"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.
CourtAvenue, an American artificial intelligence solutions company ranked among the fastest-growing private companies in the U.S., has acquired a controlling stake in BotsCrew, a Ukrainian company that develops chatbots for business, BotsCrew announced in a press release on Feb. 11.
The founders of BotsCrew said in the press release negotiations had been ongoing since May 2024. They did not disclose the value of the deal.
BotsCrew founders Nazar Hembara, Max Gladysh, and Oleh Pylypchak will remain in leadership positions within the company, CourtAvenue wrote on its LinkedIn page in a post announcing the acquisition.
"CourtAvenue became our client in 2023, during the full-scale invasion, and now, in February 2025, we're signing this deal just before the third anniversary. I believe this sends a powerful message to our ecosystem that there is no 'discount' in this deal just because we are located in Ukraine," said Nazar Hembara, co-founder and CEO of BotsCrew.
BotsCrew, founded in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv, has been operating in the AI market since 2016, developing solutions for Healthcare, e-commerce, travel, government, and process automation sectors, with clients including Virgin Holidays, Honda, and Mars.
"BotsCrew brings world-class expertise in developing AI agents," said Kenny Tomlin, CourtAvenue co-founder. "This acquisition is a strategic move to deepen our artificial intelligence capabilities and expand our automation and personalization capabilities at scale."
CourtAvenue specializes in developing AI solutions. Its client roster includes automaker Kia, electronics manufacturer Epson, Dell, and the U.S. Air Force. CourtAvenue ranks 58th on the Inc. 5000 list of fastest-growing private companies.
Yana Prots
