"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.
Pilots of the "Sharp Kartuzy" division of FPV (first-person-view) kamikaze drones prepare drones for a combat flight on May 16, 2024, in Kharkiv Oblast. (Photo by Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images)
Ukraine is increasing the supply of drones to the army and may have gotten ahead of Russia in terms of their number, Deputy Commander-in-Chief of Ukraine’s Armed Forces Vadym Sukharevskyi told Army TV.
Kyiv is working to scale up domestic production of unmanned aerial vehicles, aiming to produce at least 1 million drones in 2024.
In the first half of 2024, Ukrainian soldiers received six times more drones than last year, Sukharevskyi said in an interview published on July 18.
"And this is a joint victory of both the General Staff and the Defense Ministry," he added.
According to Sukharevskyi, Ukraine has more than 165 drones of various types that are being tested and used on the battlefield now.
“In terms of the number of drones, we are clearly not losing, and we may have even surpassed (Russia). But, for example, the ties between Russia and China give (Russia) a greater advantage in terms of replacing components,” the colonel said.
Throughout Russia’s full-scale invasion, Ukraine and Russia have heavily invested in drone technology, revolutionizing warfare. For outnumbered Ukrainian forces, drones have been one of the key weapons to strike Russian warships, naval bases, oil refineries, and airfields inside occupied territories and deep behind enemy lines.
Kyiv officially presented its Unmanned Systems Forces on June 11, four months after President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree ordering the creation of a separate branch of the armed forces tasked with improving drone operations.
Alexander Khrebet
