"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.
Flags of European Union member states fly outside the European Investment Bank in Luxembourg, on July 15, 2019. (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The European Investment Bank (EIB) will provide Ukraine with 100 million euros ($107 million) to assist with the restoration and modernization of the country's social infrastructure, it was reported on June 11.
Kyiv signed a financing agreement with the European Investment Bank under the Recovery III project at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin.
"The European Investment Bank plays an important role as a financial partner of Ukraine in the implementation of a number of projects in many sectors of the economy," Ukraine's Deputy Finance Minister, Olga Zykova, said during the signing in comments reported on the Finance Ministry's website.
"In this difficult time for our country, sustainable economic development, along with meeting the basic needs of citizens and returning Ukrainians home, is impossible without efficiently functioning key critical and social infrastructure facilities."
In April, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said Ukraine will receive 560 million euros ($596 million) from the EIB for a number of projects this year.
The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said that Ukraine will need at least $42 billion in international aid to support its budget in 2024.
Foreign aid is crucial for Ukraine as the economic pressure caused by the full-scale Russian invasion mounts. The besieged country received $42.5 billion in external financing last year, allowing it to function amid the ongoing war.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
Liliane Bivings
