"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 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.
Illustrative purposes only: A Sukhoi SU-27SMK flies during its flying display at the 46th International Paris Air Show on 17 June 2005 at Le Bourget Airport. (Pierre Verdy/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian forces accidentally shot down their own Su-27 fighter jet over occupied Crimea due to "heightened combat readiness," Ukraine's Navy spokesperson Dmytro Pletenchuk said on air on March 29.
Russian occupation authorities in Sevastopol reported on March 28 that a Russian warplane "crashed" off the Crimean coastwithout naming the cause of the incident. The pilot ejected safely and was picked up by rescue services, according to the Russian-installed head of Sevastopol, Mikhail Razvozhayev.
Several Telegram channels claimed that the aircraft was downed by Russian air defenses after it took off from the Belbek airbase in Crimea.
"We can confirm that the aircraft belonged to Russia and that it was destroyed by their own forces," Pletenchuk said on television.
"They (Russian forces) were on alert and in heightened combat readiness. Then the human factor came into play," the spokesperson said.
Pletenchuk commented that "somebody really wanted to get a medal for shooting down a plane" and "didn't bother to figure out" whose aircraft it was. The spokesperson said that the pilot survived, confirming the claims of Russian authorities.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Kateryna Denisova
