"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.
Activists and relatives of Ukrainian POWs hold up banners and urge for the return of Ukrainian soldiers from Russian captivity during the rally organized in the neighborhood of Lukianivska on June 9, 2024 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Photo by hurricanehank/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine has 55,000 citizens in its unified register for persons missing under special circumstances, Deputy Interior Minister Leonid Tymchenko told Ukrinform in an interview published on Sept. 26.
The register includes people who have disappeared due to war, occupation, or natural and man-made disasters.
The figure underscores the humanitarian impact of Russia's full-scale war, which has brought illegal deportations, kidnappings, and a large number of deaths among both the military and civilians in Ukraine.
"The register contains information about 55,000 people. Most of them are military personnel. This figure is quite dynamic: when the whereabouts of missing persons are established, in some cases, it turns out that a citizen, for example, is in captivity," Tymchenko said.
"Unfortunately, we also identify the dead among those who were considered missing," he added.
The latest figure shows a considerable growth since July, when the Interior Ministry revealed that 42,000 Ukrainians were considered missing.
This number does not include Ukrainian children forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or occupied territories, whose numbers exceed 19,500.
Daria Svitlyk
