"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.
An alleged United Russia party office in occupied Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, on Feb. 27, 2024. (National Resistance Center)
The Ukrainian resistance blew up an office of the United Russia party in the occupied Ukrainian city of Nova Kakhovka, the National Resistance Center said on Feb. 27.
The alleged attack, carried out on the morning of Feb. 27, aimed to disrupt preparations for the Russian presidential election in March that Russia plans to illegitimately hold also in the occupied territories of Ukraine, the center said.
Russia allegedly blamed the incident on drone strikes to deny and cover up the activity of Ukrainian resistance in occupied territories.
"The National Resistance Center calls on citizens of Ukraine not to participate in the Kremlin's propaganda production called 'elections,'" the center said.
"At the same time, the resistance movement notes that any collaborator who helps organize the 'election process' will be held accountable for their actions."
An alleged United Russia party office in occupied Nova Kakhovka, Kherson Oblast, on Feb. 27, 2024. (National Resistance Center)
Nova Kakhovka lies on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River in Kherson Oblast. The city has been under Russian occupation since February 2022.
Russia declared annexation of partially occupied Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Luhansk, and Donetsk oblasts in September 2022, a step denounced by Ukraine and the international community as illegal and void.
Efforts to integrate occupied territories have been accompanied by activities of the ruling United Russia party, which has opened branches in several occupied Ukrainian cities.
The party has come under attack several times since then. Its headquarters was destroyed in the occupied city of Polohy, Zaporizhzhia Oblast, last September during sham "local elections" organized by Moscow. A United Russia representative was killed by a car bomb in Nova Kakhovka a month later.
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.
Katie Marie Davies
