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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Oleksii Halonka in his temporary housing after the first missile attack he experienced in 2022. (Vasyl Chepurnyi / Facebook)
Oleksii Halionka, a 72-year-old Ukrainian educator and philologist, was killed on 3 January 2025 when a Russian missile hit his home in Chernihiv.
The attack, involving three ballistic missiles, struck residential areas, killing Halionka, injuring four others, and damaging several homes.
Halionka had already suffered significant losses in 2022 when Russian forces destroyed his family home, along with a personal library of 4,000 books and other belongings. Since then, he had been living in a small building on the same property.
“He had big plans for life this year, including building a new house,” his niece Liudmyla Halionka said in an interview with local media outlet Cheline. “He was a very kind and sensitive person. It’s a great loss for our family, for everyone.”
A well-known educator, Halionka authored over 100 publications and was an associate professor at the Regional Institute of Postgraduate Pedagogical Education.
Local authorities confirmed the missiles targeted civilian infrastructure, leaving parts of the neighborhood heavily damaged.
Chernihiv Oblast, situated on Ukraine's northern border with Russia, was partially occupied during the early stages of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022.
Although Russian forces withdrew from the region in April 2022, Chernihiv Oblast remained under near-daily attack due to its proximity to the border in the following two years.
Sonya Bandouil is a North American news editor for The Kyiv Independent. She previously worked in the fields of cybersecurity and translating, and she also edited for various journals in NYC.
Sonya has a Master’s degree in Global Affairs from New York University, and a Bachelor’s degree in Music from the University of Houston, in Texas.
Martina Sapio
