"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.
Footage that purports to show the Smolensk Aviation Plant in Smolensk Oblast, Russia, burning after a Ukrainian drone attack overnight on Jan. 21, 2025. (Andrii Kovalenko/Telegram)
Ukrainian forces struck the Liskinskaya oil depot in Russia's Voronezh Oblast, the Smolensk Aviation Plant, and a Russian command post in Donetsk Oblast overnight on Jan. 21, Ukraine's General Staff said.
The announcement comes as Russia's Defense Ministry reported intercepting 55 Ukrainian drones in a large-scale overnight strike, including 10 over Smolensk Oblast and six over Voronezh Oblast.
The Liskinskaya oil depot was targeted again after being hit by a Ukrainian drone attack on Jan. 16. In the most recent strike, Ukrainian drones hit fuel and lubricant tanks, starting a fire at the Rosneft-run facility, the General Staff reported.
An attack against the depot was confirmed by Voronezh Oblast Governor Alexander Gusev. The village of Liski, where the depot is located, lies around 140 kilometers (90 miles) north of Russia's border with Ukraine's Kharkiv Oblast.
Another attack, carried out jointly by the Unmanned Systems Forces and the Special Operations Forces, hit the infrastructure of the Smolensk Aviation Plant, with explosions reported on the facility's territory, according to the General Staff.
Smolensk lies less than 60 kilometers (around 35 miles) east of the Russia-Belarus border and some 270 kilometers (170 miles) north of Ukraine. The city's aviation plant is involved in the production and modernization of the Su-25 military aircraft, said Andrii Kovalenko, the counter-disinformation chief at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council.
The Ukrainian military also reported a successful hit against a command post of Russia's 29th Combined Arms Army in the occupied Volnovakha in Donetsk Oblast.
"The consequences of the strike are being clarified," the General Staff said without specifying the weaponry used.
Ukrainian long-range drones regularly target Russian military and industrial facilities to undermine Moscow's ability to wage its full-scale war in Ukraine.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
