"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.
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.
A handout photo provided by Dong-A Ilbo of North Korean leader Kim Jong Un and U.S. President Donald Trump inside the demilitarized zone (DMZ) separating the South and North Korea on June 30, 2019 in Panmunjom, South Korea. (Dong-A Ilbo via Getty Images/Getty Images)
U.S. President Donald Trump said in an interview on Jan. 23 he intends to again engage North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un, signaling a shift from the previous Biden administration.
"I'll reach out to him again," Trump said in the interview with Fox News.
Kim, who Trump lauded as a "smart guy," has become Russian President Vladimir Putin’s key ally in a war against Ukraine, providing ballistic missiles and artillery and sending 12,000 troops to fight in Russia’s Kursk Oblast.
"He’s not a religious zealot. He happens to be a smart guy," the U.S. president said, adding that he had good relations with Kim during his first presidential term in 2017-2021.
The North Korean dictator has grown increasingly assertive in recent years, cementing an alliance with Russia and carrying out new missile tests. This prompted sharp deterioration of relations with the U.S. under the Biden administration and rising tensions on the Korean peninsula.
Initially dismissive of the North Korean leader during his first term in office, Trump later engaged Pyongyang in a rare diplomatic effort to halt the North Korean nuclear program and even claimed to have built a warm personal relationship with Kim.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently admitted that Trump’s diplomatic efforts did not achieve any "enduring" progress in stalling Pyongyang’s nuclear arms development.
Trump’s return to the White House is expected to bring geopolitical shifts as the president has often voiced sympathies for the U.S.’s rivals and authoritarian leaders, like Putin or Kim, while being critical of Washington’s allies.
The U.S. president said he plans to reach out to Putin and broker a peace deal in Ukraine, threatening with additional sanctions unless Moscow agrees to negotiate.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Kateryna Hodunova
