"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.
For illustrative purposes only: A gas flare burns at the Yamal LNG plant in Sabetta, Russia, on Aug. 8, 2018. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The European Commission is developing a strategy to eliminate Russian fossil fuels from the European Union's energy market. However, gas deliveries from Russia to Europe persist despite the EU's efforts, and Brussels is determined to halt this, Anna-Kaisa Itkonen, the EU’s spokesperson for energy and housing, said.
Speaking at a press briefing in Brussels on Jan. 20, Itkonen noted that work on a comprehensive roadmap to fully phase out Russian fossil fuels is ongoing.
"It is something that was announced as something that the Energy Commission would present in the first 100 days [of its mandate], so we still have a couple of sleeps left before that deadline," she said, according to Interfax news agency.
Itkonen highlighted that the EU has already made substantial progress in reducing its dependence on Russian energy. "We cut all Russian coal imports, most Russian oil imports, and over two thirds of Russian gas," she added.
Despite these achievements, Russian gas continues to be present on the EU market, which remains a concern. Itkonen confirmed that this issue will be addressed in the upcoming roadmap set to be presented in the coming weeks.
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.
Kateryna Denisova
