"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.
The Kyiv Independent reporter Francis Farrell holds a cat during a field trip in Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast, on Sept. 11, 2023. (Anastasia Vlasova)
A story by the Kyiv Independent's reporter Francis Farrell, "One Night in Bakhmut: Civilians Wait for the End as Russia Draws Closer," has been shortlisted for the European Press Prize 2024 in the Distinguished Reporting category.
This piece tells the story of civilians and first responders in Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast indirectly through the personal experience of Farrell, who stayed overnight in the embattled city in January 2023, traveling together with a colleague from Moldova.
The story was published mere months before Russian forces took Bakhmut after a long and gruesome siege.
The European Press Prize, which "celebrates the highest achievements in European journalism," was founded in 2012 and is awarded on a yearly basis. The 2024 edition of the Prize selected four other nominees for the Distinguished Reporting category.
The Kyiv Independent's story "Suicide missions, abuse, physical threats: International Legion fighters speak out against leadership’s misconduct," written by Anna Myroniuk and Alexander Khrebet, won the European Press Prize 2023 in the Special Award category.
Farrell also won the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents in the Young Reporter (print) category in October 2023.
Francis Farrell
