"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.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in his office on March 28, 2024. (Volodymyr Zelensky / Telegram)
The first meeting of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council since the dismissal of Secretary Oleksiy Danilov was held on March 29, said President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Zelensky said “renewed work” was underway and five priorities had been set for the body, primarily a better ability to predict factors “on which the national security of our state depends.”
The National Security and Defense Council is a body that coordinates and controls the activities of executive authorities in the field of Ukraine's national security and defense, and its decisions are enacted by presidential decrees.
On March 26, Danilov was dismissed as secretary after serving in the position since Oct. 3, 2019. He was replaced by the chief of the Foreign Intelligence Service, Oleksandr Lytvynenko.
Zelensky said the body’s priorities would be “paying particular attention to our state's sanctions policy.” Cybersecurity and the implementation of security and war related decisions were also listed.
"The obvious priority is the defense of our state and the protection of our society," Zelensky said.
Zelensky thanked Danilov for his years of “powerful and professional” work and said Danilov would continue his work in the diplomatic field.
A number of top officials dismissed from their posts have been appointed to serve as Ukraine’s ambassadors abroad.
Valerii Zaluzhnyi, the country’s former commander-in-chief, has been appointed as Ukraine’s ambassador to the U.K., Ukraine's Foreign Ministry announced on March 7.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
Nate Ostiller
