"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.
Vasyl Ratushnyi, then a teenage activist, stands in the streets of Kyiv during the EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013. (Svitlana Povalyaeva / Facebook)
Vasyl Ratushnyi, an activist and drone pilot in Ukraine's Armed Forces, died while fighting on the front lines on Feb. 27, according to his family.
Ratushnyi was the son of the writer Svitlana Povalyaeva and the brother of the prominent activist Roman Ratushnyi, who died in combat in 2022.
Ratushnyi, a member of Ukraine's Birds of Magyar drone unit, was killed in a direct attack by a first-person-view (FPV) drone during an overnight combat mission, Povalyaeva said in a Facebook post.
"My eldest son, my life," she wrote.
Previously, Ratushnyi participated in Ukraine's EuroMaidan Revolution, alongside his younger brother, renowned activist Roman Ratushnyi. Roman was killed while fighting near Izium in Kharkiv Oblast in June 2022.
Following EuroMaidan and Russia's subsequent invasion of Donbas, Vasyl, then 18, volunteered to fight on the front lines in eastern Ukraine.
Following Roman's death in 2022, Vasyl said he carried with him military gear that his brother left him in his will.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Francis Farrell
