"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.
A Ukrainian serviceman of the Main Directorate of Intelligence of the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine launches a naval drone, Magura, during a demonstration for journalists in Ukraine on April 13, 2024. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukraine's Magura V5 naval drones have managed to hit 18 Russian Navy vessels during the full-scale war, according to comments by a member of Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) for DW published on Aug. 16.
HUR's Magura drones of the Security Service of Ukraine's (SBU) Sea Baby drones are key tools that allowed Kyiv to undermine Russia's overwhelming naval dominance in the Black Sea.
Speaking in a video with a covered face and presented only by the codename "Thirteenth," the commander of the special unit Group 13 said Magura drones had struck 18 Russian vessels in a year and a half. Nine of them reportedly suffered "irreversible damage."
The Magura drone was first presented at the International Defense Industry Fair (IDEF) in Istanbul in July 2023, a little over one year ago. It is unclear whether this was a mistake on Thirteen's part or whether the drone had been unofficially in use before being unveiled at the fair.
The Magura drone can cover a distance of more than 800 kilometers (500 miles), reach a speed of 80 km/h (50 mph), and is capable of carrying a 250-kilogram warhead.
"We didn't try to strengthen the warhead to destroy a ship with one hit," Thirteenth explained.
"We took another approach: we attacked in a swarm, carrying out five or more hits on large ships to cause critical damage."
The HUR officer said the Black Sea Fleet is "paralyzed" and is now only "consuming money from the state budget, unable to perform its tasks."
The list of Russian warships sunk by Magura drones throughout the war includes the missile corvette Ivanovets, the large landing craft Caesar Kunikov, and the modern patrol ship Sergey Kotov, among others.
The Ukrainian military says it had destroyed or disabled roughly 30% of the Russian Black Sea Fleet.
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.
Igor Kossov
