Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"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.
Head of the Board of Naftogaz, Oleksii Chernyshov, gives an interview with Ukrainian news media on Nov. 29, 2023, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine's parliament on Dec. 3 supported the candidacy of Oleksii Chernyshov for the position of a vice prime minister and the "minister for national unity," lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said.
The new minister's powers remain unclear. President Volodymyr Zelensky presented the department as part of Ukraine's resilience plan, saying it would focus on strengthening relations with Ukrainians living abroad.
Later in the day, the government renamed the Ministry for Reintegration of Temporarily Occupied Territories to the Ministry of National Unity of Ukraine.
"This institutional strengthening will help to create a new quality of work and interaction with the multimillion Ukrainian community from all waves of migration," Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said.
Even before the full-scale invasion, the Ukrainian diaspora has been widespread around the world, with particularly large communities in the EU, the U.S., and Canada. The war drew millions more from their home, with some 6.7 million living as refugees abroad as of August 2024.
Chernyshov served as the governor of Kyiv Oblast between October 2019 and March 2020 and as the communities and territories development minister between March 2020 and November 2022.
Since 2022, Chernyshov has been the CEO of the Naftogaz Group, Ukraine's state-owned energy giant. According to Zhelezniak, a new head of the company will be selected.
Chernyshov's candidacy was supported by 237 lawmakers.
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.
Dominic Culverwell
