"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.
Former U.S. President Donald Trump delivers remarks during a campaign rally on Dec. 17. (Justin Sullivan/Getty Images)
As president of the U.S., Donald Trump “made it very clear” that he believed Ukraine “must be part of Russia,” his former advisor Fiona Hill said, The Guardian reported on April 12, citing an excerpt from a book by The New York Times reporter David Sanger.
Trump, a presumptive nominee for the 2024 U.S. presidential run, has repeatedly said he could end Russia’s war within 24 hours if elected president, without specifying the steps for reaching a peace deal between Kyiv and Moscow.
Hill reportedly alleged that Trump thought "Ukraine, and certainly Crimea, must be part of Russia.”
The book's author wrote that such a view of Trump regarding Ukraine actually coincided with that of Russian President Vladimir Putin, who has repeatedly denied Ukraine's statehood and independence, the Guardian reported.
Hard-line Republican lawmakers close to Trump oppose further assistance for Kyiv, reportedly pressuring House Speaker Mike Johnson not to call a vote on the $60 billion aid package for Ukraine in the House of Representatives.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky rejected the idea of ceding the country's territories in exchange for peace. Zelensky nevertheless said that Ukraine is likely to lose the warunless Congress approves additional support.
Russia illegally annexed Crimea and invaded Donbas in 2014. In September 2022, Putin illegally declared the annexation of four partially occupied Ukrainian oblasts: Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson, and Zaporizhzhia.
Kris Parker
