"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.
Sunlight coming through shrapnel holes in the roof, as Ukrainians salvage barley and peas three days after five Russian missiles struck a grain storage facility in the village of Pavlivka, Odesa region, Ukraine, on July 24, 2023. (Photo by Scott Peterson/Getty Images)
A Russian missile attack on Odesa Oblast killed one civilian guard overnight, regional governor Oleh Kiper said on Telegram on July 27.
Kiper reported that Russian forces fired Kalibr cruise missiles at port infrastructure facilities in the region. A guard building and two cars were destroyed, and cargo terminal equipment was damaged.
The exact location of the attack was not disclosed.
Moscow announced that it would not extend the Black Sea grain deal on July 17. Since July 18, Odesa and other ports along the coast of the Black Sea have been repeatedly attacked by Russia.
On July 19, Ukrainian Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi reported that Russian attacks had destroyed 60,000 tons of grain in Chornomorsk.
On July 24, Russia used attack drones to strike port infrastructure on the Danube, destroying a hangar used for storing grain. The attack took place in the far southwest of Ukraine, just 200 meters from the border with Romania, a NATO member state.
Prior to the full-scale invasion, 95 percent of Ukraine’s grain was exported via these ports. Wheat and corn prices have already risen sharply worldwide.
According to U.K. intelligence, the Russian Black Sea Fleet "has altered its posture" in preparation to enforce a blockade on Ukraine's ports, the U.K. Defense Ministry said in its July 26 update.
There is now "the potential for the intensity and scope of violence in the area to increase," added the update.
Anastasiia Lapatina
