"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 Kyiv Independent’s contributor Ignatius Ivlev-Yorke spent a day with a mobile team from the State Emergency Service in Nikopol in the south of Ukraine as they responded to relentless drone, artillery, and mortar strikes from Russian forces just across the Dnipro River. Nikopol is located across from the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant in the city of Enerhodar.
Footage that purports to show the fire caused by a drone attack against Engels, Saratov Oblast, Russia, overnight on Jan. 14, 2025. (Astra/Telegram)
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being updated.
A drone attack overnight on Jan. 14 caused damage to an industrial facility in the city of Engels, located in Russia's Saratov region. Local authorities have not disclosed further details about the targeted site.
Engels lies around 600 kilometers (370 miles) from the front lines in Ukraine.
The Kyiv Independent could not immediately verify information.
Roman Busargin, governor of the Saratov region, confirmed via his official Telegram channel that the attack had impacted an industrial enterprise in Engels, but did not specify which facility was affected.
Several explosions were heard in the area, according to local reports from Russian Telegram channels.
Mikhail Isayev, the acting head of Engels district, said that schools in the city would switch to remote learning due to the ongoing threat of further drone strikes.
The airports in the cities of Kazan, Kaluga, Saratov, and Tambov have suspended flights following Ukrainian drone attack.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Volodymyr Ivanyshyn
