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.
Poland's Minister of Foreign affairs Radoslaw Sikorski speaks during a press conference with his counterpart, South Korea's Foreign Affairs Minister Cho Tae-Yul in Warsaw, Poland on March 5, 2025. (NurPhoto/Getty Images)
Poland will look for alternative suppliers if SpaceX turns out to be an unreliable provider of Starlink satellite internet for Ukraine, Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on March 9 in response to tech billionaire Elon Musk's remarks.
Warsaw helps Ukraine maintain its Starlink access, having provided half of the total of the country's 42,000 terminals. Starlink has played a crucial role in securing communications in wartime Ukraine.
Earlier on March 9, Musk claimed that the entire front line in Ukraine would collapse if he shut off Starlink services.
Sikorski said that Starlink services for Ukraine are paid for by the Polish Digitization Ministry at the cost of about $50 million per year.
"The ethics of threatening the victim of aggression apart, if SpaceX proves to be an unreliable provider we will be forced to look for other suppliers," he wrote on X.
Polish Deputy Prime Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski said on March 5 that cutting Starlink access for Ukraine would lead to an international crisis between Poland and the U.S. If Musk cuts off Ukraine's Starlink access, Gawkowski said, he would be effectively terminating a corporate contract with a European Union nation.
The U.S. has threatened to cut off Ukraine’s access to Starlink if Kyiv doesn’t agree to a critical minerals deal, Reuters wrote in late February, citing sources. Musk denied these reports back then.
The planned signing of the agreement was disrupted after a clash between U.S. President Donald Trump and President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. In early March, Washington halted U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing for Ukraine in an attempt to push Kyiv to peace talks with Moscow.
As concerns about Starlink's availability have grown, Ukrainian officials said Kyiv was working on alternatives to the U.S. service. French satellite operator Eutelsat Communications is in talks with the EU to possibly replace Starlink in Ukraine.
Musk, who Trump has tasked with eliminating "fraud" and "waste" from the government budget, has called for shutting down the U.S. Agency for International Development (USAID), an organization that provides vital humanitarian aid to Ukraine. He has also amplified Russiandisinformation and mocked Zelensky for calling Ukraine an independent country.
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.
Natalia Yermak
