"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.
The exterior of the Russian Foreign Ministry building with a state Soviet emblem in central Moscow on March 7, 2024. (Photo by Tatyana Makeyeva /AFP via Getty Images)
"To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause: The Many Lives of the Soviet Dissident Movement" by Benjamin Nathans won a Pulitzer Prize on May 5.
The Pulitzer Prizes are awarded annually in New York. In May 2024, jailed Russian journalist and opposition figure Vladimir Kara-Murza won the Pulitzer Prize for commentary written from his prison cell in Russia.
The judges noted that Nathans connects the struggle of dissidents in the Soviet Union to the same issues that persist in Russia under the rule of Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"An extraordinary account of the Soviet dissident movement, "To the Success of Our Hopeless Cause" shows how dissidents spearheaded the struggle to break free of the (Soviet Union's) totalitarian past, a struggle that continues in Putin’s Russia— and that illuminates other struggles between hopelessness and perseverance today," the Pulitzer judges said.
Nathans has previously won the Koret Jewish Book Award, the Vucinich Book Prize, and the Lincoln Book Prize.
Since the onset of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022, the Kremlin has strengthened its grip on dissent.
Russian journalist Ekaterina Barabash was placed under house arrest for making posts on Facebook critical of Russia's war against Ukraine. She escaped house arrest on April 21 and later escaped to France.
Russia has gone after journalists in Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Ukrainian Journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna disappeared in August 2023. She died after being tortured in Russian captivity. Roschyna's body was returned to Ukraine in February with missing organs.
Volodymyr Ivanyshyn is a news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He is pursuing an Honors Bachelor of Arts at the University of Toronto, majoring in political science with a minor in anthropology and human geography. Volodymyr holds a Certificate in Business Fundamentals from Rotman Commerce at the University of Toronto. He previously completed an internship with The Kyiv Independent.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
