"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(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.
Ukrainian first responders injured while conducting search and rescue operations after Russian attacks in Odesa, Ukraine, on March 15, 2024. (State Emergency Service of Ukraine/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Russian "double-tap" strikes have killed more than 90 Ukrainian first responders and injured close to 350 civilians since April 2022, said Timothy Hanway, the acting U.S. envoy to the Organization for Security and Co-operation in Europe (OSCE), in an address on April 25.
A "double-tap" attack is a military tactic in which an initial strike is followed by a delayed second strike intended to kill or injure first responders who arrived at the scene. It is a war crime.
Since a report issued shortly after the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Hanway said that Russia's usage of this illegal tactic has been increasing.
"In March and April (of 2024) alone, Russia’s iterative attacks hitting first responders killed nearly 30 rescue workers in Odesa, Kharkiv, and Zaporizhzhia and wounded more than 20," Hanway said, citing the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs.
Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, a spokesperson for Ukraine's State Emergency Service, previously told the Kyiv Independent that as of April 16, a total of 91 of the service's employees had been killed and another 351 wounded since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Khorunzhyi said some of these casualties were the result of "double-tap" strikes but said the precise figure was still being calculated.
Russia's usage of "double-tap" strikes preceded its full-scale war in Ukraine, having been employed extensively in Syria and as far back as the wars in Chechnya.
"The Russian government is following its own example from Syria (in Ukraine)," said Hanway.
Dinara Khalilova
