"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.
Finland’s President-elect Alexander Stubb at the Munich Security Conference. Feb. 18, 2024. (Olena Zashko/Kyiv Independent)
The "Coalition of the Willing" has agreed that at least one European leader should engage in dialogue with Russia, Finnish President Alexander Stubb said on April 3.
Stubb suggested that either France or the United Kingdom, as key coalition leaders, should initiate contact with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
"In our discussion with the 'Coalition of the Willing' in Paris on Thursday (March 27), we recognized the reality that a European leader will have to reach out to Russia at some point," Stubb told reporters in Helsinki.
Currently, European leaders are not engaging in negotiations with Putin. Early in the full-scale war, French President Emmanuel Macron and later German Chancellor Olaf Scholz spoke with Putin, but those discussions yielded no results.
European leaders have also been excluded from recent U.S.-led ceasefire talks with Ukraine and Russia, including the latest meeting in Saudi Arabia on March 25.
The coalition, which consists of countries committed to providing security guarantees and potential peacekeeping forces for Ukraine, held a summit in Paris on March 27. France and the U.K., leading the coalition, have pledged to send troops to Ukraine to enforce a potential ceasefire.
Stubb also said on March 31 that Finland must prepare for the eventual restoration of relations with Russia. He told reporters that U.S. President Donald Trump asked him whether Putin could be trusted, to which he replied that he could not.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on April 1 that Putin was open to normalizing relations with Finland.
Finland, a staunch supporter of Ukraine, joined NATO in 2023 in response to Russia's full-scale invasion. The country shares a 1,300-kilometer (800-mile) border with Russia and has strengthened its defense ties with Western allies since the war began.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Kateryna Hodunova
