"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(T)he presence at the Victory Parade of a country that bombs cities, hospitals, and daycares, and which has caused the deaths and injuries of over a million people over three years, is a shame," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
"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 interior of the Church of the Nativity of the Blessed Virgin Mary damaged by the Russian shelling in Novoekonomichne, Ukraine, on August 7, 2024. (Ukrinform/NurPhoto via Getty Images)
More than 600 religious sites in Ukraine have been destroyed since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 19, ahead of Easter celebrations.
"For millions of Ukrainians, Easter is one of the most important holidays. And millions will be going to churches. Unfortunately, many will go to churches that have been damaged..." Zelensky said.
He added that the Russian military poses one of the greatest threats to Christian churches and believers. Citing wartime data, the president said at least 67 Ukrainian priests, pastors, and monks "were killed or tortured by Russian occupiers," and 640 religious sites have been destroyed—most of them Christian.
"But we will rebuild all of them," Zelensky added. "Just as we are liberating priests and pastors from Russian captivity, just as we are doing everything to protect Ukrainian cities and villages and the lives of people in them, we are restoring the ability to believe—to believe that evil and destruction will not prevail."
Earlier on April 19, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a temporary ceasefire on the Easter weekend, ordering a halt to all military action from 6 p.m. Moscow time on April 19 until midnight on April 21.
Zelensky later said that, according to information from Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi, Russian artillery fire and assault operations continued on parts of the front line. Local officials also reported shelling and civilian casualties on the evening of April 19.
The suggested Easter ceasefire follows previous Russian attacks on Ukraine during major Orthodox holidays, including a deadly strike on Sumy on Palm Sunday that killed 35 people, and an attack on Kharkiv during Good Friday that killed one person and injured 120.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Anna Fratsyvir
