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.
Andrei Belousov speaks during a meeting of the Federation Council's Committee on Defence and Security in Moscow, Russia, on May 13, 2024. (Federation Council Press Service/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin officially appointed Andrei Belousov as the new defense minister, according to a signed decree posted on the Kremlin's website on May 14.
Putin proposed on May 12 that Belousov, a former aide and Russia's economy minister from 2012-2013, should replace Sergei Shoigu as defense minister in a surprise reshuffle of Russia's security and defense apparatus.
Shoigu had faced criticism for the Russian military's poor performance in Ukraine. Instead of being fully removed from the upper ranks of Russia's government, Shoigu received a somewhat lateral position change and was named the new secretary of Russia's security council.
According to Russian media, Belousov is a staunch Putin loyalist and a member of his inner circle. As with Shoigu, Belousov had no previous military experience before being appointed defense minister.
Belousov said that his predecessor modernized Russia's Armed Forces, and Putin has now "set the task of ensuring the integration of the economy of the Armed Forces into the country's economy," according to Russian state news agency RIA Novosti.
This "implies increasing the efficiency of military spending," according to RIA Novosti.
In terms of his priorities as minister, "all the most pressing current issues are related" to Russia's invasion of Ukraine, Belousov said.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
