"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.
Illustrative photo: Chinese President Xi Jinping (facing camera) and his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump are picturedat a Group of 20 summit in Buenos Aires on Nov. 30, 2018. (Kyodo News Stills via Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump said on Jan. 21 that he pressed Chinese President Xi Jinping to help put an end to Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump claimed he brought the matter up with Xi during a call.
"He's not done very much on that," Trump said.
"He's got a lot of ... power, like we have a lot of power. I said, 'You ought to get it settled.' We did discuss it."
Xi and Trump spoke by phone on Jan. 17, though Trump did not mention Ukraine in his comments directly afterwards.
While Trump in the past has spoken admiringly of both Xi and Putin, he told reporters that the U.S. would "likely" impose new sanctions on Russia if Putin refuses to make deal. The previous day, he said Putin was "destroying Russia" by not making a deal to end the war.
Trump campaigned on the promise that he could end Russia's war in Ukraine within 24 hours of his election. Since his November victory, the timeline for a peace agreement has changed significantly, with Trump acknowledging in December that the situation is "a tough one."
Although China has positioned itself as a possible mediator between Russia and Ukraine in future negotiations, Beijing remains Moscow's key economic ally and leading source of dual-use goods that feed the Kremlin's war machine. China nonetheless denies accusations of supporting Russia's invasion.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Chris York
