"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.
Poland has started building defensive lines on the border with Russia under the "East Shield" initiative on Nov. 1, 2024. (Donald Tusk/X)
Poland has started building defensive lines on the border with Russia as part of the "East Shield" initiative, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on Nov. 1.
Presented this May, the "East Shield" program aims to fortify Poland's borders with Belarus, and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad. It includes a mix of new physical barriers, modern surveillance systems, and infrastructure development.
The program is part of NATO’s eastern flank joint regional defense infrastructure plan that Poland is carrying out with Lithuania, Latvia, and Estonia.
Warsaw allocated a total of 10 billion złoty ($2.5 billion) to strengthen the borders with Russia and Belarus to deter aggression.
"This is the largest operation to strengthen Poland’s eastern border, NATO’s eastern flank, since 1945," Polish Defense Minister Wladyslaw Kosiniak-Kamysz said in spring.
Kaliningrad Oblast is a small piece of land measuring 15,100 square kilometers — not much larger than the U.S. state of Connecticut — sandwiched between Poland and Lithuania. It has a short, western coastline on the Baltic Sea. Its capital is also called Kaliningrad.
Though it may be small, strategically it gives Russia a second point of direct access to the Baltic Sea, the other being through its most eastern arm in the Finnish Gulf.
The map of the Baltic Sea region. (The Kyiv Independent)
The Suwalki Gap is the closest point between Kaliningrad Oblast, and one of Russia's staunchest allies, Belarus.
It's a mere 40 kilometers wide and closely tracks the Poland-Lithuania border on the Polish side.
In the event of a war between NATO and Russia, Russian and Belarusian forces linking up across the Suwalki Gap would cut off the only land route to all three Baltic States.
In May, Tusk said that Poland had begun strengthening its entire eastern border with Belarus due to a growing "hybrid war" and illegal migration.
Warsaw for several years accused Belarus of deliberately pushing migrants into Poland in order to pressure the EU over sanctions, a charge Minsk has denied.
Russia's invasion of Ukraine has sparked concerns that the Baltic states, which are among Moscow's biggest critics and Kyiv's staunchest allies since day one of the all-out war, could become the next target for aggression.
These fears are reinforced by Russian leader Vladimir Putin's repeated threats to NATO countries.
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.
Chris York
