"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.
Illustrative image: Police officers conduct an operation after suspects in Russia's Rostov Oblast have taken two workers at a detention center hostage in Rostov Oblast, Russia on June 16, 2024. (Arkadii Budnitskii/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Nikita Klenkov, a deputy commander of a unit for Russia's military intelligence agency (GRU), was shot dead in Moscow Oblast by an unknown assailant, Russian media reported on Oct. 16.
Klenkov, 44, was reportedly the deputy commander of GRU unit 43292, which serves as training center for Special Operations Forces, the Moscow Times reported.
Russian Telegram channel Baza reported that Klenkov was shot at on the side of a road in the town of Melenki, east of Moscow. The assailant reportedly fire eight shots from the window of a car.
According to Russian state media outlet TASS, Klenkov "returned home a week ago" from Ukraine's front line, according to a GRU source.
Russian state media reported that an investigation into the shooting is ongoing.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify any of the reports in Russian state media.
It is currently unclear if the attack was intended as a politically-motivated assassination. Kyiv has not commented on the situation.
In July, another officer from Russia's GRU had his feet blown off in a car bomb attack in Moscow.
Kyiv denied any involvement in that attack. Ukrainian presidential adviser Mykhailo Podolyak told independent Russian media he believed there was "a malfunction with the gas equipment in the car."
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
