"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.
Hennadii Lahuta, a former head of the Kherson Regional State Administration, has died at the age of 49. (Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin/Telegram)
Hennadii Lahuta, former head of the Kherson Oblast State Administration, has died at the age of 49, Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported on Sept. 17.
Prokudin did not provide details on the cause of Lahuta's death.
"We express our sincere condolences to the family of the deceased and share their grief," he wrote on Telegram.
Local media outlet Most reported, citing its unnamed sources, that Lahuta died at one of Kyiv's hospitals overnight on Sept. 17.
Lahuta was appointed as the governor of Kherson Oblast in October 2021, prior to the Russian full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
He has held the office for about eight months. President Volodymyr Zelensky fired Lahuta in July last year.
Most of Kherson Oblast was occupied by Russian forces in the early stage of the full-scale invasion.
According to Most, Lahuta left Kherson after the start of the full-scale invasion and "disappeared for almost half a year."
In early February, the State Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) reported that Lahuta was suspected of forgery of documents and fraud.
He faced up to 12 years behind bars with confiscation of property.
"One of the episodes, which is currently being investigated by the Ukrainian special services, concerns the illegal property acquisition. In particular, the former official appropriated a car that was given to him for temporary free use during the full-scale invasion," the SBU reported back then.
Daria Shulzhenko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post until November 2021. She graduated from Kyiv International University with a bachelor’s in linguistics, specializing in translation from English and German languages. She has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher.
Igor Kossov
