Result 25.06: EU negotiations and Shoigu’s order

Negotiations on the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the EU have officially begun. Negotiations began at an intergovernmental conference in Luxembourg, where official delegations from Kyiv and Brussels arrived. The President of the European Commission, Ursula von der Leyen, congratulated the Ukrainians on this historic event. The EU also said the negotiations would be tough and demanding. Member states will decide whether the conditions for completing negotiations have been met, taking into account changes in EU legislation since the opening of negotiations and Ukraine’s readiness for membership.

Denmark said it has allocated 150 million Danish kroner (20.1 million euros) to speed up the accession of Ukraine and Moldova to the EU. The money will be released in 2030 and will help both countries create the administrative and legal structures needed to move closer to EU membership.

Ukraine received the first batch of artillery shells as part of the Czech initiative. This was announced by the Prime Minister of the Czech Republic, Petr Fial. “The first batch of ammunition on our initiative arrived in Ukraine a few hours ago, we are doing everything necessary,” said the head of the Czech government.

The Pre-Trial Chamber of the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued arrest warrants for former Russian Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu and the aggressor country’s chief of general staff Valery Gerasimov. These warrants are stated to be related to the war in Ukraine for probable international crimes committed from October 10, 2022 to March 9, 2023. “There are sufficient grounds to believe that they have individual criminal responsibility for the above crimes,” the statement said.

Law enforcement officials exposed the mayor of Mukachevo, Andrei Baloga, and the chairman of the Mukachevo district council, Mikhail Lan, of involvement in corruption schemes. “Officials abused their official position to sell at a reduced price a plot of land in the city center with an area of ​​more than 3 hectares. The organizer of the scheme, the chairman of the district council, is an influential authority in the criminal environment of the region In the past, he was twice elected as a representative of the people, including the banned Party of Regions,” the SBU said in a statement.

People’s Deputy Nikolai Tishchenko came under suspicion because of the illegal detention of a former soldier in the Dnieper while he was walking with a child. Nikolai Tishchenko himself, during the presentation of the suspicion, deliberately broke his mobile phone, hitting it several times on the table. The DBI said the broken phone will be sent for analysis, and the information stored on the phone could be of great help during the investigation. Meanwhile, a petition was registered on the Verkhovna Rada website to remove Tishchenko from his mandate as a people’s representative “in connection with his immoral behavior, aggression, racketeering, abuse of official position, and abuse of power.” In the evening, the court chose a preventive measure for Tishchenko in the form of round-the-clock house arrest and wearing an electronic bracelet.

The Cabinet of Ministers agreed on the dismissal of Sergei Borzov, head of the Vinnytsia Regional Military Administration. Borzov wrote on his pages in social networks that he was leaving his position due to health reasons.