"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.
The Azovstal Steel and Iron Works facility on the horizon from a floating dock at the none-operating Azov Ship-Repair Factory at the Port of Mariupol in Mariupol, Ukraine, before Russia's full-scale invasion on Jan. 13, 2022 (Christopher Occhicone/Bloomberg via Getty Images
Russia has stolen more than 180,000 tons of Ukrainian grain through the port of the occupied city of Mariupol in Donetsk Oblast alone, Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said at a government meeting on Oct. 8.
Already by mid-2023, Russia is believed to have stolen up to 6 million metric tons of grain harvested in occupied Ukrainian territories.
According to Shmyhal, Russia continues to use food "as an element of aggression."
Kyiv has lost large swathes of farmlands in Ukraine's south and east to Russian occupation and damge from war. Despite this, Ukraine's exports from January to September amounted to almost 100 million tons.
"In other words, we exported as much in nine months as we did during the entire last year," Shmyhal said.
Evidence compiled by human rights law firm Global Rights Compliance last year showed that Moscow prepared to steal grain supplies, target food infrastructure, and starve the Ukrainian population months before the full-scale invasion.
Russia's war against Ukraine has also threatened food security worldwide. Ukraine was the world's largest wheat producer before the invasion.
Dmytro Basmat
