"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 man holds a flag bearing the logo of private mercenary group Wagner as another flag flutters in the wind at a makeshift memorial for Yevgeny Prigozhin in front of the Private Military Company (PMC) Wagner Centre in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Aug. 25, 2023. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images)
The Krakow District Court has begun the trial of two Russian nationals, Andrei G. and Aleksei T., who were allegedly hired by the Wagner Group to distribute flyers in Krakow, Poland encouraging people to join the organization.
They face charges related to foreign intelligence activities and involvement with an international armed group intending to commit acts of terrorism.
Initially arrested by Poland's Internal Security Agency in August 2023, they could face up to 10 years in prison for their actions.
Aside from Poland, they supposedly also worked in other cities in Europe including Berlin and Paris, also hanging flyers and distributing stickers with QR codes for enlistment.
"We received the Wagner Group flyers in Moscow. Our task was to distribute 3,000 flyers in Krakow and Warsaw, but we only managed to post 200. We were also told to take photos of them once they were up. I didn’t want to be part of the propaganda; I was just looking to earn some money," one of the men stated in court.
The Wagner Group played a pivotal role in Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, leading Moscow's assault in the Battle of Bakhmut in the spring of 2023.
Yevgeny Prigozhin, the then-leader of Wagner, died in a mysterious plane crash in Russia on Aug. 23, 2023. The crash came two months after Prigozhin led Wagner troops in a short-lived rebellion against the Kremlin.
Following Prigozhin's mutiny and death, the mercenary group withdrew from Ukraine and became fragmented, operating in Belarus and some African nations friendly to Russia.
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
Martin Fornusek
