President Volodymyr Zelensky had a "constructive" phone call with United States President Donald Trump on May 8, discussing the war, continued pressure on Russia, and a potential ceasefire.
The survey, conducted between April 24 and May 4, shows that 56.9% of respondents would not be willing to compromise on either territorial integrity or Ukraine’s pro-Western direction in any potential talks with Moscow.
U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.
The shooting occurred around 3:22 p.m. local time in Sofiivska Borshchahivka, a residential area in Bucha district, according to the Kyiv regional police.
Lawmakers urged the EU and its member states to step up efforts to hold Moscow accountable through international courts and support for Ukraine’s campaign to bring its children home.
The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sat down with author, historian, and Russia’s Victory Day celebrations on May 9, which mark the Soviet Union’s role in defeating Nazi Germany in World War II, are one of the country’s biggest public events of the year. President of the Ukrainian Society of Switzerland Andrej Lushnycky who sheds some light on the things Putin would rather you didn’t know about World War II.
Washington’s involvement may also help mitigate political opposition in Europe, while giving the U.S. strategic visibility over future Russian energy flows, sources told Reuters.
Ukrainian soldiers carry a generator in a residential district in Bakhmut on April 17, 2023. (Photo by Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The southwestern outskirts of Bakhmut and the entrance to the city remain in control of Ukrainian forces, Deputy Defense Minister Hanna Maliar reported on May 31.
According to Maliar, the "offensive activity (of Russian forces) in Bakhmut has been halted." However, Russian forces have increased the frequency of artillery shelling, "indicating a change in tactics."
The current intensity of shelling is comparable to some of the heaviest periods of fighting during the Battle of Bakhmut, Maliar added.
Ten months after the bloodiest battle in the Russian invasion of Ukraine began, Russia's Wagner mercenary group claimed on May 20 that it had captured the city.
While Kyiv has not officially acknowledged the fall of Bakhmut, both official statements and accounts from soldiers on the ground shared with the Kyiv Independent effectively convey a similar scenario.
Maliar reported on May 25 that Russia's regular army had begun to replace Wagner forces in the outskirts of Bakhmut but added that some mercenaries still remain in the city.
In her latest update, Maliar said that Ukrainian forces have been hindering the rotation of the regular Russian army "in every possible way."
Ukrainian forces suspended flank advancements "several days ago," but they are "carrying out other military tasks that cannot (yet) be announced," Maliar added.
Maliar explained that "these tasks are aimed at enhancing the combat readiness of our forces" and that "the struggle for this direction (Bakhmut) continues."
Ukrainian forces are expected to launch their long-anticipated counteroffensive in the coming weeks to take back more territory currently under Russian control.
Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent. The U.S. publisher Deep Vellum published her co-translation of Ukrainian author Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker in 2024. Some of her other writing and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine.
Agatha Gorski
