"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.
U.S. President Donald Trump holds up a chart while speaking during a “Make America Wealthy Again” trade announcement event in the Rose Garden at the White House on April 2, 2025, in Washington, DC.(Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
The U.S. did not include Russia on its "Liberation Day" tariff list as the existing sanctions "preclude any meaningful trade," Axios reported on April 3, citing White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt.
U.S. President Donald Trump unveiled a sweeping list of "reciprocial tariffs" on April 2, imposing a baseline 10% duty on all countries — including Ukraine — with even higher rates for major trade partners like the EU.
Russia and Belarus were not included on the list, according to the White House charts.
Talking to Axios, Leavitt said that Russia and Belarus were left off the list because of the already imposed economic sanctions. The news outlet nevertheless noted that even countries with a smaller traded volume with the U.S., such as Mauritius and Brunei, were included.
The spokesperson added that other heavily sanctioned countries, such as Cuba and North Korea, were also left out of the list.
The U.S. and other nations imposed heavy sanctions against Moscow after the start of its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. U.S.-Russia trade flows went from $36 billion in 2021 to about $3.5 billion in 2024.
Trump previously hinted at the possibility of easing some of the sanctions imposed on Russia as part of an effort to broker a ceasefire and a peace deal in Ukraine.
At the same time, the U.S. president threatened Moscow with secondary tariffs on Russian oil exports as he grows frustrated with stalled negotiations.
The new tariffs were described by the media as a "historic global trade war," with the Trump administration presenting it as a step toward restoring economic sovereignty and security.
Some 60 countries or trading blocs were hit with additional duties higher than the 10% baseline, including the EU (20%), China (34%), and Taiwan (32%). Canada and Mexico were among those excluded due to the already existing 25% tariff.
The list includes some surprising additions, such as Heard and McDonald Islands, Australia's uninhabited external territory about 1,500 kilometers (900 miles) north of Antarctica.
"My advice to every country right now is do not retaliate. Sit back, take it in, let's see how it goes," U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Fox News's Special Report program.
"If you don't retaliate, this is the high-water mark."
The EU and China have already pledged a response to Trump's tariffs.
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.
Katie Marie Davies
