"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.
Colonel Denys Prokopenko, commander of the Azov Brigade, speaks to the troops in a picture published on July 16, 2023. (Azov/Telegram)
The National Guard has formed two new military corps as part of a broader reform of Ukraine's Defense Forces, National Guard Commander Oleksandr Pivnenko told Interfax-Ukraine in comments published on April 15.
Ukraine announced earlier this year that it would transition its military to the corps system to improve its efficiency and organization on the battlefield.
One of the new formations, the 1st Azov Corps, will be led by Colonel Denys Prokopenko, the commander of the 12th Special Forces Azov Brigade.
The Azov Brigade, as well as the 1st Presidential Burevii Brigade, the 14th Chervona Kalina Brigade, the 15th Kara-Dah Brigade, and the 20th Liubart Brigade, will make up the new corps.
Colonel Ihor Obolensky, commander of the 13th National Guard Khartiia Brigade, will lead the second corps, Pivnenko said.
The National Guard commander said the new corps system will improve communication and make the military more effective, considering experiences with the full-scale war.
The corps commanders should be familiar with the situation on the ground and understand the specifics of the units, Pivnenko said, naming the lack of coordination as the main obstacle facing Ukrainian forces.
The Ukrainian military currently operates under a brigade-level system, with more than 100 brigades subordinate to operational-tactical groups (OTU), which are subject to operational-strategic command (OSUV) and operational commands (OK).
Experts told the Kyiv Independent in February that the old structure created an unwieldy management system, and commanders of OTUs and OSUVs—effectively temporary bodies—were not familiar with their units.
Poor battlefield coordination has often been named as one of the key challenges plaguing the Ukrainian military as it continues to face Russia's all-out war.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Kateryna Hodunova
