"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.
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.
A Ukrainian soldier of the assault battalion walks on the empty street of town on Aug. 16, 2024, in Sudzha, Russia. (Taras Ibragimov/Suspilne Ukraine/JSC "UA:PBC"/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Editor's note: The article was updated with comments from Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov for TASS.
Ukraine invited the U.N. and the International Committee of Red Cross (ICRC) to "join humanitarian efforts" in the Kyiv-held parts of Russia's Kursk Oblast, Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said on Sept. 16.
Sybiha instructed the ministry to send out the invitation during his official visit to Sumy Oblast on Sept. 15.
Ukraine launched a cross-border incursion into Kursk Oblast in early August, reportedly seizing around 100 settlements and 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) of territory. The Ukrainian positions in the region are now threatened by a Russian counterattack launched last week.
"Since the first day of the Kursk operation, Ukraine's Defense Forces demonstrated full adherence to international humanitarian law as a professional army with high standards and values of freedom and human life," Sybiha said on X.
"Ukraine is ready to facilitate (the U.N.'s and the ICRC's humanitarian) work and prove its adherence to international humanitarian law."
Moscow has denounced the move as provocation.
"We expect that such provocative statements will not be acknowledged by the recipients. This is pure provocation," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, according to the state-owned news agency TASS.
Kyiv previously said it would follow international humanitarian law during its conduct on Russian territory. Then-Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said on Aug. 14 that her office opened a "24-hour hotline for residents of Kursk Oblast who need humanitarian aid or want to evacuate to Ukraine."
The ICRC has come under criticism from Kyiv over its supposedly insufficient response to the humanitarian crisis sparked by Russia's war.
The Russian branch of the Red Cross was accused of links to the Russian government and of operating in the occupied territories of Ukraine. Since national branches are permitted to operate only within their host country, this may have constituted a violation of the ICRC's guidelines.
Three Red Cross employees were killed and two injured during a Russian artillery attack on Viroliubivka in Donetsk Oblast on Sept. 12, leading to the ICRC suspending the operations of its Dnipro office.
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.
Dinara Khalilova
