"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.
Photo for illustrative purposes. A group of children and adults hold candles as they pay tribute to the victims of the famine of 1932-1933, at the National Museum of the Holodomor Genocide in Kyiv, on Nov. 25, 2023. Ukraine marked 90 years since the artificial famine caused by the policies ordered by Joseph Stalin that killed millions of Ukrainians. (Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images)
President Volodomor Zelensky marked Holodomor Remembrance Day on Nov. 23, honoring the victims of the Soviet man-made famine that killed an estimated three to five million Ukrainians.
The Holodomor occurred from 1932 to 1933 under Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin's rule. The Ukrainian government has called on the international community to recognize it as a genocide against the Ukrainian people.
On Holodomor Remembrance Day, Ukrainians traditionally light a candle at 4 p.m. and place it in their window to honor the memories of those who perished in the famine.
"They wanted to destroy us. To kill us. To subjugate us. They failed. They wanted to hide the truth and silence the terrible crimes forever. They failed," Zelensky wrote on X, formerly known as Twitter.
"They wanted to confuse us, mislead us, make us doubt—to forget, and in forgetting, to forgive. They failed."
Several of Ukraine's European allies also marked Holodomor Remembrance Day.
European Parliament President Roberta Metsola wrote that "Europe joins the people of Ukraine to remember and pay tribute (to the victims)."
"Russia continues what it started 91 years ago – trying to erase the Ukrainian nation from the Earth. Then via manmade famine, today with rockets, missiles, bombs, murders, rape, attacks on ports, energy facilities," Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze wrote, noting that Latvia recognized the Holodomor as a genocide in 2008.
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Alexandra Keeler
