A notice about the airspace closure was published on the U.S. Defense Department's NOTAM (Notice to Airmen) website on May 10, as cited by Ukrainian defense news outlet Militarnyi.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov rejected the idea of a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, claiming in an interview with ABC News on May 10 that it would be "an advantage" for Ukraine.
"Our involvement in the war was justifiable, and this belongs to our sovereign rights," North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un said. "I regard this as part of the sacred mission we must execute for our brothers and comrades-in-arms."
"We have a plan B and a plan C. But our focus is plan A, the essence of which is to get everyone's support" for Ukraine's accession, EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said.
"(T)he presence at the Victory Parade of a country that bombs cities, hospitals, and daycares, and which has caused the deaths and injuries of over a million people over three years, is a shame," Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said.
"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.
A massive fire broke out on June 22 at the Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery in Rostov Oblast in what appeared to be a drone attack.
According to Russia, the attack was carried out by Ukraine. Russian regional authorities said the fragments of two drones were found on the plant's territory.
A video shared on social media, filmed allegedly near the refinery, showed what appeared to be a kamikaze drone crashing on the plant and sparking the fire. Novoshakhtinsk Oil Refinery, which suspended its operation after the explosion, had a production capacity of up to 7.5 million tons of oil per year.
The plant was well-known in Ukraine after Schemes, a journalist investigation project, found that the plant was owned by Oksana Marchenko, the wife of Ukrainian lawmaker Viktor Medvedchuk, known for his close ties with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
According to Russian records, Medvedchuk’s wife sold the plant in April.
Putin is the godfather of Medvedchuk’s daughter, while the lawmaker has been widely seen as Kremlin’s point man in Ukraine.
Medvedchuk is accused of high treason and is currently kept in pretrial detention. Medvedchuk is facing 15 years in jail if proven guilty.
This isn’t the first instance of a Russian oil refinery catching fire near Ukrainian borders. Every time Russian authorities have blamed Ukraine, with footage of military aircraft attacking the sites surfacing the internet.
Ukraine neither confirms nor denies attacks being carried out on Russian territory.
Explosions
The explosion at Novoshakhtinsk took place about 150 kilometers east of Russian-occupied Donetsk, which itself lays a dozen kilometers behind the current front line.
According to local authorities, the fire was extinguished within two hours.
This isn’t the first attack on a Russian fuel plant.
A large fire had erupted on April 25 at a Russian oil depot in Bryansk, a city 150 kilometers north of Ukraine’s borders.
The incident followed another fire at an oil storage depot in Belgorod, also near Ukraine’s border. Russian regional authorities described it as an attack by two Ukrainian helicopters.
A video shared on Twitter showed a blaze near apartment blocks in Belgorod, 40 kilometers from the border, with some clips appearing to show helicopters approaching the oil depot.
Ukraine's top security officials denied that Ukrainian forces were behind the attack.
"For some reason, they are saying we are behind it. This does not correspond with reality," National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksiy Danilov said back then.
Alexander Query is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. He is the former business editor at the Kyiv Post. He worked as a TV correspondent and an anchorman at UATV in Ukraine, and received a BA in modern literature from La Sorbonne, in Paris.
