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.
Tino Chrupalla (L) and Alice Weidel, co-lead candidates for the Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, meet supporters at an AfD campaign rally on Aug. 10, 2021 in Schwerin, Germany. (Adam Berry/Getty Images)
Several European politicians that are considered pro-Russian expressed their approval for the U.S. President Donald Trump after he clashed in a heated argument with President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office.
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban thanked Trump in his post on X.
"Today President Trump stood bravely for peace. Even if it was difficult for many to digest," Orban said.
Orban, widely seen as the EU's most pro-Russian leader, has consistently opposed military aid for Ukraine and maintained close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Georgian Prime Minister Irakli Kobakhidze wished Trump "endurance and courage in this difficult struggle" on Facebook on March 1.
"President Trump and his peace efforts were condemned one after another by the people responsible for unleashing a bloody war and the cold-blooded killing of Ukraine and thousands of Ukrainians," his statement said.
Kobakhidze sparked a political crisis by announcing the suspension of Georgia's EU accession process until at least 2028 after the elections last October. Protests erupted in Tbilisi against the ruling Georgian Dream party, accused of democratic backsliding and dragging Georgia into the Kremlin's orbit.
Tino Chrupalla, one of the leaders of the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) party, said on X that peace in Ukraine should be achieved even without Zelensky's participation.
"President Trump is cancelling talks with President Zelensky because he is not ready for peace. Peace must still be achieved, even without the beggarly President Zelensky," Chrupalla wrote.
"Since the EU and Germany cannot act as mediators, the US and Russia must come to an agreement," he added
Earlier, AfD showed support for Russian politics and has been mired in scandal after reports of its affiliations with neo-Nazi groups.
Natalia Yermak is a staff writer for the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a fixer-producer and contributing reporter for the New York Times since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Previously, she worked in film production and documentary.
Oleksiy Sorokin
