"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.
The flag of Abkhazia, a Russian-occupied region of Georgia, is seen in the gallery of flags of the participating countries in the framework of the St. Petersburg International Economic Forum 2024 (SPIEF 2024). (Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin congratulated Badra Gunba on winning the presidential "election" in the Russian-occupied Georgian region of Abkhazia in a statement released by the Kremlin's press service on March 2.
"I expect that the friendly, allied Russian-Abkhazian relations will continue to strengthen for the benefit of our brotherly nations," Putin's message goes on to read.
Abkhazia, an occupied region internationally recognized as part of Georgia, has been under de facto Russian control since the 2008 war between Russia and Georgia.
Aslan Bzhania, the former leader of Abkhazia, submitted his resignation on Nov. 19 in a bid to quell mounting unrest over a proposed investment deal with Russia. The agreement, which would allow Russian citizens to purchase property in Abkhazia, fueled fears of deeper Russian entrenchment in the territory and was subsequently scrapped.
Gunba, the winner of the presidential "election," is considered to be a pro-Kremlin politician.
Freedom House, a U.S.-based NGO advocating for democracy and political freedom, said that Abkhazia's legal framework "does not support fully democratic elections," but noted that "incumbent officials remain vulnerable to defeat at the polls."
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Katie Marie Davies
