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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Transmission towers and power lines near a missile-damaged high-voltage electricity substation, operated by a state-owned company Ukrenergo, in central Ukraine, on March 1, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Russian troops struck a thermal power plant in one of Ukraine's front-line regions on Dec. 7, causing a shutdown of two power units, the Energy Ministry reported.
The shutdown, combined with decreased temperatures, led to a power deficit in Ukraine's energy system, according to the ministry.
Ukraine's energy companies do not generally disclose the exact locations of facilities targeted by Russian attacks, presumably to avoid giving up sensitive information about the country's critical infrastructure.
To compensate for the energy shortage in the system, Ukraine's state-owned grid operator Ukrenergo has reportedly used emergency assistance from Romania, Poland, and Slovakia.
Ukrenergo and the Energy Ministry urged consumers to save electricity, especially during peak load hours.
Early on Dec. 7, the Energy Ministry said that 408 settlements across Ukraine were left without access to electricity due to active hostilities in front-line regions and technical problems in the power network.
As the cold weather sets in, Russia has ramped up its attacks against energy infrastructure in areas close to the front lines.
Last fall and winter, Russian troops launched widespread attacks on the country's energy system, nearly causing its collapse in some areas.
Dominic Culverwell
