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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Russian Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov. (Russian Defense Ministry)
Lieutenant General Yuri Kuznetsov, the head of the personnel department of the Russian Defense Ministry, was detained on May 13 on criminal charges, the state-owned news agency TASS reported, citing undisclosed law enforcement sources.
The exact nature of the charges had not been revealed, TASS wrote. The investigation is reportedly being carried out by the Main Military Investigation Department of the Russian Investigative Committee.
The news comes only as the latest case to rock Russia's military and security apparatus.
According to TASS's source, Russian authorities carried out searches at Kuznetsov's job and home.
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The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Between 2010 and 2023, Kuznetsov served as the head of the Eight Directorate of the Russian military's General Staff, responsible for protecting state secrets.
The general has led the personnel department of the Defense Ministry since May 2023.
In April, now-former Deputy Defense Minister Timur Ivanov was detained on suspicion of bribery, and Defense Minister Sergei Shoigu was reassigned as the head of the country's security council on May 13, replacing Nikolai Patrushev.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
