"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.
Former president of the French far-right Rassemblement National (RN) parliamentary group Marine Le Pen gives a speech during the results evening of the first round of the parliamentary elections in Henin-Beaumont, northern France, on June 30, 2024. (Francois Lo Presti/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's note: The story is being updated with the latest details on the verdict.
A French court on March 31 found Marine Le Pen, one of the leaders of the far-right National Rally party (RN), guilty of embezzling EU funds and banned her from running for public office "with immediate effect."
The far-right leader was barred from running for office for five years, seemingly scuttling her hopes of running for president in 2027. Le Pen was also sentenced to four years imprisonment, with two years suspended and two in home detention. She was also ordered to pay a 100,000-euro ($108,200) fine.
Le Pen, eight RN members of the European Parliament, and 12 assistants were found guilty of misusing European Parliament money to pay staff working for the RN between 2004 and 2016, France24 reported. Twenty-four of Le Pen's party colleagues have been charged in the case.
Prosecutors requested a 10-year prison sentence and a ban to run for office for five years, Euronews reported.
Le Pen chairs the RN in the French parliament's lower house and unsuccessfully ran for the presidency in 2012, 2017, and 2022, ending up in the runoff in the latter two cases but losing to Emmanuel Macron.
"I absolutely don’t feel I have committed the slightest irregularity, the slightest illegal move," the far-right leader told the court, according to France24. She claimed that prosecutors were "only interested" in thwarting her presidential ambitions.
Le Pen's lawyer said she would appeal the ruling, though that is unlikely to have an immediate impact on the ban on running for office, the Guardian reported.
Before Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Le Pen openly expressed her admiration for Russian President Vladimir Putin, said she did not believe Russia's annexation of Crimea was illegal, and her party took a 9-billion-euro loan from a Russian bank in 2014 despite sanctions.
Le Pen and her party sought to cast away their pro-Kremlin rhetoric after 2022, denouncing Russian aggression and praising Ukrainian defenders. At the same time, Le Pen has opposed more decisive steps in support of Kyiv, such as the supply of SCALP missiles or the deployment of French peacekeepers on the ground.
The RN has gathered broad support over the past few years, becoming the single largest party in the parliament's lower house and a leading opposition force.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
