George Simion, leader of Romania's far-right AUR party, who won the first round of the presidential election with nearly 40% of the vote, reiterated that if elected, he would oppose any further assistance to Ukraine and shift Romania’s focus inward.
Russian President Vladimir Putin and Chinese President Xi Jinping hailed their countries' relationship on May 8, vowing to increase cooperation in all areas, including military ties.
"There is Turkey, which maintains channels of communication. And then, above all, there is the People's Republic of China, which, more than anyone else, has the means to make (Russian President Vladimir) Putin come to the negotiating table and soften his demands," Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said on May 8.
The United States will be ready to "walk away" from the negotiating table if it does not see Russia making progress in negotiation to end the war, U.S. Vice President JD Vance told Fox News on May 8.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico arrived in Moscow on May 9 to celebrate Victory Day, commemorating the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.
US President Donald Trump on May 8 called for a "30-day unconditional ceasefire" between Ukraine and Russia. Writing on Truth Social, Trump expressed his hope for "an acceptable ceasefire," with both countries "held accountable for respecting the sanctity of... direct negotiations."
President Volodymyr Zelensky had a "constructive" phone call with United States President Donald Trump on May 8, discussing the war, continued pressure on Russia, and a potential ceasefire.
The survey, conducted between April 24 and May 4, shows that 56.9% of respondents would not be willing to compromise on either territorial integrity or Ukraine’s pro-Western direction in any potential talks with Moscow.
U.S. Cardinal Robert Prevost was elected the new pope and leader of the Roman Catholic Church on Thursday, taking the name Pope Leo XIV, a senior cardinal announced on May 8 to crowds gathered in St. Peter’s Square, according to Vatican News.
Representatives of the Memorial Human Rights Center talk to the press after the Moscow City Court ordered the its closure on Dec. 29, following the Supreme Court’s ruling about the liquidation of Memorial International, the most prominent human rights organization in Russia. (Memorial International / Facebook)
Editor’s note: This is a public statement made by 28 Ukrainian non-governmental organizations in support of the Memorial International and Memorial Human Rights Center, that were closed by Russian courts in December 2021. The Kyiv Independent publishes it with permission.
Memorial was a pivotal Russian human rights organization created in 1989, and tasked with documenting crimes against humanity committed in the Soviet Union, particularly during the Great Terror of 1937-38.
In 1997, the organization discovered the mass burial site in Sandarmokh forest, Russia. Ukrainian intelligentsia, writers and cultural figures known as the "Executed Renaissance" were murdered at the site by the regime of Joseph Stalin.
Historical memory is in danger
Statement on the liquidation of Memorial International and Memorial Human Rights Center by Russian courts
We, the representatives of Ukrainian civil society, the academic community, the descendants of the totalitarian communist regime victims, call on the Ukrainian authorities and international community to provide a full political and legal assessment on the political repression against the human rights activists and organizations, committed by the Russian government and personally by the President Vladimir Putin.
After the collapse of the Soviet Union, Russia declared itself the successor of the USSR, and the truth about the crimes of the totalitarian communist regime started to be revealed. Such terms as the Gulag, the Solovki prison camp and many more, have finally shown the true face of the regime that had been killing millions of innocent and peaceful people on its territory for 70 years.
The Memorial Human Rights Center and Memorial International have been conducting extensive work since 1989 on educating people about the repressions of the communist regime. As the Russian political landscape changed and the Russian authorities became more hesitant to declassify KGB archives, these organizations in collaboration with historians and human rights activists from all around the globe collected facts and revealed information about millions of repressed and innocently killed people by the Soviet authorities.
The perpetrators and their descendants, who continued to work in the Russian political system, did not like the truth these organizations discovered about our past.
Today, Russian officials led by Vladimir Putin, declared the collapse of the Soviet Union a geopolitical catastrophe, which led to curtailing the process of rethinking the past and condemning the crimes of the communist regime. The narratives about Stalin's effective management and comments that those who were killed in the camps were a necessary sacrifice for the Soviet Union's economic progress, are increasingly heard in the Russian media.
Russia is systematically whitewashing the totalitarian regime of the USSR and communist criminals. The international organizations were gradually banned or expelled from the country, and local ones received the status of so-called “foreign agents.” Authorities expelled almost all independent media and journalists and created intolerable working conditions for those who stayed.
One of the most clear examples of a return to criminal communist politics is the court verdict against Yury Dmitriev, a historian who had revealed the massacres in Sandarmokh. The court verdict to shut the Memorial was the last straw.
Putin's desire to reestablish the USSR is absolutely obvious. Russia has demonstrated undeniable signs of establishing a totalitarian regime, a threat to the whole democratic world, through the cult of the Great Patriotic War (WWII), the cult of Putin himself, who has been in charge for 22 years, ethnic and religious intolerance, denial of the neighboring states right to self-determination, and denial of the existence of entire ethnic groups.
We call on the Ukrainian and international authorities:
to provide a political and legal evaluation of the actions of Russian officials in concealing the crimes of the totalitarian communist regime and banning Memorial organization;
to unify the efforts and finally initiate the International Tribunal on the totalitarian communist regime of the Soviet Union.
Unpunished evil will inevitably continue to grow!
This Statement is open for joining and signing
The State Archive of The Ukrainian Institute of National Remembrance Revolution of Dignity National Museum PEN Ukraine Reanimation Package of Reforms Coalition Public Association Center for Research on the Liberation Movement NGO Kharkiv Human Rights Protection Group (KhPG) NGO Institute of Mass Information NGO Andriy Andrushkiv, The Centre of United Actions NGO Suspilnist Foundation NGO Center of Civil Liberties NGO EAST-SOS Charity Foundation Postup Human Right Center Educational Human Rights House Chernihiv Book Forum Lviv NGO Educational Center For Human Rights in Lviv Truth Hounds NGO OPIRORG NGO Myroslav Marynovych, prisoner of conscience (1977-1987), Vice-rector of Ukrainian Catholic University Oleh Turiy, pro-rector of Ukrainian Catholic University Human Rights Platform NGO Ukrainian Helsinki Group Public Alternative Kharkiv Regional Foundation Center for Democracy and Rule of Law Center of Policy and Legal Reform Ukrainian Media and Communication Institute NGO Alliance of Ukrainian Unity NGO Charitable Foundation Ukraine Behind Bars Internews Ukraine NGO Regional Press Development Institute NGO First December Initiative Group Ukrainian Memorial in Czech Republic (Ukrajinský memoriál z.s.) NGO
The Kyiv Independent is an award-winning English-language media outlet that offers on-the-ground reporting from Ukraine. The publication has received international recognition for its coverage of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
