"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.
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.
Ukrainian refugees make their way through Medyka border crossing after journeying from war-torn Ukraine on March 30, 2022, in Medyka, Poland. (Photo credit: Jeff J Mitchell/Getty Images)
The Council of the EU extended temporary protection for over 4 million Ukrainian refugees living on the territory of the member countries from March 4, 2024, to March 4, 2025, the Council announced on Sept. 28.
"The EU will support the Ukrainian people for as long as it takes," Spanish acting Interior Minister Fernando Grande-Marlaska Gomez said.
"The prolongation of the protection status offers certainty to the more than 4 million refugees who have found a safe haven in the EU."
The EU-instituted system provides immediate and collective protection to refugees without the need for examination of individual cases.
It aims to alleviate pressure on national asylum systems and ensure refugees' access to residence, labor market, medical assistance, social welfare, and education.
The EU first implemented the measure on March 4, 2022, in response to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which drove millions of Ukrainians to seek refuge abroad.
According to the UN High Commissioner for Refugees, the majority of the displaced Ukrainians plan or hope to return home after the war.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Daria Shulzhenko
