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.
Ukraine's Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets gives an interview on March 24, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Amid Ukraine's incursion into Russia’s Kursk Oblast, Moscow has, for the first time, initiated communication with Ukraine on prisoner-of-war (POW) exchanges, Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said in an interview with Ukrainska Pravda on Dec. 18.
“This year, for the first time, the Russian side personally took the initiative to communicate,” Lubinets said.
“It was at the start of the Ukrainian Armed Forces’ military operation in Kursk Oblast. I believe the Kursk operation provided strong arguments in favor of Ukraine.”
Since the beginning of Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022, Ukraine and Russia have carried out nearly 60 prisoner exchanges. Around 3,600 Ukrainians have been freed, while tens of thousands — both military personnel and civilians — are estimated to remain in captivity.
Lubinets said that Russia continues to engage in hybrid warfare against Ukraine, including in the context of prisoner exchanges, undermining Ukrainian authorities and the negotiation process.
In January, a Russian Il-76 plane reportedly carrying 65 Ukrainian POWs crashed in Russia's Belgorod Oblast. Russia claimed all the POWs died in the crash.
Ukraine, however, has not confirmed this and called for an international investigation — a proposal Moscow rejected.
The Olenivka prison, located in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, housed Ukrainian POWs and civilians, many captured after the fall of Mariupol in May 2022.
In June 2022, the prison was struck by an explosion that killed at least 54 POWs and injured over 150.
According to Ukrainian authorities, Russia deliberately targeted the prison, specifically the part of the building where Ukrainian Azov Regiment members had been moved to.
Kyiv has claimed that Russia used artillery or a thermobaric munition in the attack.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
