"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.
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin speaks during a press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Jan. 22, 2024. (Vitalii Nosach/Global Images Ukraine/Getty Images)
Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin submitted his resignation on Oct. 22 amid reports of prosecutors illegally obtaining disability status.
During the meeting, the "immoral situation" with the fake disabilities of prosecutors was discussed, and "many shameful facts of abuse" were revealed, according to Kostin.
"I am grateful to the president of Ukraine and Ukraine's Verkhovna Rada for their trust. But in this situation, I believe it is right for me to resign from the post of prosecutor general," he said.
The former prosecutor general added that he supported Zelensky's stance that all offenders are "personally liable" and all illegal decisions on disability status, pension, and other benefits should be reversed.
Following the NSDC meeting, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk said that the SBU had exposed corruption schemes at medical examination commissions in 2024, resulting in the cancellation of 4,106 fake disability status certificates.
Maliuk added that 64 officials at medical examination commissions have been charged with committing crimes, while another nine suspects have been convicted.
Medical examination commissions (MSEK) determine the severity of a disability.
Corruption schemes at medical examination commissions linked to draft evasion have been reported in Rivne, Mykolaiv, Khmelnytskyi, and Kharkiv oblasts.
Kostin has served as prosecutor general since July 28, 2022, replacing Iryna Venediktova.
Prior to that, he was a member of parliament from 2019 to 2022 and headed the legal policy committee.
From 2012 to 2019, Kostin was a deputy chairman of the Odesa Oblast Bar Association. He has been a member of the International Bar Association since 2000.
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.
Andrea Januta
