"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 demonstrator holds a sign reading "Olenivka" during a protest in Kyiv, on Aug. 4, 2022, of friends and relatives of Azov battalion soldiers killed in a Russian-controlled prison in Olenivka, Donetsk Oblast. (Dimitar Dilkoff/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine's Prosecutor General's Office announced on July 29 that it had identified and charged in absentia two pro-Russian collaborators who managed Russia's Olenivka prisoner of war (POW) camp in occupied territories, where dozens of POWs were killed in an explosion in 2022.
The Prosecutor General's Office said the investigation involved statements from 20 victims and 30 eyewitnesses, as well as forensic evidence of those killed. The two former commanders have been charged in absentia with violating the laws of war.
Separately, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said that the two former commanders were Ukrainian collaborators, identified as Serhii Yevsiukov and his deputy Dmytro Neiolov. The SBU said that Yevsiukov and Neiolov were dismissed from their positions in November 2022 and are currently hiding in Russian-occupied territory.
Beyond the charges announced by the Prosecutor General's Office, the SBU said the two had also been charged with murder.
The Prosecutor General's Office said that the initial explosion immediately killed 41 POWs and that another nine died after being denied prompt medical assistance.
The Olenivka camp, located in Russian-occupied Donetsk Oblast, held Ukrainian POWs and civilians, many of whom were captured after the fall of Mariupol in May 2022.
The facility was hit by an explosion in June 2022, killing at least 54 POWs and injuring over 150 more.
Ukrainian authorities said that days before the attack, Russians singled out Ukrainian members of the Azov Regiment, who were captured in Mariupol and were awaiting a prisoner exchange, to a separate part of the prison building—the one that was destroyed.
According to Kyiv, Russia either hit the prison with artillery or blew it up from inside. The Prosecutor General's Office said that Russia likely used a thermobaric munition to strike the prison.
Russia accused Ukraine of attacking the prison with HIMARS, a U.S.-made high-precision rocket system first delivered to Kyiv a month before the massacre.
The Kyiv Independent
