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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Russia's Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu poses after his bilateral meeting with Indonesia's Defence Minister Sjafrie Sjamsoeddin in Jakarta on Feb. 25, 2025. (Yasuyoshi Chiba / AFP via Getty Images)
Russian Security Council Secretary Sergei Shoigu has arrived in North Korea, where he is scheduled to meet with North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, South Korea's Yonhap news agency reported on March 21.
North Korea has emerged as a key military ally of Russia, supplying Moscow with artillery shells, missiles, and even soldiers in exchange for oil products and advanced rocket technology.
"After he arrives in Pyongyang, Shoigu is scheduled to meet with Kim Jong Un and other North Korean officials," Russia's state-owned TASS news agency confirmed.
The visit follows recent high-level diplomatic exchanges between Moscow and Pyongyang. Earlier this month, Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Andrei Rudenko met with North Korean Foreign Minister Choe Son-hui to discuss "political contacts at high and highest levels."
The latest round of talks comes as North Korea continues to provide military support to Russia amid its ongoing war against Ukraine.
Officials estimate that up to 12,000 North Korean troops have been deployed to Russia's Kursk Oblast since last fall to counter Ukraine's cross-border incursion launched in August 2024.
President Volodymyr Zelensky previously reported that North Korean forces fighting for Russia had suffered 4,000 casualties, with two-thirds of the losses being soldiers killed.
Shoigu, who served as Russia's defense minister until his dismissal in May 2024, now oversees national security matters as secretary of the Russian Security Council.
The International Criminal Court (ICC) issued an arrest warrant for Shoigu on June 25, 2024, for his role in leading Russia's war effort.
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
