"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.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz (R) speak with the media following meetings with a Ukrainian delegation in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia on March 11, 2025. (Saul Loeb/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Talks between Russian and American delegations to discuss a ceasefire in Ukraine will take place in the coming days in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said on March 19 on X.
Waltz said he discussed Trump's efforts to stop the fighting in Ukraine with Yuri Ushakov, a close adviser to Putin.
"We agreed our technical teams would meet in Riyadh in the coming days to focus on implementing and expanding the partial ceasefire President Trump secured from Russia," Waltz wrote on X.
Waltz's statement comes after a March 18 call between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.
During the call, Putin and Trump agreed that the war needs to end with "a lasting peace," and the first steps towards this will be an energy and infrastructure ceasefire and technical negotiations on implementing a maritime ceasefire in the Black Sea.
After the Trump-Putin call, the Kremlin agreed to a 30-day pause on energy infrastructure strikes. Despite this commitment, Russia launched a large-scale assault on Ukraine's infrastructure overnight on March 19.
A U.S. delegation earlier met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and top presidential aide Yuri Ushakov in Riyadh on Feb. 18 to initiate talks on ending the war in the first official meeting between the two sides since the full-scale invasion began. Ukraine was excluded from the discussions.
No concrete decisions were announced following the U.S.-Russia talks, but Ukraine's exclusion from the meeting sparked alarm in Kyiv and Europe.
On March 11, U.S.-Ukraine talks took place in Jeddah, in which the two sides sought a common path toward a peace deal after weeks of tense relations.
After the negotiations with Washington, Ukraine's Presidential Office announced that it was ready to accept a U.S. proposal for a temporary 30-day ceasefire if Russia also did the same.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Kateryna Hodunova
