"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.
Volunteers, including medics, help emergency and rescue personnel to clear the rubble of a destroyed building at Ohmatdyt Children's Hospital following a Russian missile attack in Kyiv, Ukraine on July 8, 2024, amid the Russian invasion in Ukraine. (Roman Pilipey / AFP via Getty Images)
At least 589 Ukrainian civilians were killed and another 2,685 injured in Russia's war against Ukraine between June 1 and Aug. 31, according to a report by the Office of the U.N. High Commissioner for Human Rights (OHCHR) published on Oct. 1.
The number of victims in the summer increased by 45% compared to the OHCHR's spring monitoring, the report reads.
Over the summer, 324 men, 238 women, 14 girls, and 13 boys were killed, while 1,353 men, 1,155 women, 104 boys, and 73 girls were injured. The month of July 2024 was the deadliest for civilians in Ukraine since October 2022, according to the OHCHR.
The OHCHR said the main cause of the high number of civilian casualties in July was a large-scale coordinated attack of dozens of missiles launched by Russia at targets across Ukraine on July 8, which killed 44 people and injured 196, as Ukraine's State Emergency Service reported.
The Russian army's efforts to establish control over the territory of the eastern Donetsk Oblast also resulted in many civilian casualties, the OHCHR added.
At least 10,582 civilians have been killed and nearly 20,000 have been injured since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the United Nations Human Rights Monitoring Mission in Ukraine (HRMMU) said on Feb. 22.
The figure of 10,582, which includes 587 children, consists of civilian deaths verified according to UN methodology.
The number of dead and injured in fighting immediately after the outbreak of the full-scale war has yet to be fully accounted for, and some of the places that saw the heaviest combat in early 2022 are still under Russian occupation, making it impossible for outside observers to investigate.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Natalia Yermak
