"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.
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 display featuring silhouettes of people in front of a screen with the Diia app logo as seen during the Diia Summit in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 5, 2020. (Photo by Sergii Kharchenko/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
Diia, Ukraine's state mobile application for government services, and online services of several major companies are inaccessible due to technical failures, the media reported on April 26.
Online services were also affected in Ukraine's largest private delivery company, Nova Post, major public bank Oschadbank, Raiffeisen Bank, as well as contactless payments through Apple Pay and Google Pay, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
During log-in to Diia, the message "Unfortunately, an error occurred" appears, which prevents Ukrainians from accessing services like digitized versions of various official documents, including their passport, driver's license, vehicle registration, or tax ID, registering a business or the birth of one's child on the app, and online marriages.
According to Kyiv City Administration, contactless fare payment at metro turnstiles is temporarily unavailable due to a technical failure at Oschadbank.
Nova Post said the problems are on the contractor's side, but emphasized that a hacker attack was not the cause, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
"We expect all services to be restored by approximately 10:00 a.m.," the company said.
The Digital Transformation Ministry said that technical upgrades at one of the major data centers caused temporary failure of mobile applications.
"To ensure that such situations do not affect the availability of services, we have built cooperation with several data centers in advance. Now the team is working to restore the services promptly," the statement said.
Ukrainian government websites and databases had suffered from cyberattacks throughout Russia's full-scale invasion.
Last December, a massive Russian hacker attack on government databases containing sensitive personal information, including tax records and biometric data, temporarily restricted access to some of them.
Natalia Yermak is a staff writer for the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a fixer-producer and contributing reporter for the New York Times since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Previously, she worked in film production and documentary.
Kateryna Denisova
