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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki (L) inspects the site with Ukrainian PM Denys Shmyhal (2nd L) as he receives information from officials during delivering process of the first batch of the Leopard tanks in the Polish border with Ukraine on Feb. 24, 2023. (Polish Chancellery of Prime Ministry /Krystian Maj / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Ten more German-made Leopard 2 tanks would arrive in Ukraine this week, Polish Defense Minister Mariusz Blaszczak said at a news conference on March 7, cited by Reuters.
Poland has led Western efforts in providing Ukraine with modern Leopard main battle tanks, having delivered the first batch on Feb. 24. In total, Warsaw pledged to supply 14 Leopard 2 tanks.
The Polish defense minister also told reporters that his country was ready to launch a maintenance center for Leopard tanks transferred to Ukraine.
Ahead of a meeting of European Union defense ministers in Sweden, Blaszczak said he would talk to his German counterpart Boris Pistorius about "the low availability of spare parts for Leopard tanks."
According to Blaszczak, this problem could be tackled mainly by the German arms industry, but Poland is also ready to manufacture the spare parts.
Pistorius said in an interview with Deutschlandfunk on Feb. 26 that NATO could likely provide Ukraine with a total of 62 German-made Leopard 2 main battle tanks.
After months of delay, Germany finally agreed to transfer Leopard 2 tanks to Ukraine and allowed the re-export of the same models from other countries on Jan. 25.
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