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.
An SBU officer. Illustrative purposes only. (Security Service of Ukraine)
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) conducted 157 special operations from Jan. 18-20, the agency said on Jan. 22.
The SBU issued the announcement after reporting a wave of investigations, arrests, and charges in recent days. Suspects were accused of various crimes, including aiding Russia's war effort.
The agency carried out 157 special operations from Jan. 18-20 in order to "counter crimes that pose a threat to state security, territorial integrity and defense capabilities of our country," the SBU said.
The actions resulted in 222 charges and 85 detentions, the agency said. The SBU also carried out 287 searches during the operations.
According to the SBU, the three-day crackdown targeted 19 agents suspected to have carried out intelligence and sabotage activities on behalf of Russian special services. It also netted 24 individuals who allegedly harmed "the economic interests" of Ukraine.
The SBU charged 63 people with participating in draft evasion schemes and 39 individuals with crimes related to the military, including embezzling from the state defense budget.
Another seven were charged with illegal weapons trafficking, and seven others allegedly spread propaganda or otherwise posed threats to Ukraine's cybersecurity, the agency reported.
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Jan. 18, the first day of the recent crackdown, praised Ukrainian law enforcement agencies for their investigations.
"Traitors and various schemes that weakened our state and our Ukrainian society are being countered," the president said.
"And anyone who stands against Ukraine or defies the laws of Ukraine must remember, that they will face a response."
The SBU has announced high-profile arrests in recent days, including the detention of a well-known Dnipro lawyer who allegedly helped Russia carry out missile strikes and that of Ukraine's chief military psychaitrist, who is suspected of illicit enrichment activities.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Martin Fornusek
