Iran is preparing to send Russia Fath-360 short-range ballistic missile launchers, Reuters reported on May 9, citing Western security and regional officials familiar with the matter.
"Ukraine and all allies are ready for a complete unconditional ceasefire on land, in the air, and at sea for at least 30 days, starting as early as Monday," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote.
U.S. President Donald Trump has acknowledged in private that Russia is difficult to negotiate with because they "want the whole thing," referring to Ukraine, the WSJ reported, citing sources familiar with the comments.
The visit marks Merz’s first trip to Ukraine, and the first time all four leaders have travelled there together.
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.
"As in the past, it is now for Russia to show its willingness to achieve peace," the EU's statement reads.
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."
The number includes 1,310 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"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.
The U.S., U.K., and Ukraine do not believe that Russia has amassed the resources to make meaningful gains in its new offensive in eastern Ukraine, officials from the countries told CNN.
“It’s likely more aspirational than realistic,” one senior U.S. military official said to the news outlet.
Russia has increased its troop presence in and around Ukraine in recent months and, according to Western intelligence, has amassed fixed-wing fixed-wing and rotary aircraft near Russia’s border with Ukraine, two officials privy to the information told the Financial Times on Feb. 14.
Western officials, however, do not think that these numbers will translate into successes on the battlefield.
“It’s unlikely Russian forces will be particularly better organized and so unlikely they’ll be particularly more successful, though they do seem willing to send more troops into the meat grinder,” one senior British official told CNN.
Serhii Cherevatyi, the spokesman of the Eastern Group of Ukraine's Armed Forces, said on Feb. 15 on national TV that Russian troops had lost 119 people killed and 163 wounded near Bakhmut in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk Oblast over the last 24 hours.
While the U.S. had assessed that Russia would need at least until May to amass enough force for a new large-scale offensive, Russian forces may be pressured to move faster by the Kremlin, despite heavy losses, the senior U.S. military official told CNN.
“(The Russians) amassed enough manpower to take one or two small cities in Donbas, but that’s it,” a senior Ukrainian diplomat said to CNN. “Underwhelming, compared to the sense of panic they were trying to build in Ukraine.”

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