"(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.
Photo for illustrative purposes. Children look at their school partially destroyed by a Russian shelling in Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast on July 13, 2022. (Photo by Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
The Trump administration has ended U.S. government funding for an initiative that tracked Russian war crimes, including the forced deportation of Ukrainian children, the Washington Post (WP) reported on March 18.
The program, led by Yale University’s Humanitarian Research Lab under the State Department’s Conflict Observatory, collected biometric data and satellite imagery to document Russia’s abduction of Ukrainian children. Researchers lost access to the database last month after officials terminated the contract, cutting off critical evidence from investigators pursuing war crimes cases, the WP reported.
Lawmakers are alarmed that the research lab’s database may have been permanently deleted, jeopardizing efforts to locate the children and hold those responsible accountable.
A group of U.S. representatives, including Democrat Greg Landsman, warned Secretary of State Marco Rubio that losing the data would have "devastating consequences," according to a copy of the letter obtained by the WP.
The database, which contained detailed dossiers on thousands of Ukrainian children taken to Russia, was being transferred to Europol to support international prosecutions. However, the funding cut blocked that process.
The Observatory’s research has been a key source of evidence for international investigations. It contributed to multiple reports on Russia’s actions in Ukraine and played a role in securing six International Criminal Court (ICC) indictments, including the 2023 arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin and his commissioner for children’s rights, Maria Lvova-Belova.
The ICC accused them of overseeing the unlawful deportation of Ukrainian children, an act Ukraine considers an attempt to erase their national identity.
Despite Moscow’s claims that it relocates children from combat zones for their safety, Ukraine and human rights groups argue that Russia is systematically adopting and indoctrinating them.
Putin even signed a decree in 2022, making it easier for Russian families to adopt Ukrainian children. The Observatory’s reports identified at least 35,000 children affected by these forced transfers, with researchers insisting that their findings are crucial for Ukraine’s efforts to bring them home.
The Ukrainian government has managed to return1,240 children so far, according to the Ukrainian national database "Children of War."
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Abbey Fenbert
