"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.
The Slovak flag set in an undefined location. (Getty Images)
The police in Slovakia detained a Ukrainian citizen on Jan. 30 suspected of preparing a coup in the country, Slovak media Aktuality reported.
The Ukrainian is being held in the border police office ahead of his deportation to Ukraine, according to Jana Mashkarova, the head of the Slovak police. She did not specify when the Ukrainian could be deported.
The news comes as relations between Kyiv and Bratislava have become increasingly tense this month. Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, who maintains friendly ties with Russia, recently called President Volodymyr Zelensky an "enemy" of Slovakia, while Ukraine's Foreign Ministry called Fico "the Kremlin's mouthpiece" in response.
Ukraine's Foreign Ministry told Babel media outlet that the Ukrainian, born in 1966, is accused of "threatening the national security" of Slovakia.
The embassy has established contact with the detainee and his family, the ministry said.
Slovak opposition lawmaker Juraj Krupa suggested that the case may be trumped-up. If the detainee's intentions to organize a coup in Slovakia were true, he would not have acted alone and in a "top secret manner," the lawmaker said, as quoted by Slovak media.
Richard Gluck, chairman of Slovakia's Internal Security Committee who is a member of Fico's party, said that more information is expected from the country's Interior Ministry on the suspect's potential accomplices.
Earlier on Jan. 30, Ukraine's Foreign Ministry summoned Slovak Ambassador Pavel Vizdal on Jan. 30 to express its rejection of Bratislava's claims that Kyiv is interfering in Slovakia's internal affairs.
A day before, the Slovak Foreign Ministry summoned Ukrainian Ambassador to Bratislava Myroslav Kastran after Kyiv criticized Fico for wanting to continue Russian gas supplies to Slovakia.
Days before, Fico claimed that Ukraine was connected to a cyberattack on Slovakia's national insurance company, which Kyiv rejected.
Fico, a pro-Russian politician who has long opposed military aid to Ukraine, has escalated threats against Kyiv following the termination of Russian gas transit via Ukrainian territory on Jan. 1.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Olena Goncharova
