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.
Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, NATO Secretary-General Jens Stoltenberg, and Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson, July 10, 2023. (Source: NATO)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg announced on July 10 that Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan will forward Sweden's NATO bid to Turkey's parliament.
"Glad to announce that after the meeting I hosted with (Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan) and (Swedish Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson), President Erdogan has agreed to forward Sweden's accession protocol to the Grand National Assembly ASAP and ensure ratification. This is a historic step which makes all NATO Allies stronger and safer," Stoltenberg wrote on social media.
Both Sweden and Finland applied to join the Alliance in May 2022 due to Russia's aggression against Ukraine. Turkey initially blocked both of their bids but gave the green light to Helsinki in this year's March.
Among the main reasons why Ankara denied Stockholm's entry was the Swedish support for Kurdish groups that Turkey considers terrorists.
According to NATO's press release, Stockholm has committed to developing "counter-terrorism" cooperation with the Turkish government just as Erdogan opened the door to Sweden's membership.
"Since the last NATO Summit, Sweden and Türkiye have worked closely together to address Türkiye’s legitimate security concerns," NATO's statement said.
"As part of that process, Sweden has amended its constitution, changed its laws, significantly expanded its counter-terrorism cooperation against the (Kurdistan Worker's Party), and resumed arms exports to Türkiye, all steps set out in the Trilateral Memorandum agreed in 2022."
Sweden will also step up economic cooperation with Turkey and actively support Ankara's EU accession process. Earlier on July 10, Erdogan said he would be willing to back Stockholm's bid if the EU opens the way for Turkey's membership.
The announcement comes on the eve of the NATO summit in Vilnius, to be held on July 11-12.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Dinara Khalilova
