"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.
Lithuanian border guard officers patrol by the metal fence at the Lithuanian Belarusian border in Dieveniskes, Lithuania on July 10, 2023. (Omar Marques/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Lithuania will upgrade and fortify a second route through the Suwałki Gap, a strategically critical stretch of land along the Polish border viewed as one of the most likely targets for a future Russian attack on NATO or the European Union, Politico reported on April 18.
“These roads [are] critical to us from a security and defense perspective,” Lithuanian Deputy Defense Minister Tomas Godliauskas told Politico.
"They’ve always been part of our civil-military planning as key ground routes for allied support during a crisis." The Suwałki Gap is a 100-kilometer-wide corridor connecting Poland and Lithuania, bordered by Belarus and Russia’s Kaliningrad exclave, and serves as NATO’s main land link to the Baltic states.
In coordination with Poland, Lithuania will upgrade the Vilnius–Augustow route to dual-use standards, complementing the existing Via Baltica corridor from Kaunas to Warsaw. Via Baltica, alongside the Rail Baltica high-speed rail project, currently serves as a main channel for military mobility. "It's just one more option to ensure better logistics in times of need," Godliauskas said.
Deputy Transport Minister Roderikas Ziobakas says the planned upgrades include reconstructing 113 kilometers of road and renovating eight bridges. The project is expected to be completed by 2028.
Godliauskas, however, cautioned that multinational projects can face delays: "But we hope that the geopolitical situation, our interest, and Poland's capabilities will allow us to reach that timeline."
Godliauskas added that discussions are also underway regarding new border protections, including counter-mobility systems and cement barriers near Belarus and Kaliningrad, as well as measures to combat Russian GPS spoofing and jamming.
Lithuania seeks EU funding for the project and plans to lobby Brussels alongside Poland, Estonia, and Latvia. Although aligned with NATO and EU mobility goals, the initiative is currently being funded bilaterally by the Polish and Lithuanian transport and defense ministries.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
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