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.
The sanctions list includes 58 individuals and 74 companies, with 67 Russian enterprises related to military technology.
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.
Despite the Kremlin's announcement of a May 8–11 truce, heavy fighting continued in multiple regions throughout the front line.
Putin has done in Russia everything that Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva had been against in Brazil.
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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
FT: Damage to Ukraine's energy grid worse than in 2022-23 but more localized
Russian forces used freshly-made missiles for large-scale attacks on Ukraine in March, Andrii Cherniak, a spokesperson of Ukraine's military intelligence, told the Financial Times (FT) in a comment published on April 8.
Moscow has recently intensified its missile and drone strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, launching large-scale attacks on energy facilities across the country. Over the past month, Russian forces reportedly launched over 400 missiles and 600 Shahed-type drones.
Russia has used drones as cheaper weapons for striking other parts of the energy system, such as transformers, Cherniak said. He estimated that Moscow has enough missiles to carry out one or two more "big attacks in the coming weeks."
"We expected the attacks at the beginning of the winter, but we now see that the missiles they have used are freshly made," he told the FT.
Ukrainian officials said the damage to energy infrastructure caused by Russia is worse than in the winter of 2022-2023, although it is more localized, according to the newspaper.
Martin Fornusek
In March, Russian attacks reportedly damaged or completely destroyed 80% of the thermal generating capacity of DTEK, Ukraine's largest private energy company.
Maksym Timchenko, the chief executive of DTEK, told the FT that the company's goal is to restore "as much as we can by October."
Between March 22 and 29, Russian forces targeted seven thermal power stations, the FT reported. Russia's March 22 strike destroyed the Zmiiv Thermal Power Plant, which is among the largest in Kharkiv Oblast, according to the state-owned energy company Centrenergo.
Recent attacks also damaged all power units of the Burshtyn Thermal Power Plant in Ivano-Frankivsk Oblast and the Ladyzhyn Thermal Power Plant in Vinnytsia Oblast, DTEK's Executive Director Dmytro Sakharuk said.
Among Moscow's other targets in March were the Kaniv Hydroelectric Power Plant in Cherkasy Oblast, the Dnister Hydroelectric Power Plant in Chernivtsi Oblast, and Zaporizhzhia's Dnipro Hydroelectric Power Plant.
Kateryna Denisova
Most Popular
After 3 years of full-scale war in Ukraine, Europe announces plan to ban all Russian gas imports
Ukraine, Europe's ceasefire proposal includes US security guarantees, no recognition of Crimea, Reuters reports
Journalist Roshchyna's body missing organs after Russian captivity, investigation says
After Russia's deadly attack on Kyiv, Vance reposts denunciation of Zelensky
Ukrainian sea drone downs Russian fighter jet in 'world-first' strike, intelligence says
Editors' Picks
How medics of Ukraine’s 3rd Assault Brigade deal with horrors of drone warfare
As Russia trains abducted children for war, Ukraine fights uphill battle to bring them home
'I just hate the Russians' — Kyiv district recovers from drone strike as ceasefire remains elusive
