"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.
Smoke rises over the site of a reported attack at a Russian Optic Fiber Systems plant in Saransk, Mordovia Republic, Russia, on May 7, 2025. (Astra / Telegram)
Ukrainian drones struck the Optic Fiber Systems plant in Saransk, Mordovia Republic, Russian independent outlet Astra reported on May 7.
Two fires broke out in Saransk following the drone attack. One fire erupted at the Optic Fiber Systems plant, while the second ignited a few kilometers away, reportedly at the Saranskkabel plant.
Local residents told the pro-Kremlin Telegram channel Shot that several powerful explosions shook the city's industrial district around 6 a.m.
"The fiber optic systems plant in Saransk was very seriously damaged after the strike," Andrii Kovalenko, an official at Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said on May 7.
Kovalenko claimed the factory supplied the Russian army with materials for the production of fiber-optic drones, which are resistant to electronic warfare interference, and said the shutdown of the factory was now a possibility.
Optical Fiber Systems JSC plant on fire in Saransk after Ukrainian drone strike — ASTRA analysis
According to ASTRA’s analysis of eyewitness footage from one of the fires in Saransk, the city’s optical fiber manufacturing plant is once again on fire.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims. The potential consequences of the attack on the Saranskkabel plant remain unknown.
The operational headquarters of Mordovia banned the publication of photos and videos showing the aftermath of the attack.
The Optic Fiber Systems plant, with an annual capacity of 4 million kilometers of fiber, also supplies major Russian telecom operators.
The facility was also targeted on April 4, when Ukrainian drones struck fiber-optic and explosives factories across Russia.
Saransk lies about 630 kilometers (around 390 miles) east of Moscow and roughly 1000 kilometers (620 miles) from the nearest point on the Russia–Ukraine border.
Tim Zadorozhnyy is a news editor at The Kyiv Independent. Based in Warsaw, he is pursuing studies in International Relations, focusing on European Studies. Tim began his career at a local television channel in Odesa. After moving to Warsaw, he joined the Belarusian opposition media outlet NEXTA, starting as a news anchor and later advancing to the position of managing editor.
Tim Zadorozhnyy
