"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.
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.
Flags of Ukraine and Azerbaijan stand on the table during the visit of Seymour Mardaliev, Azerbaijani Ambassador to Ukraine, to the Lviv Regional State Administration on April 5, 2024, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Stanislav Ivanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Negotiations are underway between Azerbaijan and the EU, Moscow, and Kyiv on supplying natural gas to Europe via Ukraine, Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev said on Sept. 6 at the Cernobbio Forum in Italy
Ukraine currently transits Russian gas to the EU as part of a deal signed in 2019, which is set to expire in December 2024.
Russia cut much of its pipeline gas transit to Europe in 2022, but countries like Austria, Hungary, and Slovakia remain heavily reliant on Russian imports.
The EU and Kyiv have said they would not seek an extension of the contract and would look for a different gas supplier. President Volodymyr Zelensky revealed in an interview with Bloomberg on July 3 that Kyiv is in talks to transit Azeri gas to the EU.
"Russia, Ukraine, and European institutions have approached us in connection with the continuation of gas transit through the territory of Ukraine," Aliyev said in a speech. "For several months we have been making great efforts to come to a common denominator."
If gas transit through Ukraine stops, "the gas distribution system of Ukraine will be completely paralyzed," and several EU countries "will face serious difficulties," Aliyev added.
Gas supplies from Azerbaijan would have to first transit through southern Russia before reaching Ukraine.
Azerbaijan already supplies gas to Italy through an alternative route, called the Southern Gas Corridor, which is a network of pipelines that stretches from the Caspian Sea through Turkey and into the Mediterranean Sea.
According to Aliyev, Azerbaijan is Italy's number one oil supplier and number two gas supplier, and currently supplies gas to six other EU countries.
Baku is also in the process of negotiating gas supplies with at least three more European states, he added.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen signed a deal with Aliyev in Baku in July 2022 to bring imports of Azeri natural gas to "at least" 20 billion cubic meters annually by 2027.
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independence. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
Nate Ostiller
