"(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 Russian national flag flies atop the Russian State Duma, the nation's lower house of parliament, July 14, 2023. (Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)
A Russian government bill submitted on July 15 to the State Duma proposed broader criteria as to under which condition Russian citizens may be added to the country's list of terrorists and extremists.
In a effort to continue to crackdown on political dissent on Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the proposed legislation would allow the Russian Federal Service for Financial Monitoring (Rosfinmonitoring) to add individuals convicted of spreading "false information" about Russia's military to the list - provided it is motivated by broadly defined "hatred."
If enacted, the new measures would also include broad provisions for "hooliganism" motivated by political hatred to the criteria deemed as terrorist or extremist, in addition to undefined "other crimes."
According to the U.S.-based think tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW), the proposed bill would provide "significant leeway to designate people who have allegedly committed a wide array of crimes as terrorists and extremists."
The legislation, submitted to the country's lower chamber, notes that an individual must have committed the offense under the pretenses of "political, ideological, racial, national, or religious hatred."
Russia has been regularly accused of arbitrarily jailing political opponents and dissidents accused of politically-motivated hatred.
According to the ISW, in seeking to control dissent, the Kremlin is "looking to change the mechanisms for adding people to the terrorist and extremist list in order to incentivize Russians to engage in self-censorship by tightening the Kremlin's control over criticism in Russian society, especially about Russia’s war in Ukraine."
The proposed legislation effectively increases the number of article under Russia's criminal code that an individual may be designated as a terrorist of extremist from 26 to 34 articles, Russian independent media outlet Meduza reported.
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.
Nate Ostiller
