"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.
Secretary of the Security Council Sergei Shoigu (R) and Russia's Chief of the General Staff Valery Gerasimov in Moscow on December 19, 2023. (Photo by Mikhail Klimintyev/Pool/AFP via Getty Images)
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on June 25 that it has issued arrest warrants for Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia's Security Council, and Valery Gerasimov, Chief of the General Staff of the Russian army, for war crimes against Ukraine.
Shoigu served as Russia's Defense Minister at the time of the alleged crimes. Shoigu was replaced in May by Andrei Belousov, a former economy minister with no previous military experience, after serving as defense minister since 2012.
Shoigu and Gerasimov are charged with the war crimes of "directing attacks at civilian objects," "causing excessive incidental harm to civilians or damage to civilian objects," and the "crime against humanity of inhumane acts."
The court found that "there are reasonable grounds to believe that the alleged strikes were directed against civilian objects."
While the energy infrastructure "may have qualified as military objectives at the relevant time," the ICC said that "the expected incidental civilian harm and damage would have been clearly excessive to the anticipated military advantage."
"Every criminal involved in the planning and execution of these strikes must know that justice will be served. And we do hope to see them behind bars," President Volodymyr Zelensky reacted on X.
The ICC's decision "clearly demonstrates that no military rank or cabinet door can shield Russian criminals from accountability," Zelensky said.
The charges against Shoigu and Gerasimov follow similar arrest warrants issued against two lower-ranking Russian commanders deemed allegedly responsible for carrying out strikes on Ukraine's electrical infrastructure during the same time period.
Lieutenant General Sergei Kobylash and Admiral Viktor Sokolov "are each allegedly responsible" for a number of war crimes, including "directing attacks at civilian objects," the ICC said in March 2024.
Russia launched 84 missiles and 24 kamikaze drones at Ukraine on Oct. 10, 2022, the first of a long series of devastating attacks targeting the country’s critical infrastructure through the winter.
By the end of the winter, the strikes had caused an estimated $10 billion in damages across Ukraine and left 12 million people with no or limited access to power, according to the United Nations Development Program.
Energy workers battled to repair the infrastructure as quickly as possible, with 22 out of 36 of Ukraine's power generation plants damaged or destroyed.
The ICC also previously issued arrest warrants in March 2023 for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Maria Lvova-Belova, the Presidential Commissioner for Children's Rights, for the forcible transfer of children from Russian-occupied parts of Ukraine.
