Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"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.
Czech President Petr Pavel addresses a press conference at Prague Castle on May 2, 2023, in Prague, Czechia. (Michal Cizek/AFP via Getty Images)
The Nord Stream pipelines were a legitimate target, even if Ukraine was behind the 2022 blasts, Czech President Petr Pavel said on Aug. 21 in the Czech news outlet Novinky's podcast PoliTalk.
Pavel added that he had no verified information on whether Kyiv was involved in the operation to blow up the gas pipelines.
The Nord Stream 1 and 2 pipelines in the Baltic Sea were built to supply natural gas from Russia to Europe.
The Wall Street Journal reported on Aug. 14, citing its undisclosed sources, that a number of high-ranking Ukrainian military and businesspeople had planned an operation to blow up the Nord Stream gas pipelines in 2022.
Kyiv has repeatedly denied connection to the Nord Stream blasts.
Pavel told Novinky that if the goal was to cut off gas and oil supplies to Europe and prevent Russia from profiting from it, then the pipelines were a legitimate target during the war.
"We already had a range of alternatives at that time, so the Nord Stream was not a critical pipeline on which energy security in Europe depended," Pavel said.
"It certainly caused some complications, but not complications we could not cope with," the Czech president added.
German authorities issued an arrest warrant for a Ukrainian national in connection to the explosions of the Nord Stream pipelines, according to a media investigation by several German news outlets published on Aug. 14.
The man, a diving instructor introduced simply as Volodymyr Z., was last seen in a Polish town west of Warsaw but has now gone into hiding, the investigation by ARD, Süddeutsche Zeitung (SZ), and Die Zeit said.
This would be the first arrest warrant issued concerning the 2022 explosions at the gas pipelines connecting Germany with Russia. Other media outlets have supported the story, while Germany's Federal Prosecutor's Office has declined to comment.
The Swedish outlet Expressen, which has cooperated with the German outlets, said the suspect's full name was Volodymyr Zhuravlov, aged 44. He is suspected of an anti-constitutional sabotage and of causing an explosion.
German journalists said they reached out to the suspect but the man denied involvement and quickly hung up.
The media investigation claimed that two other suspects – a man and a woman – are also Ukrainian citizens but uncovered no evidence of the Ukrainian government's involvement.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
