"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 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.
The aftermath of the car bomb explosion in Russian-occupied Luhansk on Oct. 18 that reportedly killed Russian Major Dmitriy Pervukha. (Screenshot from the video by Russian Investigative Committee)
Russian Major Dmitriy Pervukha was killed in the center of Russian-occupied Luhansk after his car exploded, Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) said on Oct. 19.
"On Oct. 18, 2024, at about 11:40 a.m., a UAZ Patriot car exploded" on one of the streets in Luhansk, HUR said on Telegram. Pervukha was inside the car, according to HUR.
Pervukha was allegedly involved in war crimes against Ukraine. He served in the 273rd Intelligence Center of the Russian Armed Forces , located in Russia's Novosibirsk.
In the occupied territories of Ukraine, Pervukha held the position of the so-called “chief of staff for military service and security of military service,” according to HUR.
Russian Investigative Committee announced that a criminal case was opened on Oct. 18 to investigate the explosion that killed an unnamed man and wounded a woman in another car.
While HUR called Pervukha "a war criminal" and said that every crime against Ukraine would be "justly punished," it didn't claim responsibility for the attack.
Since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion, numerousassasinations of Russian military commanders, officials, and collaborators via car bombs were reported in the Russian-occupied Crimea, parts of Luhansk and Donetsk oblasts.
Natalia Yermak is a staff writer for the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a fixer-producer and contributing reporter for the New York Times since the start of the full-scale Russian invasion. Previously, she worked in film production and documentary.
Natalia Yermak
