"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.
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.
Illustrative image: A German-operated MIM-104 Patriot missile fires an interceptor missile during Operation Red Arrow exercise in Greece on October 15, 2008 (Peter Mueller/Bundeswehr)
Engineers of Metinvest, Ukraine’s largest steel producer, developed an armored protection for the control module of the Patriot air defense system, the company announced on Jan. 3.
Ukraine has received at least three Patriot systems from Germany, one from the U.S., and one from Romania. Other countries, like the Netherlands and Spain, delivered individual launchers or missiles.
Throughout the full-scale war, there were several reports of damage to Patriot systems during Russia's aerial attacks. Ukraine also uses mock-ups to protect the Patriots.
"In a month and a half, we created a project from scratch and made a shield from Metinvest's Ukrainian armor steel for the Patriot air defense system crew, which guarantees protection against debris damage to both the defenders and the air defense control center," said Oleksandr Myronenko, a COO of Metinvest Group.
Weighing over 2.6 tons, the armor consists of nearly 200 elements, including armored steel plates up to 8 milimeters thick.
According to the company, the weight of the armor does not affect the system's functionality or mobility.
The company is also producing steel shields for T-64 and T-72 tanks, U.S.-made M1 Abrams tanks, and Bradley infantry fighting vehicles, and is preparing to integrate shields into various Leopard 2 tank modifications.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Kollen Post
