Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"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.
A Zircon hypersonic missile launched from Russia's Admiral Gorshkov-class frigate. (Russian Defense Ministry)
A Russian court on May 21 convicted a 77-year-old physicist of treason and sentenced him to 14 years in a penal colony.
Anatoly Maslov was accused of sharing top secret information on Russia's hypersonic missile program with Germany. He had maintained he was innocent.
The case is the latest in a string of investigations against scientists involved in Russia's hypersonic missile program, responsible for developing such weapons as the Kinzhal and Zircon.
Despite being touted by the Kremlin as "super weapons," they have had limited success against Western-supplied air defense systems in Ukraine, particularly Patriot systems.
Maslov and two of his colleagues at the same institute – Alexander Shiplyuk and Valery Zvegintsev – were arrested in 2022.
Shiplyuk and Zvegintsev are awaiting trial.
The institute previously said the scientific papers the men had presented at international conferences had been vetted to ensure they gave away no secret information but the Kremlin at the time said it was a matter for the security services.
Last year, the Moscow City Court sentenced Anatoly Gubanov, a 66-year-old physicist who worked on hypersonic development, to 12 years imprisonment on treason charges.
Gubanov is the former head of the aircraft and rockets department at the Central Aerodynamics and Hydrodynamics Institute (TsAGI) in Zhukovsky, Moscow Oblast.
He was arrested in 2020 on suspicions that he was providing secret hypersonic development documents to his Dutch colleagues, with whom he collaborated in a civil hypersonic airliner project, HEXAFLY-INT.
Gubanov pleaded guilty, asking judges to take into account all mitigating circumstances and issue a sentence below the minimum threshold of 12 years, which the court rejected.
The physicist's Russian colleague in the project, 70-year-old Valery Golubkin, was detained in 2021 and also sentenced to 12 years imprisonment this year in June. Golubkin rejected the charges raised against him.
Human rights organization Perviy Otdel said that the materials passed by Gubanov and Golubkin to their Dutch colleagues had been examined by three specialized commissions prior to the submission.
The reviews discovered no classified content in the documents, the group said.
Chris York
