"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.
Petro Poroshenko, Ukraine's former president, attends the European People's Party congress in Bucharest, Romania, on March 6, 2024. (Andrei Pungovschi / Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Former President and current lawmaker Petro Poroshenko on Feb. 17 accused the Presidential Office of offering to support his faction's involvement in drafting legislation on the Khmelnytskyi Nuclear Power Plant (KNPP) in exchange for avoiding sanctions.
President Volodymyr Zelensky approved a National Security and Defense Council (NSDC) decision on Feb. 13 to impose indefinite sanctions on several high-profile figures, including Poroshenko. The ex-president denounced the sanctions as unconstitutional and politically motivated.
Poroshenko's faction has opposed a recent bill to purchase two Russian-made reactors from Bulgaria for the KNPP, a move Zelensky called critical for Ukraine's energy independence.
"I was offered that if the faction voted for the bill on the KNPP, I would not have any problems with sanctions," Poroshenko claimed in an interview with Ukrainian Pravda.
Some lawmakers have criticized the deal, calling the reactors outdated and costly. Parliament has faced repeated delays in passing the law, leading Bulgaria to extend the deal's deadline to March.
"I was attacked because we demanded and are now demanding the withdrawal of mandates from the Opposition Platform for Life party and because we demand an end to Russian oil transit through Ukraine," Poroshenko said.
Although Zelensky banned all pro-Kremlin political projects, including the Opposition Platform, in March 2022, the party's dissolved parliamentary faction left individual lawmakers with their mandates.
Poroshenko also accused Zelensky of overstepping his authority with the sanctions and criticized Ukraine's 2022 anti-oligarch law, which defines oligarchs as individuals with significant media influence, political involvement, and assets exceeding Hr 2.27 billion ($54 million).
"Zelensky dreamed maniacally of sanctions," he said, adding that only a strong response from the Venice Commission had halted the law's adoption.
On Feb. 14, Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office announced criminal proceedings against individuals on the NSDC sanctions list for "serious and especially serious crimes."
Poroshenko was charged with high treason in 2021 for allegedly conspiring with Russian-backed separatists in a coal supply scheme between November 2014 and January 2015, which reportedly generated Hr 3 billion ($72 million) in profits.
He has dismissed the charges and sanctions as politically driven.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Kateryna Denisova
