"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.
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Saturday, May 10
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.
(Updated: )Victory Day
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.
The Biden administration has requested an $886 billion defense budget, making it the U.S.’ largest peacetime budget request and $28 billion more than last year’s.
The budget request includes a 5.2% increase in pay for troops and a large allocation for research and development, Reuters reported on March 13.
It reportedly proposes $842 billion for the Pentagon and $44 billion for the Federal Bureau of Investigation’s defense-related programs.
The proposed budget will also be the first to acquire munitions with multiple-year contracts.
On March 10, the Biden administration asked Congress for over $6 billion in assistance to support Ukraine amid Russia’s full-scale war in the 2024 fiscal year.
The White House allocated $6 billion to assist Ukraine, NATO, and European allies “by prioritizing funding to enhance the capabilities and readiness of the United States, allies, and partner forces in the face of continued Russian aggression,” according to the budget document.
Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, the U.S. has provided more than $75 billion in humanitarian, financial, and military support to Ukraine, according to the Kiel Institute for the World Economy.
Of that total, the Biden administration has directed more than $31 billion in security assistance to Kyiv and NATO allies, per Congressional Research Service data.
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