"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.
A Bulgarian national flag flies on a government building in Sofia, Bulgaria, on Friday, March 29, 2024. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Oliver Bunic/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Bulgaria’s Constitutional Court ordered a full recount of the country's October 2024 parliamentary election results on Feb. 26 following an audit that discovered various voting discrepancies.
The court-issued recount puts at risk a slim six-seat majority for former Prime Minister Boyko Borissov, the current leader of the coalition government.
Multiple parties contested the results of the vote at the local level after they were revealed, citing irregularities. Following a court-ordered audit, voting discrepancies were found in nearly half of the sampled polling stations.
Following the recount, adjustments to the total seat counts in Bulgaria's parliament may be made, the court said, potentially impacting the fragile government coalition.
The announcement of the recount comes amid a unstable last few years in the EU country, with a total of seven elections being held since 2021 — none of which have been able to produce a stable government.
Borissov, current head of the conservative-populist Citizens for European Development of Bulgaria (GERB) party, resigned from his post in 2021 amid corruption allegations.
The recount in the Balkan country comes alongside news on Feb. 26 that Calin Georgescu, presidential candidate and right-wing populist in neighboring Romania, was charged by prosecutors for alleged crimes related to the country's recent elections.
Georgescu, a pro-Russian candidate, emerged as the frontrunner in Romania's presidential race in the first-round vote on Nov. 24. Romania's Constitutional Court annulled those results after reviewing evidence of "organized manipulation from abroad."
Bulgaria has provided Ukraine with a variety of aid since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, but the matter has been contentious due to significant pro-Russian sentiment in the country and opposition from President Rumen Radev.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Abbey Fenbert
