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.
Illustrative purposes: A woman holds a banner that reads 'Free Azov' during the rally on Jan. 21, 2024, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (hurricanehank/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
A Russian military court sentenced 23 Ukrainians who served with Azov to prison on the charges of "seizure of power" and participating in a "terrorist organization," the independent news outlet Mediazona reported on March 26.
Eleven were sentenced in absentia as they had been released in prisoner exchanges, while 12 prisoners of war (POW) still held in Russia have been jailed for between 13 and 23 years.
Ukraine denounced the trial as a Russian propaganda stunt, saying that international law prohibits trials with war captives and pledging to bring those sentenced back home.
The ruling comes as the conclusion of the so-called "Case of 24" that involved military personnel, cooks, and workers serving with Azov. They became Russia's captives after the Russian siege of Mariupol in 2022.
Only 12 of the prisoners were present at the trial:
Oleksandr Mukhin - sentenced to 22 years
Yaroslav Zhdamarov - 22 years
Oleh Zharkov - 13 years
Anatolii Hrytsyk - 13 years
Oleksii Smykov - 13 years
Oleh Mizhhorodskyi - 17 years
Oleksandr Irkha - 15 years
Artem Hrebeskhov - 20 years
Artur Hretskyi - 22 years
Oleksandr Merochenets - 22 years
Oleh Tyshkul - 22 years
Mykyta Tymonin - 22 years
Oleksandr Ishchenko, a 55-year-old driver, died in Russian captivity in July 2024. Nine women who served as cooks or support personnel were released in a prisoner exchange in September 2023, and two more soldiers were exchanged before the trial.
Russian prosecutors demanded sentences of 16 to 24 years for the 12 men present at the trial. All of them plan to appeal the sentence, Mediazona wrote.
Some of those sentenced reportedly complained about torture and poor conditions in the detention center during their final statements, while some refused to communicate or recognize the Russian court's authority.
Ukrainian prisoners of war are being subjected to rough conditions and systemic torture in Russia, according to POWs who have been returned through swaps.
Russia has held a number of sham trials with Ukrainian POWs over the past years, focusing on Azov fighters captured during the war.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on March 21 that Ukraine had returned 4,306 prisoners of war (POWs) from Russian captivity since the start of the full-scale invasion. Kyiv has also called for an all-for-all exchange of prisoners with Russia as part of ongoing efforts to broker a ceasefire and a broader peace deal.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Oleg Sukhov
