"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.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy speaks during a joint press conference with Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha (not pictured) and then-U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken (not pictured) on Sept. 11, 2024, in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
London does not see indications that Russia is ready for serious negotiations about peace in Ukraine, U.K. Foreign Secretary David Lammy said on Feb. 5 at a press conference in Kyiv attended by the Kyiv Independent.
"We do not see (that) Russia is serious about negotiations and serious about peace," Lammy said alongside his Ukrainian counterpart, Andrii Sybiha.
"And the conditions that were set out by (Russian President Vladimir) Putin last year was not any basis on which you could seriously expect a sovereign country to begin negotiations."
Putin issued an ultimatum last June under which Ukraine was to entirely withdraw from the Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts as a condition for peace talks. Moscow illegally declared annexation of the four regions in September 2022 despite not fully occupying them.
There are growing expectations of possible peace talks in 2025 as U.S. President Donald Trump vowed to broker a swift settlement.
President Volodymyr Zelensky concurred that Kyiv would seek an end to the war this year but urged partners to help Ukraine negotiate from the position of strength. In a surprise turn, the Ukrainian president even recently acknowledged the possibility of sitting at the negotiating table with Putin if necessary to achieve peace.
"We in the United Kingdom have been at the forefront of supplying Ukraine with the military capability," Lammy said.
"The United Kingdom, of course, plays its full part to ensure that Putin does not come back."
The U.K.'s top diplomat is visiting Ukraine shortly after British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged to ramp up military support, promising more assistance in 2025 than ever before.
London previously announced plans to deliver unprecedented military assistance to Ukraine this year, with 3 billion pounds ($3.6 billion) already committed for lethal aid.
The British-Ukrainian cooperation was further cemented in January by the 100-year strategic partnership agreement, a wide-ranging deal that encompasses cooperation in military, energy, scientific, cultural, economic, and other sectors.
Abbey Fenbert
