"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(T)he presence at the Victory Parade of a country that bombs cities, hospitals, and daycares, and which has caused the deaths and injuries of over a million people over three years, is a shame," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
"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.
Russian agent Kyrylo Molchanov was detained in Poland and transferred to one of Kyiv's pre-trial detention centers, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) said on April 1, 2025. (SBU)
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), the Foreign Intelligence Service, and Polish authorities detained Kyrylo Molchanov, a propagandist working with pro-Russian oligarch Viktor Medvedchuk's media network and Russian intelligence agencies, the SBU said on April 1.
Molchanov was initially detained in Poland and transferred to a pre-trial detention in Kyiv, marking the first such operation carried out in cooperation between Ukraine and an EU country.
Before the full-scale invasion, Molchanov was presented as a "political expert" in Medvedchuk's media group. In his speeches, the propagandist claimed that Ukrainians were divided by language, history, and religion and that the EU would deprive Ukraine of its sovereignty.
Molchanov also criticized Medvedchuk's political opponents and the pro-Western initiatives of the Ukrainian government.
After the start of the all-out war in 2022, Molchanov left for Russia, where he attended the program of Russian propagandist Vladimir Solovyov 35 times, according to SBU. The security agency presented him as "one of the key ideologists of the Kremlin media projects Other Ukraine and Voice of Europe," both of which were overseen by Medvedchuk.
Once Russian President Vladimir Putin's key ally in the Ukrainian political landscape, Medvedchuk was arrested and released to Russia during a prisoner exchange in late 2022. Kyiv charged the pro-Russian oligarch with high treason in 2021 and stripped him of citizenship and his seat in parliament two years later.
"For the first time since the beginning of the full-scale invasion, a Russian agent who worked against our country in the media sector was handed over to Ukraine (from the EU) at the request of the SBU," the security agency said.
The SBU accused Molchanov of having been recruited by the Federal Security Service (FSB) and the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service. According to the SBU, Molchanov was engaged in discrediting Ukraine abroad and worked to undermine the internal situation in partner countries.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Kollen Post
