"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.
Images of Russian maps show the region and village targeted by Ukrainian partisans in an alleged railway sabotage attack on Dec. 5, 2024. The Atesh group claimed it sabotaged a key rail line between Moscow and Kursk Oblast. (Atesh / Telegram)
The Atesh partisan group sabotaged a key railway line linking Russia's Moscow and Kursk oblasts, disrupting Russian supply lines, the group claimed via Telegram on Dec. 6.
An operative burned down a relay cabinet near the village of Chekhov in Moscow Oblast, Atesh said, posting undated video footage of the alleged sabotage.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the group's claims.
The operation aimed to disrupt Russian military logistics, Atesh reported. The targeted railway connected Moscow to Kursk Oblast, which has been partially occupied by Ukrainian forces since August.
"Deliveries of fuel and military equipment intended to supply Russian troops on the front line were delayed," the group said.
Ukraine launched a surprise incursion into Kursk Oblast in early August, seeking leverage against Moscow in future prisoner exchanges and peace negotiations. Russia has amassed tens of thousands of troops, including North Korean soldiers, in an effort to take back the border region.
The Atesh movement regularly commits sabotage attacks on Russian territory and in Russian-occupied areas of Ukraine. The group reported a similar action against a railway in occupied Zaporizhzhia Oblast on Nov. 16.
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.
Asami Terajima
