"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.
US President Donald Trump chats with Russian President Vladimir Putin during the APEC Economic Leaders' Meeting in Danang, Vietnam, on Nov. 11, 2017. (Mikhail Klimentyev / Sputnik / AFP / Getty Images)
Moscow and Washington have discussed the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
Ushakov's statement follows a Reuters report on the gas talks between the U.S., confirmed by eight sources familiar with the matter.
Washington's involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told the news agency.
"We raise this topic with the Americans, but with whom else, frankly, I don't understand," Ushakov told the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, European Union nations dramatically cut their imports of Russian gas. State energy giant Gazprom reported a $13.1 billion loss in 2024 as a result. Russian pipeline gas now accounts for only 19% of European supply, down from 45%.
Despite efforts to diversify, some EU countries, like Hungary, Slovakia, Belgium, and France, continue receiving Russian gas through pipelines or long-term liquefied natural gas (LNG) contracts.
U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff and a Kremlin envoy Kirill Dmitriev have discussed gas exports, two of Reuters' sources said.
The two met last in St. Petersburg on April 11. Russia's Direct Investment Fund denied the talks at the time, stating, "Currently, there are no such discussions."
Still, opposition in Brussels remains firm. After years of reducing its reliance on Russian gas since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, on May 6 the European Commission presented a detailed roadmap to fully sever the European Union's energy dependence on Russia by 2027.
The plan has been described as the bloc's most comprehensive effort yet to end imports of Russian gas, oil, and nuclear fuel, a dependency critics argue has long compromised EU sovereignty and funded the Kremlin’s war machine in Ukraine.
Baiba Braze
