"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.
Rescuers and civilians worked to pull victims from the rubble of a missile strike on a residential building resulting in two deaths and 54 injured on April 24, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Search and rescue operations at the site of a Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on April 24 have ended, Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on April 25.
The attack killed 12 people and injured 87 others, including six children, according to the report.
Thirty-one people remain hospitalized, Kyiv Mayor Vitali Klitschko said a day earlier.
A series of explosions rocked the capital around 1:00 a.m. local time on April 24, Kyiv Independent journalists on the ground reported. Additional explosions were later heard around 4 a.m. local time.
Russia launched attack drones, as well as cruise and ballistic missiles, the Kyiv City Military Administration said.
"We were at home and there were explosions," Maria Rumiantseva, a 40-year-old resident of one of the buildings damaged in the attack, told the Kyiv Independent.
"Then I heard the Shahed. We just went out into the corridor, went to open the door, and that was it — an explosion."
Klitschko added that six children, as well as a pregnant woman, were among the injured.
Fires were reported in residential buildings, Kyiv City Military Administration chief Tymur Tkachenko said, adding that cars and commercial buildings have been impacted as well.
Fallen debris was found around the city, Tkachenko added, describing the attack as "Russian peace in all its glory."
Rescuers and residents of neighboring houses pull a pregnant woman out of the rubble in the aftermath of a missile strike that killed two people and injured 54 others on April 24, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Among the injured were six children. (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Rescuers and civilians worked to pull victims from the rubble of a missile strike on a residential building resulting in two deaths and 54 injured on April 24, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Among the injured were six children and one pregnant woman (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Rescuers and civilians worked to pull victims from the rubble of a missile strike on a residential building resulting in two deaths and 54 injured on April 24, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Among the injured were six children and one pregnant woman (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Rescuers and civilians worked to pull victims from the rubble of a missile strike on a residential building resulting in two deaths and 54 injured on April 24, 2025 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Among the injured were six children and one pregnant woman (Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Emergency workers sift through the rubble of a collapsed building in hopes of uncovering victims following a Russian missile strike on Kyiv overnight on April 24, 2025. (Ukraine State Emergency Service)
Emergency workers work to extinguish a fire caused by a Russian attack on Kyiv overnight on April 24, 2025. (Ukraine State Emergency Service)
The mass attack came just hours after the Kremlin demanded Ukraine's full recognition of Russia’s claim over four Ukrainian oblasts it partially occupies, neutral status for Ukraine, and an end to all Western military support.
Earlier on April 23, U.S. President Donald Trump suggested that President Volodymyr Zelensky was the main obstacle to peace in Ukraine.
Later in the night, Russia launched missiles targeting various regions of the country.
Zhytomyr, Dnipropetrovsk, Kharkiv, Poltava, Khmelnytskyi, Sumy, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts were also targeted in the "massive combined strike," though Kyiv was hit the hardest, Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said.
In response to the attack, Poland's Air Force scrambled allied fighter jets to protect the country's own airspace from missiles that may stray into Polish territory.
Russia has regularly targeted civilian infrastructure since the onset of its full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.
The U.S. has been in talks with Ukraine and Russia to negotiate an end to Russia's war against Ukraine.
Ukraine has already agreed to a U.S.-proposed full 30-day ceasefire, saying on March 11 that Kyiv is ready if Russia also agrees to the terms.
Natalia Yermak
