Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"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.
A warning sign that reads "Dangerous! Mines!" placed near destroyed houses during a de-mining operation in the village of Hrakove, Kharkiv Oblast, on April 18, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. allies are voicing growing alarm over the Trump administration’s proposed framework to end the war in Ukraine, which would allow Russia to retain large areas of seized Ukrainian territory.
Multiple diplomatic sources told CNN that officials in Europe and Asia are bracing for the outcome of renewed U.S.-Russia talks and fear the plan sends a dangerous message. The proposal, presented in Paris last week, includes potential U.S. recognition of Crimea as Russian territory and Ukrainian territorial concessions. Vice President JD Vance reinforced this stance, saying on April 23, there’s a need "to freeze the territorial lines at some level close to where they are today."
Trump, when asked what Russia would give up in exchange, responded: "Stopping the war, stopping [from] taking the whole country, pretty big concession."
The remark has unsettled many diplomats, with one Eastern European official warning that the framework threatens the integrity of international law: "This is very much about our own existence and the weakening of any safeguards that my or other countries have for our own independence."
"If one country in Europe is forced to give up parts of its legal territory... no country in Europe or elsewhere can feel safe, NATO or no NATO," the diplomat told CNN.
In high-level meetings held in London on April 23, U.S., European, and Ukrainian officials reportedly made progress in narrowing differences. U.S. envoy Keith Kellogg called the talks "candid, positive and productive." At the same time, a European official said negotiators had "managed to convince the Ukrainians to convince themselves to get in a more U.S. administration-friendly position." Still, the core issue—territorial concessions—remains fraught. A German official acknowledged that "the Ukrainians are coming around," but emphasized they "have red lines they cannot cross."
One Ukrainian lawmaker described any deal requiring major territorial losses as "political suicide," warning it would not be approved by parliament. European diplomats admitted that any agreement acceptable to Moscow would appear "unfavorable to the Ukrainians," but noted that "within reason, the Ukrainians will have to come to terms with something that may be second best to a deal they would have wanted two years ago."
Questions remain about how the U.S. intends to implement the plan, with one American official describing the administration’s approach as "somewhat directionless, rudderless, confused."
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
