"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.
The aftermath of a Russian drone strike against Odesa on March 2, 2024 (State Emergency Service/Telegram)
Theodoros Roussopoulos, the president of the Parliamentary Assembly of the Council of Europe (PACE), and U.S. Ambassador to Ukraine Bridget Brink on March 2 condemned Russia’s overnight attack on Odesa, which killed at least eight people.
The drone strike hit a multi-story building in the southern city, destroying 18 apartments and trapping people under the rubble. Among the killed residents were a four-month-old boy and a two-year-old one. Eight more people were wounded, including a three-year-old girl.
“Our thoughts are with the victims of these horrific attacks. We must continue to support Ukraine in its fight against Russia’s barbaric war,” Brink wrote on the social platform X.
Roussopoulos said that Russia “will be held accountable for all the crimes it committed in Ukraine.”
Amid uncertainty over stalled U.S. aid to Ukraine and critical shortages of ammunition, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on March 2 that allies' “political games” limit Ukraine’s defense capabilities and lead to deaths as a result of Russia’s strikes.
On March 2, the Ukrainian authorities reported on Russia’s attacks on Kherson, Kharkiv, Dnipropetrovsk, and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. According to them, two people were killed, and five were injured.
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.
