"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.
A Ukrainian flag fluttering over the Verkhovna Rada building, on the Day of the National Flag, in Kyiv, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine on Aug. 23, 2024. (Roman Pilipey /AFP via Getty Images)
The Ukrainian parliament on Dec. 19 adopted a bill dissolving the system of medical examination commissions (MSEC) for determining the severity of disabilities.
President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree in October to disband the commissions after several officials were accused of using corrupt schemes to acquire falsified disability certifications.
A total of 259 members of parliament voted in favor of the bill, said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the opposition Holos party.
Obtaining disability status through medical examination commissions allows one to avoid military service and receive a higher pension, among other social benefits.
Starting Jan. 1, Ukraine will introduce new expert commissions in major hospitals for assessing people's medical status based on a new, "modern system," Zhelezniak said.
"The system of medical and social expertise that currently exists in Ukraine was formed before Ukraine gained independence. It does not meet the current challenges that our country faces during the armed aggression by the Russian Federation, nor the current approaches to establishing disability adopted in the world," the explanatory note to the draft law read.
The bill's authors expect that the new system will help create a transparent procedure for assessing the needs of the applicants. The replacement of commissions is expected to reduce the administrative burden and help reduce appeals against their decisions.
The draft law has to be signed by the president before becoming law.
Following the National Security and Defense Council meeting on Oct. 22, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk said that the SBU had exposed corruption schemes at medical examination commissions in 2024, resulting in the cancellation of 4,106 fake disability status certificates.
Maliuk added that 64 officials at medical examination commissions have been charged with committing crimes, while another nine suspects have been convicted.
According to Zelensky's October decree, all commissions in Ukraine will be eliminated by Dec. 31, 2024. Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin submitted his resignation on Oct. 22 following the reports of prosecutors illegally obtaining disability status.
Martin Fornusek
