"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.
Polish President Andrzej Duda photographed during a Bloomberg Television interview in New York on Sept. 19, 2023. (Christopher Goodney / Getty Images)
Ukraine will have to make some compromises to reach a peace deal with Russia, Polish President Andrzej Duda said in an interview with Euronews on April 24.
“It has to be a compromise,” he said. “De facto this peace should come down to the fact that neither side will be able to say it won this war. Ukraine will also have to step down in some sense, because that’s what will probably happen.”
Duda’s remarks come amid renewed diplomatic activity following a deadly Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv that killed at least 12 people and injured 90 on April 24. The strike took place just a day after the Kremlin reiterated its demands that Ukraine cede occupied territory and that the West end its military aid to Kyiv.
Duda believes that only the U.S. has the power to bring Russia’s war in Ukraine to an end.
“Today my conclusion is absolutely unequivocal: there is no one outside the United States who can stop (Russian President) Vladimir Putin," he said. “That’s why I believe that President Donald Trump, with his determination, can bring this war to an end.”
Duda defended Trump’s negotiating style, describing it as shaped by a hard-edged business approach.
“He used to own casinos, so this is a man who is taught a specific business game and has his own hard business methods that have been developed for decades. He transfers them to politics and plays very hard,” Duda said. “You have to negotiate hard with him.”
The Polish leader also said pressure on Russia is “the only thing” that could forge a lasting peace, though he warned it “will not be comfortable for either side.”
Ukraine is under pressure to respond to a controversial U.S. peace proposal, first presented in Paris on April 17. According to the Wall Street Journal, the plan includes U.S. recognition of Russia's 2014 annexation of Crimea and a permanent ban on NATO membership for Ukraine — both key Kremlin demands.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected any deal involving de jure recognition of occupied territories as Russian. "This violates our Constitution. This is our territory, the territory of the people of Ukraine," he said on April 22.
Anna Fratsyvir is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent, with a background in broadcast journalism and international affairs. Previously, she worked as a TV journalist at Ukraine’s public broadcaster Suspilne, covering global politics and international developments. Anna holds a Bachelor's degree in International Communications from Taras Shevchenko National University and is currently an MA candidate in International Relations at the Johns Hopkins School of Advanced International Studies (SAIS).
Asami Terajima
