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.
Moscow and Washington discuss 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.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko speaks during a bilateral meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the Grand Kremlin Palace, March 13, 2025, in Moscow, Russia. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko began his seventh term in power on March 25 after declaring himself the winner of the January elections broadly seen as neither fair nor free.
In his inauguration address at the Independence Palace in Minsk, Lukashenko said that Belarus "has its own standards for holding elections, which can become an international benchmark."
The Belarusian Election Commission claimed that Lukashenko "won" 86.82% of the vote on Jan. 26, followed by regime-approved and little-known candidates like Sergey Syrankov with 3.21% or Oleg Gaidukevich with 2.02%.
In power since 1994, Lukashenko's dictatorial rule has been marked by a harsh crackdown on political opposition, free media, and civil society.
In his speech, the dictator claimed that Belarus ensures everyone's opportunity to express their opinion but "will not allow freedom of speech to be used as a club to destroy our own country."
A day before the inauguration, 10 Belarusian human rights groups denounced the January presidential elections and Lukashenko's continued hold on power.
The latest vote was "held in a deep human rights crisis, in an atmosphere of total fear caused by repressions against civil society, independent media, the opposition, and all dissenters," the statement read.
In 2020, Lukashenko also declared himself the winner despite independent pollsters saying that his opponent, independent candidate Sviatlana Tsikhanouskaya, won the most votes. The election fraud sparked mass protests, which were followed by a violent crackdown and mass arrests.
Lukashenko has been a key ally of Russian President Vladimir Putin during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, allowing Moscow's forces to use Belarus as a launching ground for the invasion of Kyiv and missile attacks in 2022.
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.
Maria Yeryoma
