Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(T)he presence at the Victory Parade of a country that bombs cities, hospitals, and daycares, and which has caused the deaths and injuries of over a million people over three years, is a shame," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
"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.
The interior of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary damaged by the Russian shelling in Novoekonomichne, Ukraine, on August 7, 2024. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry on April 10 again denounced the religious persecution carried out by Russia in the occupied Ukrainian territories, accusing Moscow of killing dozens of clergy members and damaging or destroying hundreds of churches.
Sixty-seven clergy members of various faiths have been killed between the start of Russia's all-out war in 2022 and February 2025, the Foreign Ministry said, citing the International Religious Freedom or Belief Alliance.
Russian occupation authorities also illegally hold more than 30 religious figures in detention. Over 640 places of worship, including 596 Christian churches, have been damaged or destroyed, according to the statement.
"The Russian state, together with the Russian Orthodox Church... have implemented a system of repression against religious communities in the occupied Ukrainian lands, aimed at destroying religious diversity and Ukrainian spiritual identity," the ministry said.
The ROC has reportedly forcibly absorbed eight dioceses of the Ukrainian Orthodox Church of the Moscow Patriarchate, which included over 1,600 parishes and 23 monasteries.
Last year, Ukraine adopted a law potentially banning the Moscow-linked Ukrainian church due to its ties to the ROC and the pro-Russian activities of its clergy amid the full-scale war.
The ROC is seen as heavily tied to the Russian state, with its head, Moscow Patriarch Kirill, being a close ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin and an open supporter of Russia's invasion of Ukraine.
Moscow has also been suppressing independent Ukrainian churches and other religions, including the autocephalous Orthodox Church of Ukraine, the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church, the Roman Catholic Church, Protestant and Muslim groups, and Jehovah's Witnesses, Kyiv says.
"Criminal cases are being fabricated against them, searches are being conducted, threats are being made, and physical pressure is being applied," the ministry said in a statement.
The Orthodox Church of Ukraine's communities have reportedly ceased to exist in occupied Crimea, and its last church on the peninsula was destroyed in June 2024.
The Foreign Ministry has appealed to "all churches, religious organizations, and believers around the world" to "pay attention to Russia's barbaric persecution of ordinary people who pose no threat to anyone and only want to believe in God and pray."
"We ask everyone in the world who values fundamental human rights not to silently watch crimes against faith and believers, for silence only strengthens evil and gives it a sense of impunity."
Multiple cases have shown that religious persecution in the occupied Ukrainian territories dates back to 2014, when Russia illegally seized Crimea and parts of the Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts. Russian occupation authorities have been targeting Muslim Crimean Tatar communities as well as various Christian denominations in the Donbas region.
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.
Andrea Januta
