"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.
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 Telegram messaging app on an App Store page on a mobile phone on Aug. 29, 2024. (Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Telegram messenger app will disclose to the authorities the phone numbers and IP addresses of those who violate its terms of use and privacy policy, Telegram CEO Pavel Durov said on Sept. 23, introducing the latest updates.
Personal information will be provided to the authorities by "valid legal requests," Durov added.
The Telegram update comes after Durov's detention and subsequent arrest in France in late August.
Durov is charged with numerous offenses related to his social network, including allowing terrorism, drug trafficking, fraud, money laundering, and child abuse content on the app. The founder of the messaging app faces up to 20 years in prison.
Public channels and bots can be found on Telegram, but this feature is abused by people who sell illegal goods. Therefore, in the messenger app, a "special team of moderators, using artificial intelligence," made all the "problematic content" in the search inaccessible, Durov said.
"Telegram search is designed to find friends and news, not to promote illegal products. We won't allow malicious actors to jeopardize the integrity of our platform for nearly a billion users," the statement read.
The 39-year-old Telegram CEO and co-founder was detained at Le Bourget airport in France on Aug. 24. Durov was later charged and released under judicial control but without the right to leave the country.
Following Durov's arrest and release on bail worth five million euros ($5.5 million), Telegram began cooperating with the country's investigative authorities, French media Liberation reported on Sept. 10.
Durov, whose net worth is estimated at $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition channels on the Russian social media platform VK, which he subsequently sold.
Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but on Aug. 27, it was reported he had visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country, according to Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine.
Telegram remains one of the most popular social media platforms among Ukrainians. A September 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that 44% of Ukrainians use Telegram to receive information and news.
Ukraine's National Coordination Center for Cybersecurity on Sept. 20 restricted the use of the Telegram messenger app for government agencies, military, and critical infrastructure facilities.
Kateryna Denisova
