"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.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico in Bratislava, Slovakia, on Oct. 1, 2023. (Vladimir Simicek/AFP via Getty Images)
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico will attend Russia's military celebrations in Moscow on May 9, despite EU High Representative Kaja Kallas' warnings to European leaders.
"I am going to Moscow on May 9," Fico wrote in a Facebook post published April 15.
Kallas earlier in the day urged European leaders to boycott the event in solidarity with Ukraine. Participation in the Moscow celebrations "will not be taken lightly on the European side, considering that Russia is really waging a full-scale war in Europe," she said.
In his post, Fico addressed Kallas' warning directly and insisted he had the right to visit Moscow.
"Ms. Kallas, I would like to inform you that I am the legitimate Prime Minister of Slovakia — a sovereign country," he wrote. "No one can tell me where I should or should not travel. I will go to Moscow to pay my respects to the thousands of Red Army soldiers who died liberating the Slovak Republic."
Russian President Vladimir Putin's government has reportedly invited a number of world leaders to attend events marking the 80th anniversary of the Soviet Union's victory over Nazi Germany. In addition to EU member Slovakia and EU candidate Serbia, the Kremlin has invited leaders from China, India, and Brazil.
Russia has repeatedly used historical commemorations to justify its invasion of Ukraine, with Putin falsely claiming the war is an attempt to "denazify" the country.
Fico initially announced his plans to attend the May 9 parades in November 2024. A month later, Fico traveled to Moscow for a meeting with Putin, becoming the third EU leader to do so since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
The Kyiv Independent
