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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Ukrainian border guards patrol the closed checkpoint of Slavutych on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border in Chernihiv Oblast on July 14, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Sergei Supinsky/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine does not spot additional Belarusian troops being deployed to the border amid Minsk's claims of reinforcing the border, State Border Guard Service spokesperson Andrii Demchenko said on Aug. 11.
His statement came a day after Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko ordered reinforcements to be sent to border areas near Ukraine following reports of several drones from Ukraine getting shot down over Belarus on Aug. 9.
Lukashenko ordered to strengthen military presence in the Gomel and Mozyr directions, including sending the Polonez rocket systems and Iskander mid-range ballistic missile complexes there. On the Ukrainian side, the area borders Kyiv, Zhytomyr and Chernihiv oblasts.
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Belarus Weekly
Demchenko called the actions of Minsk "a whipping up to play along with Russia." The spokesperson did not rule out that Belarus could take photos and videos "for information influence."
"The situation along the border is fully controlled. We do not record the movement of either equipment or personnel near our border," Demchenko said.
Russian drones have crossed into Belarusian airspace several times over the summer on their way to attack Ukraine, the Belarusian Hajun monitoring group has reported.
The monitoring group said that "despite the massive and regular flights of drones into the airspace of Belarus," Minsk made "practically no comments" on the situation.
After claiming Ukrainian drones entered Belarus, Minsk summoned Ukraine’s Charge d’Affaires to Belarus on Aug. 10.
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.
Maria Yeryoma
