"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.
US secretary of state Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov spoke about Ukraine on Feb. 12 but failed to reach any breakthrough.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov seem to have come to no agreement during their Feb. 12 telephone call concerning the threat of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.
Blinken reiterated that more aggression against Ukraine by Russia will result in "a resolute, massive, and united Transatlantic response," according to State Department spokesman Ned Price.
Blinken also told Lavrov that a diplomatic path to resolving the crisis remained open, but "it would require Moscow to deescalate and engage in good-faith discussions."
According to a readout by the Russian Foreign Ministry, Lavrov accused the West of "deploying a propaganda campaign about Russian aggression against Ukraine." This way, the West encourages the Ukrainian government to sabotage the Minsk Agreements and try to resolve the "Donbas problem" by force, the readout says.
Lavrov also complained that the U.S. and the EU ignored Russia’s key demands, especially demands to stop NATO expansion and deployment of strike weapon systems near its borders.
U.S. President Joe Biden and Russian President Vladimir Putin are also scheduled to have a call later today. The last minute flurry of diplomacy comes in the middle of a major pullout of embassy staff by multiple countries and Washington's warnings that Russia is ready to attack and can strike at any time.
Artur Korniienko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, currently on a leave to serve in the Ukrainian Armed Forces. He previously reported on Ukrainian literature, art, music, film and social issues for the Kyiv Post, including the controversial Babyn Yar memorial and other development projects opposed by the community. In 2021, he ran a podcast about Ukrainian migrant workers for RFE/RL on the Vaclav Havel Fellowship in Prague. With a Master's in Journalism from the Ukrainian Catholic University, Korniienko had also worked as a freelance journalist and a TV correspondent.
