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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
Kyrgyz investigative journalist Bolot Temirov was arrested on Jan. 22, days after publishing exposes on allies of President Sadyr Zhaparov. He is facing drug charges, which he says are falsified.
The move is an alarming development for Kyrgyzstan, which has fared well in terms of free speech until recently, compared with nearby Central Asian dictatorships. Kyrgyzstan has retained a democratic political system and experienced three revolutions since 2005.
Temirov, head of the Temirov Live investigative show, was arrested by the police’s drug enforcement unit, Radio Azattyq - the Kazakh branch of Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty - reported.
He is accused of forcing an unidentified girl to use drugs, said Aktiklek Kaparov, a journalist at Temirov Live. Temirov said during the arrest that he had been framed.
On Jan. 20, Temirov published an investigation exposing alleged corruption by relatives of Kamchybek Tashiyev, head of Kyrgyzstan’s State National Security Committee. A company owned by Tashiyev’s nephew allegedly earned 37 million Kyrgyzstani som ($460,000) as an intermediary for state oil and gas firm Kyrgyzneftegaz.
Kyrgyzstan’s kaktus.media news site cited Temirov attributing his arrest to his plans to publish another investigation on Tashiyev’s relatives.
In November, Temirov also published an expose of relatives of Kyrgyz President Zhaparov who received state jobs during his rule.
Meanwhile, Temirov said in October that he had been surveilled and wiretapped.
Temirov's wife Makhabbat, who is an executive at Temirov Live, told the Kyiv Independent that a hidden camera had been found in the apartment of one of Temirov Live's journalists.
She said that employees of the State National Security Committee had threatened to leak videos with details of the journalist's private life. The committee wanted the journalist to inform it about Temirov Live's investigations and specific journalists' functions in exchange for not publishing the videos, Makhabbat said.
The arrest happened right before Temirov was going to publish a video about the surveillance of his publication's journalists, Makhabbat added.
Another journalist at Temirov Live disappeared on Jan. 22, she said.
Makhabbat argued that the situation with the freedom of speech is worse under Zhaparov than under two previous presidents - Almazbek Atambayev and Soronbai Zheenbekov.
Oleg Sukhov is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is a former editor and reporter at the Moscow Times. He has a master's degree in history from the Moscow State University. He moved to Ukraine in 2014 due to the crackdown on independent media in Russia and covered war, corruption, reforms and law enforcement for the Kyiv Post.
