"(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.
A Burger King Restaurant in Saint Petersburg, Russia, on Sept. 1, 2022. (Photo by Maksim Konstantinov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
Burger King "remains open as usual in Russia," despite the fast food chain claiming at the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine that it would exit the country, the BBC reported on Oct. 3.
Burger King is a subsidiary of the Canadian-American multinational company Restaurant Brands International (RBI), which owns a 15% stake in Burger King's franchise business in Russia.
RBI's president, David Shear, said in March 2022 that the company had "started the process" to dispose of this stake, but this would take time due to its "complicated franchise agreement, according to the BBC.
However, more than a year and a half later, there are "no new updates" on the matter, the company told the BBC.
The Burger King franchise in Russia is a joint venture of RBI, Ukrainian investment firm ICU Group, Russian investment bank VTB Capital, and Russian businessman Alexander Kolobov.
ICU Group told the BBC it has "no control over the joint venture or operations in Russia" and is at the "final stage of exiting" the franchise, adding that it had abstained from profiting from or investing in the joint venture since the start of the full-scale invasion.
While Burger King continues to do business with Russia, its competitor McDonald's announced in May 2022 that it would close its 847 restaurants in the country.
McDonald's also shut down all of its 109 chain joints in Ukraine at the start of the full-scale invasion but began to reopen some of its restaurants in the autumn of 2022.
Dinara Khalilova
