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.
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin talks to the media at the seventh gathering of the Ukraine Defense Contact Group at Ramstein air base in Ramstein-Miesenbach, Germany, on March 19, 2024. (Photo by Thomas Niedermueller/Getty Images)
U.S. Defense Secretary Lloyd Austin held a phone call with Russian Defense Minister Andrei Belousov on June 25, Pentagon spokesperson Pat Ryder said at a briefing.
This is the first time Austin spoke to Belousov since the latter was appointed as Russia's defense minister in May, replacing Sergei Shoigu in a surprise reshuffle of Russia's security and defense apparatus.
"During the call (with Belousov) the secretary emphasized the importance of maintaining lines of communication amidst Russia's ongoing war against Ukraine," Ryder said.
The conversation took place as Russian troops are trying to conduct offensives in Donetsk and Kharkiv oblasts.
Moscow has yet to comment on the talks between Austin and Belousov.
The Pentagon chief had a call with Shoigu in March 2023 in the wake of a Russian jet downing a U.S. drone over the international waters of the Black Sea.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) announced on June 25 that it has issued arrest warrants for Shoigu and Russia's General Staff chief Valery Gerasimov for war crimes against Ukraine.
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.
Oleg Sukhov
