"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 colleague of Ukrainian journalist Victoriia Roshchyna holds a photograph of her during an event in honor of Victoria's memory in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 11, 2024. (Anatolii Stepanov/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's note: This story has been updated with a statement by Yurii Belousov, head of the war crimes department at the Prosecutor General's Office.
The body of Ukrainian journalist Viktoriia Roshchyna, who died after torture in Russian captivity, was brought back to Ukraine in late February, Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Tymchenko said in an interview with Censor.net published on April 24.
"She was identified through DNA testing," Tymchenko said.
Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories, with Moscow admitting her detention the following year.
Ukrainian officials confirmed Roshchyna's death on Oct. 10, 2024, but said that the circumstances were still under investigation. Russia did not hand over her body for about five months.
According to Russia, Roshchyna died on Sept. 19, 2024.
Yurii Belousov, head of the war crimes department at the Prosecutor General's Office, said the condition of the journalist's body made it impossible to determine the exact cause of death.
"At the same time, numerous signs of torture and ill-treatment were found on the victim's body," Belousov said during a briefing in Kyiv on April 24.
The Media Initiative for Human Rights, a Ukrainian NGO, reported that Roshchyna had been held in at least two notorious Russian prisons: the penal colony n. 77 in Berdiansk in occupied Ukraine and the detention center n. 2 in Russia's Taganrog.
Roshchyna was tortured with electric shocks while in Russian captivity, Ukrainian investigative journalism outlet Slidstvo.Info reported in early March, citing an unnamed witness in the Taganrog detention center.
There were also cuts on Roshchyna's arms after interrogations, the witness said. The journalist lost weight and weighed up to 30 kilograms, according to the source.
Previously, in March 2022, Roshchyna was detained for 10 days by the Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) officers while leaving Berdiansk in the direction of Mariupol. As a condition of her release, she was forced to record a video saying Russian forces had saved her life.
Although Roshchyna's body is said to have been returned in late February, Ukrainian journalists said in March that her body had not yet been retrieved at the time.
Yaroslav Yurchyshyn, a lawmaker and chair of the parliamentary committee on freedom of speech, said on April 24 that the body's return was not announced for so long due to uncertainty about the identity.
"Given the torture and the condition of her body, Roshchyna's family requested not one, but several DNA examinations," Yurchyshyn wrote on Facebook. "As far as I know, the examinations were carried out not only in Ukraine but also abroad to ensure that it was Viktoriia."
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.
Abbey Fenbert
