"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.
U.S. President Donald Trump picks a journalist during a joint press conference with Japanese Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba at the White House in Washington on Feb. 7, 2025. (Kyodo News via Getty Images)
International Criminal Court Prosecutor Karim Khan, who oversaw the court's arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin in March 2023 over Moscow's deportation of Ukrainian children, was named in the U.S.' as-of-now nonpublic economic and travel sanctions list, Reuters reported on Feb. 7.
British national Khan is the first to be targeted under the sanctions authorized by newly inaugurated U.S. President Donald Trump that "target the war crimes tribunal over investigations of U.S. citizens or U.S. allies," Reuters reported, citing two sources familiar with the matter. In its report, it said, citing sources including a senior ICC official, that Khan was named in the executive order that Trump signed on Feb. 6.
Russia included Khan on a wanted list in 2023 after the ICC issued arrest warrants for Putin and another Russian official, Maria Lvova-Belova, for "unlawful transfer of population (children) from occupied areas of Ukraine to the Russian Federation."
The Ukrainian Parliament’s Commissioner for Human Rights, Dmytro Lubinets, estimates that Russia has unlawfully deported up to 150,000 Ukrainian children, while the Children’s Ombudswoman, Daria Herasymchuk, puts the figure at 200,000–300,000.
Khan's sanctions would mean prohibiting him and his family from entering the U.S., as well as the freezing of their U.S. assets.
Khan's regular trips to the U.S. to brief the United Nations Security Council are part of the U.N.-Washington agreement, according to Reuters.
We are the news team of the Kyiv Independent. We are here to make sure our readers get quick, essential updates about the events in Ukraine. Feel free to contact us via email with feedback and news alerts.
Olena Goncharova
