"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.
Children photographed on the first day of the new school year in the subway station in Kharkiv on Sept. 2, 2024. (Sergey Bobok / AFP via Getty Images)
Michal Koudelka, the director of the Czech Security Information Service, said on Nov. 18 that Russia was behind a flurry of bomb threats made against schools in Czechia and Slovakia in recent months.
Intelligence agencies across Europe have warned that Russia is plotting violent acts of sabotage across the continent in response to countries' support for Ukraine.
Hundreds of Czech and Slovak schools received bomb threats sent over email after students returned from their summer break in September, leading to multiple school closures, local media reported.
Following the threat, local police found no credible evidence of explosives or improvised devices surrounding the schools.
"There is a clearly visible Russian trace" concerning the bomb threat, Koudelka told Czech parliamentarians during a briefing on the threats posed by Russian cyberattacks to the country's national security.
Russia has long engaged in a variety of disruptive behavior toward Europe, also using its cyber capabilities to target civilian infrastructure. Prague has regularly been targeted by Russia through cyberattacks beginning in 2023.
At a conference in Prague on Oct. 9, Czech Foreign Minister Jan Lipavsky said that Moscow is responsible for 80% of all the foreign influence operations in Europe.
Ahead of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Czechia authorities expelled 18 Russian diplomats in response to deadly 2014 warehouse blast that Russia was reportedly responsible for.
Various media outlets reported on Nov. 18 that several Telecom cables linking two Nordic countries with Germany and Lithuania were cut at the bottom of the Baltic Sea, raising suspicion of Russian sabotage.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Kateryna Hodunova
