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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Combine harvesters of Continental Farmers Group agricultural company harvest wheat on Aug. 4, 2022, in Ternopil Oblast, Ukraine. (Alexey Furman/Getty Images)
Agricultural trade between Ukraine and the EU reached $17 billion in 2024, exceeding the previous record of $16.5 billion in 2022 by 3%, the Kyiv-based research Institute of Agrarian Economics (IAE) reported.
The trade volume is the highest since the EU-Ukraine Association Agreement was signed in 2014, said Mykola Puhachov, deputy director of IAE. The EU is Ukraine's largest trading partner, accounting for nearly 65% of its total agri-food exports in 2023.
In 2024, Ukraine's largest trade partners were Spain, Poland, the Netherlands, Germany, Italy, Romania, France, and Belgium, which accounted for 80% of its agrifood trade turnover, the IAE said.
Ukraine imported about $4 billion worth of agricultural products from EU member states, almost 9% more than in 2023, according to the IAE.
Despite the challenging context of the Russian-Ukrainian war, Ukrainian agricultural exports to the EU exceeded imports by $9 billion last year.
Agricultural economics expert Oleg Nivievskyi told the Kyiv Independent that exports likely increased due to rising prices, as this year's harvest was not significantly higher than the previous year.
"This year, the EU's export corridor with Ukraine is functioning better. After the full-scale Russian invasion began, the EU abolished tariff quotas on Ukrainian agricultural products to facilitate exports from Ukraine as trade by sea was blocked by Russia. This measure has increased the EU's share of Ukraine's overall trade," Nivievskyi said.
According to a report on agri-food trade between Ukraine and the EU, in 2023, Ukraine exports mainly cereals, vegetable and animal oils, and ferrous metals.
After the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine's previously dominant share of its non-agri-food exports declined significantly. However, agri-food products remained almost at pre-war levels, significantly supporting the Ukrainian economy, the report shows.
Sonya Bandouil
