"(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.
A mass burial site was found on the outskirt of the Ukrainian city of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast, which was liberated from Russian forces in September, 2022. (Ashley Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Trump administration fired a coordinator responsible for collecting data on war crimes committed by Russia during its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Washington Post (WP) reported on April 22, citing its undisclosed sources.
The news comes as the U.S. is trying to get Russia and Ukraine to sign a deal to end the all-out war while steadily scaling down its support of Kyiv.
The White House also disbanded the Justice Department's War Crimes Accountability Team, headed by a coordinator, and dismantled a program to seize assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the WP reported.
The Russian war crimes coordinator position was created in accordance with a law co-authored by then-Congressman Mike Waltz, the current national security advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, another co-author, told the Washington Post that if Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard "want to achieve lasting peace, they must be willing to hold (Russian President Vladimir) Putin accountable for the crimes he's committed in Ukraine."
In mid-March, Washington exited from the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA).
The ICPA, which the U.S. joined in 2023, was established to collect evidence for the special tribunal for Russia that aims to bring the Russian government to justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, as well as to strip Putin and his associates of their immunity.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Asami Terajima
