"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.
Exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar has been sentenced in absentia to eight years and a half years in prison for allegedly disseminating “fake news” about the Russian army. (AP)
A Moscow court sentenced exiled Russian journalist Mikhail Zygar to eight and a half years in prison in absentia for spreading “fake news” about the Russian army, as part of Russia’s intensifying crackdown on opposition media.
Zygar was charged with “public dissemination of deliberately false information about the use of the armed forces of the Russian Federation,” according to the statement shared by the court.
The charges were based on an Instagram post from April 2022, where Zygar accused Russian forces of committing war crimes in Bucha, Ukraine.
Bucha, a suburb northwest of Kyiv, was occupied by Russian troops shortly after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in February 2022.
After the city was liberated at the end of March 2022, mass graves with civilians were discovered, and thousands of war crimes were documented, making Bucha a symbol of Russian atrocities in Ukraine.
The Prosecutor General's Office said in March 2023 that more than 1,400 civilians were killed in Bucha District, including 637 in the city of Bucha, many of whom had gunshot wounds. The district figure included 37 children who were murdered by Russian forces.
Zygar was designated a “foreign agent” in 2022, and his sentence would begin upon his hypothetical extradition to Russia. However, Russia has not successfully extradited any prominent dissidents since the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022.
These charges against Zygar come shortly after a Russian court on July 19 sentenced Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reporter Evan Gershkovich to 16 years in jail on what are widely viewed as trumped-up charges of espionage.
Additionally, New York Times opinion columnist Masha A. Gessen was sentenced in absentia on July 15 by a Moscow court to eight years in prison over comments Gessen made about Russian war crimes committed in Ukraine.
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
Nate Ostiller
