"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.
Russia's illegally built Crimean Bridge, Oct. 14, 2022. Occupation authorities closed the bridge on March. 3 amid reports of explosions in occupied Crimea. (Stringer / AFP via Getty Images)
The number of barges Russia has deployed in the Kerch Strait to protect the illegal Crimean Bridge against Ukrainian maritime drones has halved in a month, the Center of Journalistic Investigations reported on Dec. 10.
The barriers form part of a network of measures, both on land and sea, set up by Moscow to protect the bridge after multiple successful Ukrainian attacks.
Satellite images from Nov. 8 showed 34 barges arranged in two rows near the shipping channel in the Kerch Strait, installed between July 27 and Aug. 8.
Recent Sentinel-2 satellite images from Dec. 8 reveal only 18 barges remaining between Tuzla Island and the Kerch Peninsula. The fate of the other 16 vessels is unclear.
On Sept. 30, it was reported that barriers intended to protect the bridge from attacks were washed ashore after a storm, with plastic and metal barrels connected by frames scattered on Kerch beaches.
The 19-kilometer-long Crimean Bridge, constructed following Russia’s illegal occupation of Crimea in 2014 and completed in 2018, serves as a vital supply route for Russian forces.
The bridge has been targeted by Ukraine multiple times, suffering heavy damage in strikes in October 2022 and July 2023.
The Crimean bridge remains a focal point of the conflict and is also the subject of a legal dispute between Ukraine and Russia at the Permanent Court of Arbitration.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
