A notice about the airspace closure was published on the U.S. Defense Department's NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) website on May 10, as cited by Ukrainian defense news outlet Militarnyi.
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.
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski speaks to the media on Jan. 30, 2024 in Berlin, Germany. (Sean Gallup/Getty Images)
Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski on Sept. 13 called on the Ukrainian government to resolve the issue of the Volyn (Volhynia) tragedy.
He was speaking at a press conference with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha, which was attended by a Kyiv Independent journalist.
The minister was referring to the 1943 massacre of tens of thousands of Poles by members of the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA) in Nazi-occupied Volyn, a region that used to be part of Poland and is now part of Ukraine. Thousands of Ukrainians were killed in retaliation.
Despite several attempts at reconciliation between modern-day Poland and Ukraine, the issue has come to the forefront of public discussion several times, namely during the tenure of the conservative Law and Justice (PiS) party, in was in power between 2015 and 2023.
"We have to tell the truth, talk about the Volyn tragedy, about other mutual acts (between Poland and Ukraine)," Sikorski said, adding that Ukraine and Poland must choose a "common and secure future."
Sikorski stressed that victims of the Volyn tragedy should receive "Christian burials."
"This is a non-political issue that cannot be bargained over. And we hope that it will be resolved. This is part of the European canon of values, to which Ukraine also belongs," Sikorski said.
Sybiha, in turn, said that Kyiv shares Warsaw's stance on the need to depoliticize approaches to resolving "complex issues of the past."
"I believe that we have enough political will and diplomatic talent to resolve any difficult or complex relations issues in the spirit of strategic partnership and brotherly relations," Sybiha added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky promised in 2019 to lift the Ukrainian moratorium on the exhumation of Volyn victims, imposed in reaction to cases of destruction of UPA memorials in Poland.
The matter has not yet been resolved, however, and Polish President Andrzej Duda said in 2023 that obtaining permission for the exhumations plays a crucial role in Polish-Ukrainian relations.
In July, a newly erected memorial to the Volyn massacres in Poland sparked controversy by featuring a depiction of a baby impaled on what resembled a Ukrainian trident.
The unveiling ceremony was attended by figures from the far-right Confederation party, while the monument itself was funded by the Polish Army Veterans' Association in America.
Ukrainian historian Serhii Plokhy, director of the Ukrainian Research Institute at Harvard University, estimates that the number of Polish victims of the massacre varies from 60,000 to 90,000.
The number of Ukrainians killed by Poles in the 1940s is estimated at between 10,000 and 20,000, including between 2,000 and 3,000 in Volyn, according to Polish historian Grzegorz Motyka.
In 2016, Poland's parliament recognized the killings as a genocide, a term that Ukraine denies.
Daria Svitlyk
