"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.
Airport ground staff and medics assist Azerbaijani citizens who survived the crash of the Azerbaijan Airlines' Embraer 190 passenger plane near Aktau, Kazakhstan, upon arrival at Baku's Heydar Aliyev International Airport, Azerbaijan on Dec. 26, 2024. (Stringer / AFP via Getty Images)
The Azerbaijani airliner that crashed in Kazakhstan in December after diverting from the Russian airspace was struck by a Russian Pantsir air defense missile, an undisclosed Azerbaijani official told Reuters in comments published on Feb. 4.
The Azerbaijan Airlines plane was flying from Baku to Grozny in Russia's Chechen Republic before suddenly changing course and crashing on Dec. 25 near the city of Aktau in Kazakhstan, killing 38 of the 67 people on board.
The source revealed to Reuters that the Azerbaijani side possesses a fragment of a Russian Pantsir missile extracted from the crashed plane, adding that the analysis is underway.
Kazakhstan's authorities on Feb. 4 released preliminary results of their analysis of available data, including the plane's black boxes. The conclusions pointed to a number of holes and dents in the aircraft and a collision with "foreign metal objects."
Russian President Vladimir Putin called Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev soon after the crash, apologizing for the incident taking place in Russian airspace but stopped short of acknowledging responsibility.
Aliyev later criticized Russia’s handling of the incident, accusing its agencies of suppressing evidence and promoting "absurd versions" of events.
He also criticized Russia for failing to close the airspace during a reported drone attack and highlighted poor coordination between its military and civil aviation services as factors contributing to the tragedy.
Oleg Sukhov
