According to the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), this marks the first time Ukrainian authorities have exposed a Hungarian military intelligence network conducting activities harmful to Ukraine.
Delegations from 35 countries and the Council of Europe gathered in Lviv as EU officials prepare to approve both new defense aid and steps toward establishing a tribunal for Russian leadership.
The ruling marks a significant victory for RFE/RL amid growing concerns about U.S. funding cuts to independent media countering Russian disinformation.
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.
George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right AUR party, who won the first round of the presidential election with nearly 40% of the vote, reiterated that if elected, he would oppose any further assistance to Ukraine and shift Romania’s focus inward.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed their countries' relationship on May 8, vowing to increase cooperation in all areas, including military ties.
"There is Turkey, which maintains channels of communication. And then, above all, there is the People's Republic of China, which, more than anyone else, has the means to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin come to the negotiating table and soften his demands," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on May 8.
The United States will be ready to "walk away" from the negotiating table if it does not see Russia making progress in negotiation to end the war, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on May 8.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived in Moscow on May 9 to celebrate Victory Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
US President Donald Trump on May 8 called for a "30-day unconditional ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia. Writing on Truth Social, Trump expressed his hope for "an acceptable ceasefire," with both countries "held accountable for respecting the sanctity of... direct negotiations."
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.
The destroyed marketplaces are seen after Russian missiles hit residential area in Kharkiv City, May 8, 2022. (Kostyantyn Chernichkin)
On 8 May the international community commemorates Victory in Europe Day or V-E Day, marking the official signing in Berlin of Nazi Germany’s unconditional surrender to the Allies, and remembers all those who have fallen in defending liberty and democracy during World War II, including millions of Ukrainians.
Russia commemorates this day on 9 May when Soviet authorities announced victory over Nazi Germany. Under Putin, this has become an annual military parade to showcase Russia’s military hardware.
In fact, 9 May was smeared from its inception in 1945 as Soviet authorities never stopped brutally oppressing with impunity the people in the Soviet Union and its so-called satellite states.
Since the beginning of its full-blown military invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, Russia has smeared a deep layer of blood by committing genocide against the Ukrainian people. This fact has been recognized by the President of the United States Joe Biden on 12 April 2022 and by a unanimous Motion of the House of Commons of Canada on 27 April 2022.
In fact, Sovietism, Nazism and today’s Rashism have one horrific thing in common – they are each fully responsible for the perpetration of the worst crime against humanity – genocide – namely the Holodomor, the Holocaust, and today’s ongoing genocide in Ukraine.
As a result, Putin has joined the despicable company of the world’s most destructive imperialist and authoritarian rulers, namely Stalin and Hitler.
On the UN web site one can read that:
"The Genocide Convention was the first human rights treaty adopted by the General Assembly of the United Nations on 9 December 1948 and signified the international community’s commitment to ‘never again’ after the atrocities committed during the Second World War.”
Despite this laudable “never again” commitment, a genocide against the Ukrainian people is being committed, once again, in 2022 – 90 years after the Holodomor – and the international community must help stop it now.
This year, on 9 May, Russia was planning to announce that its “special military operation” in Ukraine was successful, and that Russia took full control of the whole of Ukraine and replaced its governing authorities with a pro-Kremlin puppet government.
When this initial plan failed miserably due to Ukraine’s formidable and heroic resistance, Russia changed its imperialist plans and was set to announce instead that it had “liberated” the whole of the Donbas region.
This will not happen either and – ironically – Russia is likely to “declare war” against Ukraine on Victory Day 2022 which will, in Russia’s warped logic, give it license to spill even more Ukrainian blood onto Russia’s national canvas of carnage.
Eugene Czolij is president of the Ukraine-2050 nongovernmental organization and served as president of the Ukrainian World Congress from 2008-2018. Ukraine-2050 was established to help implement within one generation – by 2050 – strategies for the sustainable development of Ukraine as a fully independent, territorially integral, democratic, reformed and economically competitive European state.
