"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.
Then-Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin speaks during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 22, 2024. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images)
Former Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin has been appointed as Ukraine's ambassador to the Netherlands, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on his Telegram on Dec. 13.
Several Ukrainian media outlets, including Suspilne, also reported that Kostin had been appointed as ambassador to the Netherlands. Meanwhile, it is still unknown who will replace Kostin as prosecutor general.
"As for the post of prosecutor general, the decision on Kostin's successor has not yet been made, but is being prepared," a source in the president's team told Suspilne.
Kostin submitted his resignation on Oct. 22 following a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) meeting headed by President Volodymyr Zelensky. The session addressed the "immoral situation" surrounding the fake disabilities of prosecutors, and "many shameful facts of abuse" were revealed, according to Kostin.
Following the meeting, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk said that his agency had exposed corruption schemes at medical examination commissions, resulting in the cancellation of 4,106 fake disability status certificates.
Maliuk added that 64 officials at medical examination commissions had been charged with crimes, while another nine suspects had been convicted.
Medical examination commissions (MSEK) are bodies tasked with determining the severity of a disability. Corruption schemes at medical examination commissions linked to draft evasion have been reported in Rivne, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Kostin had served as prosecutor general since July 28, 2022, replacing Iryna Venediktova.
Prior to that, he was a member of parliament from 2019 to 2022 and headed the legal policy committee.
From 2012 to 2019, Kostin was a deputy chairman of the Odesa Oblast Bar Association. He has been a member of the International Bar Association since 2000.
Oleg Sukhov
