"(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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Russian Orthodox Church Patriarch Kirill (L) talking during an event at the Monument to Minin and Pozharsky on the Red Square, on Nov. 4, 2023. (Gavriil Grigorov/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Estonia's parliament backed a resolution on May 6 to declare the Russian Orthodox Church to be an "institution sponsoring the military aggression of the Russian Federation."
The church, also known as the Moscow Patriarchate, has broadly supported Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Patriarch Kirill, the head of the church, is a staunch backer of Russian President Vladimir Putin and has been accused of using his subordinates in Ukraine and other countries to spread Russian propaganda.
"Ever since the Russian Federation launched its full-scale war against Ukraine in 2022, Patriarch Kirill of Moscow....has expressed his public support to the act of aggression of the terrorist regime of the Russian Federation," the statement by Estonia's parliament read.
"The leaders of the Moscow Patriarchate and Patriarch Kirill are using the 'Russian World' ideology as a tool to promote the war; it is being utilized to destroy the last manifestations of Russian democracy, militarize Russian society, and justify the aggression in order to expand the Russian Federation to all of the territories dominated by it in the past, including Ukraine," it continued.
The parliament noted that the declaration specifically concerned the church as an institution and not its congregants.
"Estonia must preserve the constitutional right to religious freedom, with full consideration for the rights and freedoms of everyone living here," the statement concluded.
Estonia has previously accused leaders of the Estonian Orthodox Church, a branch that is under the jurisdiction of the Moscow Patriarchate, of backing Russia's full-scale war.
The church's leader, Metropolitan Yevgeniy, left Estonia in February after the government decided not to extend his residence permit on the grounds that he made public statements and actions in support of Russian aggression.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) announced in April that Metropolitan Arsenii, who served at a church in Donetsk Oblast, was suspected of revealing information about the location of Ukrainian troops in the area.
Victor Tregubov
