Victorious news of 805th day of war: EU ambassadors support use of Russian assets to aid Ukraine, UK delivers diplomatic blow to Russia

Oil depot burned all night in occupied Luhansk

In occupied Luhansk, firefighters were unable to promptly extinguish the fire that broke out at the oil depot in the evening of May 7. The fire burned until the morning of May 8, when all the oil products burned out. Head of the Luhansk Regional Military Administration Artem Lysohor reported this.

"It started in the evening and is still burning in the morning. Rescuers in Luhansk were unable to cope with the consequences of the fire that broke out at a local oil depot last night. The refined products were burned out, the infrastructure was destroyed - the invaders are looking for the culprits," wrote Lysohor.

According to him, the Russians blame the Ukrainian Armed Forces for the fire, but for Ukraine the main thing is the result.

"The invaders themselves know that no one will help them restore such facilities. And it will become much more difficult to refuel Russian military equipment. We will have to build a new logistics chain and store fuel even further from the front line," he said.

EU ambassadors agree to use frozen Russian assets to support Ukraine

EU ambassadors have agreed to use the revenues of frozen Russian assets to rebuild Ukraine and defend it from the aggressor. This was reported by the Belgian presidency of the EU Council.

"EU ambassadors agreed in principle on measures concerning extraordinary revenues stemming from Russia’s immobilized assets," the statement said.

The ambassadors' decision still needs to be finalized by the EU Council. Only then will it come into effect.

UK expels military attaché to Russia

The United Kingdom will expel the Russian defense attaché from the country, as well as deprive some objects of diplomatic status and limit the duration of Russian diplomatic visas. This was announced by British Home Secretary James Cleverly, Reuters reports.

Photo: Getty Images

According to the Interior Minister, this decision is due to the dangerous activities of the Russian government throughout Europe.

"We will expel the Russian defense attaché, who is an undeclared military intelligence officer," the minister said.

"We will withdraw the status of diplomatic premises from several Russian-linked sites in the UK... We are introducing new restrictions on Russian diplomatic visas, including limiting the length of stay of Russian diplomats in the UK," he added.

Ukraine returns 11 children from occupation

Ukraine managed to return 11 children from the Kherson region aged one to 16. This was announced by the head of the Kherson Regional Military Administration Oleksandr Prokudin.

According to him, two orphaned girls, aged 10 and 13, were taken to the government-controlled territory. Another nine children, 5 girls and 4 boys, aged 1 to 16, have parents or one of their parents.

"This became possible thanks to the charity organization Save Ukraine, the guardianship and custody authorities, as well as the service for children in the region and the children's parents," the statement says.

Prokudin noted that the children are now safe and are being provided with the necessary medical and psychological assistance.

Over the year, 1,600 developments in the defense sector were registered in Ukraine

During the year of the Brave1 defense cluster's operation, 1,600 developments were registered in Ukraine. Of these, 60 have been codified by the Defense Ministry, although before the war, such a procedure could take years. This was announced by Minister of Digital Transformation Mykhailo Fedorov.

"War requires quick decisions. When a lot of FPVs appeared at the front, the development of electronic warfare began, and when there were a lot of complexes, drones operating on non-standard frequencies appeared. There is a technological answer to every defense-tech solution. It is important that we provide this response faster and better than the enemy," says the minister. "A year ago, we launched Brave1 to create conditions for the development of the defense sector. Before that, the development of new equipment was slow and inefficient.”

In the first year of operation, the state, through Brave1, issued 186 grants for $3.2 million. In 2024, the funding for grants will be increased to UAH 1.5 billion, or 12 times.

"Brave1 has helped defense players to establish communication, so developers find partners and create even more effective solutions together. Over the past year, more than 30 collaborations between different development teams have taken place," said Mykhailo Fedorov.