"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.
Lawyers attend the judges' inspection of the reconstruction of the MH17 wreckage, as part of the murder trial ahead of the beginning of a critical stage in Reijen, Netherlands on May 26, 2021. (Piroschka van de Wouw/Pool/Getty Images)
Relatives of the MH17 crash victims insist that Russia's recognition of responsibility for the downing of the plane should be part of a possible peace deal on ending Moscow's all-out war against Ukraine, European Pravda reported on Feb. 26, citing obtained copies of letters.
The letters were sent to U.S. President Donald Trump and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen earlier this month, according to the media outlet.
Flight MH17 departed from Amsterdam Schiphol Airport en-route to Kuala Lumpur International Airport on July 17, 2014. Three hours into the flight, the Boeing-777 was shot down by Russian proxy forces using a Buk surface-to-air missile above Ukraine’s Donetsk Oblast.
All 283 passengers and 15 crew members on board, among them 196 Dutch citizens, were killed.
Russia never claimed responsibility for the disaster, instead fanning conspiracy theories to shift the blame elsewhere.
The District Court of The Hague in November 2022 sentenced in absentia two Russian nationals and one Ukrainian national to life imprisonment for their involvement in the downing of flight MH17. A fourth defendant, also a Russian national, was acquitted on the grounds of insufficient evidence connecting him to the crime.
Relatives of the victims have long urged Russia to admit its responsibility and investigate all those involved and the causes of the downing. Now, they want their demands to be included in any potential peace pact.
According to the relatives, a credible agreement is difficult without Russia recognizing its responsibility for the downing.
"Without this (Russia's recognition of the downing of MH17), there can be no lasting peace with Russia," the letter read.
Copies of the letters were also reportedly sent to Dutch Prime Minister Dick Schoof and the EU's top diplomat, Kaja Kallas.
Elsa Court
