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.
The Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Illustrative image: The police carrying out searches of Ukrainian Railways overnight on Dec. 11, 2024, in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine. (National Police)
Several officials and entrepreneurs of housing and utilities departments in several regions of Ukraine are suspected of embezzling over 90 million UAH ($2.16 million) in funding through the procurement of firewood used for Ukraine's Armed Forces, the country's anti-corruption bodies announced on April 29.
According to a press release by the National Police, a total of eight individuals, including local officials and entrepreneurs, are accused of colluding with contractors to supply firewood to the military at prices significantly above market value.
Among the suspects are the head of the housing and utilities departments in Luhansk and Kharkiv, a procurement official, and three entrepreneurs, the National Police said.
The scheme, which was uncovered by anti-graft officials in collaboration with military leadership, allegedly involved purchasing firewood from other businesses and reselling it to the state at inflated prices.
The embezzled fund were then allegedly laundered through the purchase of real estate and vintage cars, including 18 apartments and 42 parking spaces in Kyiv, Lviv, Kharkiv, and Ivano-Frankivsk, among other assets.
The officials have been charged with embezzlement as well as participating in a criminal organization under Ukraine's Criminal Code and face up to 12 years in prison, if convicted.
A total of 36 million UAH ($865,000) has thus far been seized from the accused.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Kateryna Hodunova
