"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.
A Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officer in assault gear in an undated photo. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Grigorenko/Getty Images)
Russian security forces stormed on June 16 a detention center in Rostov-on-Don, killing at least some of the prisoners who took two prison staff members hostage, state-owned news agency TASS reported.
Six prisoners, some of whom were accused of links to the Islamic State terrorist group, took the two employees hostage on the morning of June 16. The attackers were armed with a pocket knife, a rubber baton, and a fire axe but failed to take possession of a firearm, Russian law enforcement agencies told the local media.
It is believed that the hostage-taking had been prepared for several months. Even though the prisoners were kept in different cells, they managed to communicate with each other.
Russia's Federal Penitentiary Service reported later on June 16 that the hostages were freed during a rescue operation that resulted in at least some of the prisoners killed. None of the hostages were injured, the authorities claimed.
TASS claimed that three of the prisoners were residents of the Ingushetia Republic: Shamil Akiev, Tamerlan Gireev, and Azamat Tsitskiev.
The three men were sentenced to up to 18.5 years in prison last December under terrorism charges, namely for allegedly preparing to blow up the Supreme Court building in Karachay-Cherkessia.
Russian authorities, for the first time, acknowledged in May that the Islamic State was behind the deadly attack, even while continuing to make accusations of Kyiv's involvement without providing any evidence.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Oleg Sukhov
