"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.
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow, Russia, on Sept. 27, 2023. (Photo for illustrative purposes) (Mikhail Metzel/POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian President Vladimir Putin arrived in Belarus to participate in a Collective Security Treaty Organization (CSTO) summit in Minsk, the Kremlin's press service announced on Nov. 23.
The CSTO is a military alliance between Russia, Armenia, Kazakhstan, Kyrgyzstan, Belarus, and Tajikistan, formed in 2002.
The meeting is set to discuss "further improvement of the collective security system."
The summit is being held in Minsk as Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko is its current chairman.
The last time Putin arrived on an official visit to Belarus was in December 2022.
Over the last few months, Putin has traveled to Kazakhstan, China, and Kyrgyzstan.
His trip to Kyrgyzstan in October was his first trip abroad since the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for him in March 2023 for the mass deportation of Ukrainian children.
Maria Yeryoma
