"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.
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.
Russia's President Vladimir Putin meets with the Tax Service chief at the Kremlin in Moscow on November 21, 2024 (Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Pool / AFP).
Russian President Vladimir Putin signed a law banning the adoption of Russian children by citizens of countries where gender transitioning is legal, the Russian government’s legal information website published on Nov. 23.
The law targeted at least 15 countries, including several in Europe, as well as Australia, Argentina, and Canada.
Additional legislation approved on the same day prohibits promoting child-free lifestyles and imposes fines of up to 5 million rubles (about $50,000) for spreading such messages, framed as part of a Western agenda to weaken Russia.
These moves align with Russia's broader recent push for "traditional values," highlighted by past laws banning gender-transition procedures, LGBTQ+ information, and declaring LGBTQ+ activism as ‘extremist.’
Putin has increasingly criticized Western liberal ideologies, describing them as a threat to Russia.
The crackdown on dissent, activists, and independent media in Russia has escalated, especially since the war in Ukraine began in 2022.
In November 2023, Russian Supreme Court's decision to label the "international LGBT movement" as "extremist," has starkly intensified the challenges faced by the LGBTQ+ community in general within the country.
This ruling, emerging from a lawsuit by the Justice Ministry accusing the LGBT movement of inciting social and religious discord, has effectively jeopardized all forms of LGBTQ+ rights activism in Russia.
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
Martin Fornusek
