"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.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov attends a press conference at the Palace of Independence on Dec. 19, 2022, in Minsk, Belarus. (Contributor/Getty Images)
In an unexpected admission, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said on March 22 that Russia is in a "state of war" in an interview with the Russian state-owned media outlet Arguments and Facts.
Peskov also said that Russia's main goal was to protect the people living in the Ukrainian territories illegally annexed by Russia, going on to characterize Ukraine as an "occupying force."
Peskov later clarified his words, saying that "de jure" it remained a "military operation," but "de facto" had become a war.
Russia refuses to refer to its war against Ukraine as a war, referring to it instead as a "special military operation" for propaganda purposes and to downplay its actions for both domestic and international audiences. Russia's choice of wording plays a key part in the framing of its full-scale war.
Under Russian law, it is forbidden to actually call it a war or an invasion, and violating these restrictions can lead to punishment, including a potential prison sentence.
Elaborating on his presentation of Russia's war goals, Peskov said that Russia "cannot allow the existence of a state on its borders" that seeks to "take away Crimea."
Crimea is internationally recognized as part of Ukraine. President Volodymyr Zelensky has repeatedly stated that Ukraine's ultimate goal is the liberation of all occupied areas of Ukrainian territory, including Crimea, and that any other result of the war would "not be victory."
Peskov's comments came on the same day that Russia launched a massive wave of attacks on critical energy infrastructure sites across Ukraine, killing at least five people and wounding 26.
The Kyiv Independent
