"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.
Belarus' dictator Alexander Lukashenko greets troops during a military drill outside Brest, on Sept. 12, 2021. (Getty Images)
A message was shared in the diplomatic circles on Feb. 27 that Belarus airborne forces were preparing to invade Ukraine.
Unnamed Belarusian opposition journalists were said to be the source. According to the report, Belarus special forces were boarding planes on Feb. 27, preparing for deployment in or near Kyiv and Zhytomyr.
It's not entirely possible to verify this report, since most opposition journalists have fled Belarus, escaping repressions by the regime of dictator Alexander Lukashenko.
A Telegram channel that collects eyewitnesses reports about the moving of Russian and Belarusian troops in Belarus recorded the movement of two military transport planes taking off from an airfield in western Belarus.
As of now, Belarus is de facto conducting war against Ukraine by letting Russian troops use its territory, and providing them with access to hospitals and intelligence. Now, according to the report, Belarus is preparing a full-out invasion.
On Feb. 27, President Volodymyr Zelensky spoke over the phone with Lukashenko.
During a phone call with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko, Zelensky agreed that the Ukrainian delegation would meet with the Russian delegation without preconditions on the Ukrainian-Belarusian border, near the Pripyat River.
On the same day, Lukashenko threatened Ukraine with an all-out war.
“Is he pushing me to conduct a special operation so that I can free my people there?” said Lukashenko. He added that he allowed Russian troops to shoot missiles from Belarus territory on Ukraine.
Lukashenko spoke at the ballot during a staged referendum on the constitution amendments that the Belarus autocrat proposed after suppressing protests that began due to electoral fraud committed during the 2020 Belarus presidential elections.
Meanwhile, Zelensky asked the people of Belarus to make the right choice.
"Be Belarus, and not Russia," he said. "Make the right choice."
Russia is trying to force Ukraine into negotiations in Belarus, which is actively assisting Kremlin’s forces.
A Russian delegation arrived in Belarus on Feb. 27 for negotiations with Ukraine, despite Ukraine not agreeing to negotiations in Belarus.
On Feb. 27, Zelensky said Ukraine is ready for talks with Russia, but only in a country "from which missiles aren't flying," rejecting the idea of meeting in Belarus.
He suggested meeting in Warsaw, Bratislava, Budapest, Istanbul, or Baku instead.
“We want to talk, we want to end the war,” Zelensky said in a video address.
Oleksiy Sorokin is the co-founder and deputy chief editor at the Kyiv Independent. He is tasked with building the organization and leading the hiring, editing, and newsletter workstreams. Oleksiy is the author of the "WTF is wrong with Russia?" newsletter, sent out every Thursday. For his work, Oleksiy was included in the 2022 Forbes 30 Under 30 list. Oleksiy holds a BA from the University of Toronto.
