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.
People gather to take part at a protest called “Slovakia is Europe” in Bratislava Friday, March 7, 2025. (Jakub Kotian/TASR via AP)
Thousands of protestors gathered on March 7 in more than 40 cities across Slovakia targeting the government of Prime Minister Robert Fico, Slovak media Aktuality reported.
In Bratislava’s Freedom Square, protesters chanted “shame” and called Fico a traitor, declaring that “Slovakia is Europe.”
Fico's government has faced criticism for its perceived alignment with Russian interests, and his administration has repeatedly criticized Western aid to Ukraine.
Demonstrators accused Fico of distancing from the European Union, and for strengthening ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Protesters also condemned remarks by Fico’s chief advisor, Erik Kalinak, who recently suggested that Russia’s defeat of Ukraine would give Slovakia a “reliable neighbor.”
Numerous large-scale protests have occurred in Slovakia in the past few months following Fico’s remarks and visit in Dec. 2024 with Putin in Moscow. In Jan. 2025 hundreds of thousands of protestors took to the streets, chanting similar slogans including “Enough of Fico.”
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
Camilla Bell-Davies
