"(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.
The sanctions list includes 58 individuals and 74 companies, with 67 Russian enterprises related to military technology.
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.
Despite the Kremlin's announcement of a May 8–11 truce, heavy fighting continued in multiple regions throughout the front line.
Putin has done in Russia everything that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had been against in Brazil.
FT: Western banks paid 4 times more taxes to Russia in 2023 than before all-out war

The largest Western banks that continue to operate in Russia have paid 800 million euros ($857 million) in taxes to its budget in 2023, which is four times more than before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times (FT) reported on April 29, citing its analysis.
In the immediate aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia's banks – increasingly isolated from the global economy and laden with heavy Western sanctions – saw profits fall by 90% compared to 2021.
Despite this, the Russian banking industry is once again thriving. Russia's state-owned Sberbank reported a record annual profit of $16.3 billion in 2023, a more than five-fold increase compared to 2022.
Seven European banks with the largest assets in Russia — Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and OTP — reported combined profits of over 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in 2023. This is three times more than in 2021.
The jump in profitability resulted in European banks paying about 800 million euros in taxes, compared to 200 million euros ($214 million) in 2021, according to the FT analysis. This was in addition to the profits of U.S. lenders such as Citigroup and JPMorgan.
The taxes paid by the banks are equivalent to about 0.4% of all expected non-energy Russian budget revenues for 2024, the FT reported.
"(This is) an example of how foreign companies remaining in the country help the Kremlin maintain financial stability despite Western sanctions," the media outlet wrote.
The growth of European banks' profits is partly explained by the funds they cannot withdraw from Russia due to restrictions imposed by Moscow after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the FT.

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