"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.
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham arrives in Kyiv on March 18, 2024. (U.S. Embassy in Ukraine / X)
U.S. Senator Lindsey Graham has called on the U.S. presidential administration to support Russia's inclusion in the list of countries sponsoring terrorism.
The United States currently designates four countries as state sponsors of terrorism: Cuba, North Korea, Iran, and Syria. This classification entails a range of sanctions, such as limitations on foreign aid and a prohibition on defense exports and sales.
"I am also urging the Biden Administration to send longer-range artillery, accelerate F-16 training for the Ukrainians, and designate Russia a state sponsor of terrorism under U.S. law," Graham said during his visit to Kyiv on March 18.
The senator also added that he feels sorry for the Russian people, who are forced to live in Russia's President Vladimir Putin's state. Graham stressed that he considers the elections held in Russia to be a fiction, and Putin a war criminal.
This is Graham's fifth visit to Ukraine since the beginning of Russia's full-scale war.
He arrived as U.S. aid to Ukraine remains stalled. While the Senate approved a $95 billion funding package on Feb. 13 that contained $60 billion in aid for Kyiv, the package still faces an uphill battle in the Republican-controlled House of Representatives.
Graham voted repeatedly against the $60 billion package, declaring in February that he talked to former U.S. President Donald Trump, who is "dead set against this package."
The Kyiv Independent news desk
