"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.
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.
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."
"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.
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.
Russian T-72 tanks maneuver during combined arms exercises in Voronezh Oblast (Russia's Ministry of Defense)
Russia launched a surprise combat readiness check of its military forces deployed in the Far East, amid an ongoing security crisis which threatens an escalation of Russia’s war with Ukraine.
The drills envisage testing the capacity of the country's transportation grid to project military force "by large distances," according to a statement by Russia's Defense Ministry on Jan. 14.
The snap maneuvers will see Russian units in the Eastern Military District (covering east Siberia and the country's far east) placed "on the highest combat readiness" and sent to their deployment areas.
"A number of military formations will be deployed for combat training missions at unknown training grounds, located far away from their home bases," the Russian military said.
"The activities will allow to estimate the Eastern Military District force's readiness to fulfill their appropriate combat missions following their long-distance redeployments in the Russian territory."
Moscow continues to carry out regular military drills and maneuvers as tensions run high in the region, with nearly 100,000 Russian troops concentrated close to Ukraine's border. The massive buildup, accompanied by the Kremlin's warlike rhetoric and aggressive demands towards NATO and the United States triggered serious concerns and fears of a large-scale military action against Ukraine.
The ongoing buildup is expected culminate with up to 175,000 Russian soldiers being concentrated in the region for a military action against Ukraine, which may be launched in early 2022, according to Western and Ukrainian intelligence.
Nonetheless, it is still not known if the decision to further invade Ukraine has been made by the Kremlin.
Despite extensive diplomatic efforts led by U.S. President Joe Biden and NATO, the diplomatic crisis continues. Following a Jan. 12 meeting in Brussels, NATO publicly declined Russia's repeated demands of non-admission to Ukraine and Georgia — which have pursued membership in the alliance after Russia's military aggression against them.
Meanwhile, according to NATO, the Russian buildup shows no signs of ending or slowing down.
On Jan. 12, the Conflict Intelligence Team (CIT), an open-source investigations group, said it found dozens of photos and videos taken in Russia's Far East and Siberia and posted recently on social media. The materials show scores of Russian military hardware units, including armored vehicles and missile systems, being transported west via automobile highways and railroads.
https://www.youtube.com/embed/aUcqLBoOxFU
Judging from geolocation data and military insignia seen in the pictures, the CIT said the formations belong to the 5th, 29th, 35th, 36th combined arms armies, all part of Russia's Eastern Military District. Notably, the 5th Tank Army units, typically based in the city of Ulan Ude, had already been deployed to fight against Ukrainian forces during the Battle of Debaltseve in 2015, according to numerous investigations.
The fact that some of these formations have already been spotted being transported beyond their military districts may mean that they are likely moving not for drills but rather for deployment near the Ukrainian border in Russian-occupied parts of the Donbas, the CIT said.
In early 2022, the Russian military is also expected to run its Grom ("Thunder") exercises, involving all components of Moscow's "nuclear triad," composed of nuclear warhead-carrying strategic air forces, submarines, and intercontinental ballistic missiles.
Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.
