"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 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.
U.S. President Donald Trump speaks to reporters while in flight on Air Force One, en route to Joint Base Andrews on April 6, 2025. (Mandel Ngan/AFP via Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump raised tariffs on China to 125% but authorized a 90-day tariff pause on other countries effective immediately, he said on Truth Social on April 9.
The move came a day after Trump raised tariffs on China from 54% to 104%. In turn, Beijing slapped 84% tariffs on U.S. goods on April 9.
White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said the tariff rate would be brought down to a universal 10 percent — a significant reduction for many countries.
Trump’s new tariff policy, announced as part of what he called "Liberation Day," imposed duties on nearly every major U.S. trading partner, including Ukraine. Kyiv was hit with a 10% tariff, compared to 20% on the EU.
Russia, Belarus, North Korea, and Cuba were notably not included.
The U.S. president said that the tariff hike for China is "based on the lack of respect shown to the world’s markets."
"At some point, hopefully in the near future, China will realize that the days of ripping off the U.S.A., and other countries, is no longer sustainable or acceptable," he added.
According to Trump, more than 75 countries have approached the U.S. to discuss trade, trade barriers and tariffs and have not retaliated against Washington.
Earlier in the day, EU member states backed the introduction of trade countermeasures against the U.S. on April 9 in response to Washington's recent 25% tariffs on imports of steel and aluminum.
Ukraine was hit with a 10% blanket tariff on its exports, a setback for a country at war.
Kyiv's metallurgy sector, a major source of Ukrainian exports to the U.S., was already impacted by a 25% tariff imposed in March.
In 2023, Ukrainian exports to the U.S. totaled just $874 million, while imports from the U.S. reached $3.4 billion. The overall trade volume has declined in recent years, but the tariffs could deepen the imbalance, especially if they trigger broader protectionist measures globally.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Dominic Culverwell
