"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(T)he presence at the Victory Parade of a country that bombs cities, hospitals, and daycares, and which has caused the deaths and injuries of over a million people over three years, is a shame," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
"According to the participants of the performances, their goal is to remind the civilized world of the barbaric actions of Moscow, which for many years and decades has systematically violated international law," a source in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) told the Kyiv Independent.
"I have great hope that an agreement for a ceasefire in Ukraine will be reached this weekend," German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said on May 9, shortly before traveling to Kyiv alongside the leaders of France, Poland, and the U.K.
U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, and Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk will arrive in Kyiv early on May 10.
The United States embassy in Kyiv on May 9 issued a warning that Russia could launch "a potentially significant" attack in the coming days, despite Putin's self-declared Victory Day "truce."
The sanctioned oil tankers have transported over $24 billion in cargo since 2024, according to Downing Street. The U.K. has now sanctioned more shadow fleet vessels than any other country.
Washington and its partners are considering additional sanctions if the parties do not observe a ceasefire, with political and technical negotiations between Europe and the U.S. intensifying since last week, Reuters' source said.
Photo for illustrative purposes. A destroyed Russian tank pictured in Luhansk Oblast on Feb. 26, 2022. (Anatolii Stepanov / AFP)
Three employees from Russian state-affiliated media were killed in occupied Luhansk Oblast while on assignment, several news outlets reported on March 24. The victims included Izvestia correspondent Alexander Fedorchak, as well as Zvezda TV cameraman Andrei Panov and driver Alexander Sirkeli.
Izvestia announced that Fedorchak died while reporting from the front lines. The journalist often covered Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts as well as Russia's Kursk region. "His last report was broadcast literally the day before," the newspaper said.
In January, Izvestia newspaper reported that a Ukrainian "kamikaze" drone attack killed one of its freelance reporters, Alexander Martemyanov, while he was traveling on a highway in occupied eastern Ukraine.
Originally a Soviet state newspaper, Izvestia is now owned by the National Media Group (NMG), a media conglomerate with significant state-controlled ownership and close ties to the Kremlin.
Meanwhile, Zvezda, a channel linked to Russia’s Defense Ministry, said two of its crew members were killed when their vehicle was struck.
Russia’s Investigative Committee launched an investigation into the incident, saying that the journalists were killed in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast. Leonid Pasechnik, Moscow-installed leader in Luhansk, claimed the attack occurred in the Kreminna district, also killing three civilians.
The incident occurred as Ukraine and Russia held talks with the United States regarding a possible partial ceasefire. Russia has intensified its assaults on Ukraine’s civilian areas over the past weeks.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Martin Fornusek
