Victorious news on 427th day of war: Italy wants Ukraine to join the EU as soon as possible, and 44 Ukrainians returned from Russian captivity

Metropolitan of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna stripped of Ukrainian citizenship

President of Ukraine Volodymyr Zelenskyy has deprived Metropolitan Meletiy (Valentyn Yehorenko) of Ukrainian citizenship.

This was announced by a lawmaker from the Voice party Yaroslav Yurchyshyn.

"I received a meaningful response to my appeal from the Security Service of Ukraine regarding representatives of the Ukrainian Orthdox Church of Moscow Patiarchate. After the investigation by Mykhailo Tkach, I decided to officially verify if Metropolitan Meletiy of Chernivtsi and Bukovyna has Russian citizenship. The Ukrainian Security Service actually confirmed this information. Moreover, according to the Decree of the President of Ukraine "On Termination of Citizenship of Ukraine" of 28.12.2022, Meletiy (Valentin Yehorenko) is deprived of our citizenship," he wrote on his Facebook page.

According to him, in addition to Yehorenko, at least three other Moscow priests have had their citizenship revoked and several others have been subjected to personal sanctions.

A center for repairing Ukrainian Leopard 2 tanks will open in Poland

A service center for the maintenance and repair of Ukrainian Leopard 2 tanks will start operating in Poland, in the city of Gliwice, on the basis of the Bumar-Labedy enterprise in May.

This was announced by the Minister of National Defense of Poland Mariusz Blaszczak.

He said that last Friday, together with Ukrainian and German officials, he signed an agreement to establish a maintenance and repair center for Ukraine's Leopard 2 main battle tanks in Poland.

Blaszczak noted that two battalions of Leopard 2 tanks of the A4 and A6 models will arrive in Ukraine, which will be serviced at the Bumar-Labedy plant. He also explained that the company has 20 years of experience in servicing and repairing Polish Leopard 2 A4 tanks.

The Polish Defense Minister emphasized that there are certain challenges to repairing these tanks due to limited access to spare parts. To ease the situation, a German minister was one of the signatories of the agreement, as Germany is the manufacturer of Leopard tanks.

Short film by Ukrainian and Polish directors selected for Cannes Film Festival competition

The film As It Was, directed by Ukrainian Anastasia Solonevych and Polish Damian Kotzur, has been selected for the main short film competition at the Cannes Film Festival.

Anastasia Solonevych told about this on her social media page. 

The filmmaker recalled how she had been recording her observations and recording her experiences since February 24, 2022. That November, after a conversation with Polish director Damian Kotzur, she came up with the idea for the short film As It Was.

"On December 16, we called each other and said: "Yes, let's make this movie." And on January 3, we were already in Kyiv. Valeriya played both my experience and the experience of many Ukrainians who left home and returned for the first time since the war began," the director wrote.

As It Was selected for the Cannes Film Festival, which will take place from May 16 to 26. That's when the world will see the premiere of the film, which tells the story of a Ukrainian woman's return home for the first time since the start of a full-scale war with Russia.

Italy’s president supports Ukraine's swift accession to the EU

During a meeting with Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal, Italian President Sergio Mattarella said he supported Ukraine's accession to the European Union as soon as possible, Ansa reports citing the president.

"Italy expresses its strong support for Ukraine's accession to the European Union as soon as possible, and we appreciate the commitment of its government to the path of reforms, which are being implemented in compliance with the parameters that I confirm," the Italian president said.

Mattarella notes that Italy will support Ukraine "in all areas and as long as necessary. It is also necessary to achieve a just peace that respects the territorial integrity of our country.

Ukraine returns 44 more people from captivity

Among those released are 36 privates and sergeants, and 6 officers. These are military, border guards, national guardsmen and sailors. This was reported by Andriy Yermak, the head of the Office of the President of Ukraine

"They defended Mariupol, Azovstal, Kherson region, and fought with the enemy in the country’s east. There are also two civilians among the liberated.”

Rivne received The Plaque of Honour award in PACE

This was announced by Oleksiy Honcharenko from Strasbourg.

"This is one of the highest awards of the Europe Prize, The Plaque of Honor. Congratulations to Rivne and its residents! Rivne deserves this award," Honcharenko said.

The Plaque of Honor is awarded annually to eight to ten cities. In 2019, PACE awarded Khmelnytskyi with the Plaque of Honour. In 2018, Brovary received the award.

AFU aviation carried out 11 strikes against the Russian enemy

This was reported by the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine.

Over the past day, the aviation of the Defense Forces carried out 11 strikes on the areas of concentration of Russian personnel and military equipment. An enemy reconnaissance UAV of the Supercam type was also shot down.