"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.
Former U.S. ambassador to NATO Kurt Volker speaking at the Globsec conference in Prague, Czechia, on Aug. 31, 2024. (Ray Baseley/the Kyiv Independent)
Ukraine's incursion into Kursk Oblast "demonstrates that Russia is at the limit of its capabilities," said Kurt Volker, former U.S. ambassador to NATO, at the Globsec conference in Prague on Aug. 31.
As Kyiv's incursion into Kursk Oblast entered its fourth week, Ukraine is in control of 1,294 square kilometers (around 500 square miles) and 100 settlements, including the town of Sudzha, Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Aug. 27.
"(Russia) can't attack Ukraine and defend Russia at the same time, it has had to make a choice," Volker said.
"It's going to have to move forces from Ukraine to defend Russia. That movement is something we should be taking advantage of with long-range systems to hit them while they move," he added.
The incursion further shows that "Russia does not have the ability to escalate," Volker said.
Separately, Ukrainian lawmaker Olena Khomenko said that the Kursk incursion "proves that there are no real risks of Russian escalation, and there are no Russian red lines."
Ukrainian lawmaker Olena Khomenko at the Globsec conference in Prague, Czechia, on Aug. 31, 2024. (Ray Baseley/the Kyiv Independent)
"(Russian President Vladimir) Putin's only reaction was pretending that nothing special is happening," she added.
The Kursk incision also erodes the narrative that Russia is trying to portray to its domestic audience that the full-scale war is not truly a war, said Volker.
In terms of the larger dynamics of the war, the incursion alters the trope that any future negotiations between Russia and Ukraine begin with concessions from Kyiv.
"Now it is more of a question of a trade," Volker said.
"Russia has to give something up in order to get something as well, that has not been the case before."
Francis Farrell
