmed to the Kyiv Independent on

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The only winner of the Poland-Ukraine scandal is Putin

Vladimir Putin is losing the war he started. His army occupies every kilometer at a cost no economy can sustain, and the goals set in February 2022 have quietly vanished from his staff maps.

But this war has more than one front, and one of them runs through Poland. On

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What we know about Starobilsk strike Russia turned into propaganda flashpoint

When a Ukrainian strike hit Russian-occupied Starobilsk on May 22, Moscow seized on the attack almost instantly, with Russian officials claiming that 21 students of a local vocational college were killed and dozens more injured and portraying the strike as a deliberate attack on civilians — which Ukraine denied.

The

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Putin repeats maximalist war claims as battlefield reality shifts

Against the backdrop of Ukrainian drone strikes on St. Petersburg that sent plumes of smoke over the city, Russian President Vladimir Putin took part in a lengthy discussion at Russia's flagship economic forum.

Both the setting and the battlefield situation have changed since the beginning of the full-scale

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