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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Head of the Chechen Republic Ramzan Kadyrov in a photo posted on 10 March 2022. (Kadyrov's Telegram channel)
Chechen dictator Ramzan Kadyrov on Oct. 29 apparently boasted about using Ukrainian prisoners as human shields, claiming there were casualties among the captives after a drone strike on Chechnya.
Putin's ally Kadyrov, who accused Ukraine of the attack, initially said that the targeted building was empty and there were no casualties, only to change his statement later on and claim that Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) were killed as a result.
Kyiv did not claim responsibility for the attack nor commented on Kadyrov's claims.
"Up to 10 Ukrainian prisoners are held at each strategic facility in the (Chechen) republic, including on the territory of the Russian Special Forces University," Kadyrov claimed on his Telegram channel.
"Kyiv, trying to harm us, killed its own soldiers today," the dictator said, providing no evidence to back his allegations.
A Ukrainian intelligence source told the Kyiv Independent on Oct. 29 that the drone strike was possibly launched from the neighboring republics of Dagestan or Ingushetia and may have been connected to a feud between Kadyrov and officials from the two regions.
Speaking to the media after the strike, Kadyrov also said that he ordered all of his commanders fighting against Ukraine "not to take prisoners and destroy" Ukrainian soldiers as retribution.
Ukraine has documented over 100 cases of Russia summarily executing Ukrainian POWs since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets clarified that the actual number is likely much higher since it is difficult to document Russian war crimes without supporting evidence, such as videos of the executions.
The Kyiv Independent has reached out to Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War (POWs) for comment but has not received a response at the time of the publication.
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.
Daniel Kochis
