"(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.
A transformer cabinet in flames along a railway in Russian-occupied Luhansk Oblast on April 27, 2025. (Atesh / Telegram)
The Atesh partisan group sabotaged a railway in occupied Luhansk Oblast, disrupting Russian logistics, the group claimed in a Telegram post on April 27.
Operatives with the group destroyed a transformer cabinet on a railway near the town of Stanytsia Luhanska, Atesh said. Occupying Russian troops reportedly use the railroad to transport military personnel and supplies.
The sabotage operation disrupted Russian supply lines and led to delays in the delivery of equipment and spare parts, the partisan group said.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
The Atesh movement regularly commits sabotage attacks on Russian territory and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. Partisans reported similar attacks on railroads in occupied Crimea and in Russia's Smolensk Oblast in March.
Luhansk Oblast remains almost entirely occupied by Russian forces. It is one of five partially occupied Ukrainian territories at the center of ongoing U.S.-brokered ceasefire negotiations between Kyiv and Moscow.
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.
Martin Fornusek
