"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.
A Russian law enforcement officer patrols near the Crocus City Hall concert hall outside Moscow, Russia, on March 23, 2024, after the terrorist attack that killed at least 144 people. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
Askhab Uspanov, a native of the Russian republic of Chechnya, reportedly died while in police custody after being arrested in connection with the Moscow terrorist attack, the independent Russian news agency Agentsvo wrote on April 1, citing Uspanov's mother.
Agenstvo cited a Chechen Telegram channel unaffiliated with the regime of Chechen strongman Ramzan Kadyrov that shared videos of what appeared to be Uspanov's dead body lying in a morgue, showing lacerations on his neck and other signs of apparent abuse. The channel claimed that Uspanov was arrested on March 22 and was reported as dead a few hours later.
Several gunmen opened fire at the Crocus City Hall in Krasnogorsk, a suburb of Moscow, on the evening of March 22, killing at least 144 people. A branch of the Islamic State (ISIS) claimed responsibility for the attack shortly thereafter.
Russian authorities are currently holding eight people in pre-trial detention in connection with the terrorist attack, seven of whom are from Tajikistan. An eighth suspect from Kyrgyzstan was brought into court in Russia on March 26.
Four of those detained are Tajik men accused of personally carrying out the attack. They appeared in court showing clear signs of abuse, following videos and pictures that were widely circulated on Russian social media depicting their alleged torture at the hands of Russian authorities.
Xenophobic incidents were reported en masse after the attack, as were cases of Central Asians leaving Russia over fears of potential reprisals and increased racism.
Oleg Sukhov
