"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.
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin shaking hands with the United Arab Emirates Foreign Minister Sheikh Abdullah Bin Zayed at the airport in Abu Dhabi on Dec. 6, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Andrei Gordeyev/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Western sanctions against Russia have not impacted trade outside of the West, said Hamad Buamim, chair of the Dubai Multi Commodities Center, in comments to the Financial Times published on May 29.
Despite more than a dozen rounds of EU sanctions against Russia and associated measures from the U.S. and other Western partners, Russia's economy has remained resilient. While Russia's business ties with the West have shrunk, other countries outside of Europe have increasingly taken advantage of the opportunities.
Throughout Russia's full-scale war, the United Arab Emirates (UAE) has maintained economic and cultural ties with Russia but has also signed new trade agreements with Ukraine.
"Sanctions slow the economy, (they) never stop it," said Buamim. "Trade continues flowing, it just flows in a different way."
Even as the West has pressured the UAE to crack down against sanctions evasion and to take measures against companies that continue to trade with Russia, Dubai has emerged as one of the main beneficiaries of Russia's reoriented economic relations.
"The fact that the economy is not purely controlled by one side of the world makes these sanctions less effective," Baumim said.
"If we just take the Ukraine conflict, (sanctions) are effective when you look west, but they are not really effective beyond that."
Many companies have relocated to Dubai in the aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, but Baumim said the shift was often not limited to Russian companies.
"(Companies from other countries) see that Dubai has the infrastructure, the market access, and the neutral stance (on the war in Ukraine)," Baumim said.
International companies with Russian staff that have had to leave Russia have also found Dubai to be a place where their Russian employees would be welcome, he added.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Igor Kossov
