"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.
Elon Musk, CEO of Tesla and X, arrives for the “AI Insight Forum” outside the Kennedy Caucus Room in the Russell Senate Office Building on Capitol Hill on Sept. 13, 2023 in Washington, DC. (Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Iran's Foreign Minister Abbas Araqchi on Nov. 16 dismissed reports about a meeting between Tehran's United Nations envoy and U.S. billionaire Elon Musk, who is also a close adviser to President-elect Donald Trump.
U.S. media outlets, including The New York Times, reported that Musk and Iran's UN Ambassador Amir Saeid Iravani had an hour-long conversation in New York on Monday.
The Iranians, who spoke on the condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to discuss policy publicly, described the meeting as "positive" and "good news," the New York Times reported on Nov. 14.
"This was a fabricated story by American media, and the motives behind this can also be speculated," Araqchi said during an interview with state television, reiterating an earlier denial from Iran's Foreign Ministry.
The Iranian minister described the report of a meeting as a "media fabrication" intended to test the waters and gauge the potential for such an occurrence. "We are still waiting for the new US administration to clarify its policies, and based on that, we will adjust our own policies. Right now, it is neither the time for such meetings nor is it appropriate," Araqchi added.
He also emphasized that the leadership had not authorized such a meeting, referring to Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Olena Goncharova
