"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.
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.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief Vasyl Maliuk. (SBU/Telegram)
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) chief Vasyl Maliuk made a statement on the recent surface drone attacks on Russian ships, effectively admitting that Ukraine was behind the attacks.
He said such attacks are "absolutely logical" and "completely legal."
"Any (explosions) that happen to the Russian ships or the Crimean Bridge is an absolutely logical and effective step in relation to the enemy," Maliuk said, as quoted by the SBU Telegram channel.
"Moreover, such special operations are conducted in the territorial waters of Ukraine and are completely legal," he said.
According to Maliuk, there is only one option for such attacks to stop: Russia has to leave the territorial waters of Ukraine and Ukrainian land.
"And the sooner they do it, the better it will be for them," the official said.
His comment comes after explosions were reported near the Crimean Bridge in the early hours of Aug. 5.
Local Russian-appointed officials claimed explosions were heard in Kerch, occupied Crimea, and subsequently announced a threat of attack on the Crimean Bridge. The Moscow Times Telegram channel later reported that the naval drone attack on the Kerch Strait could have potentially damaged the Russian "SIG" chemical tanker.
The SIG tanker delivered aviation fuel from Crimea to Syria, for which the United States added it to the sanctions list in 2019.
Earlier on Aug. 4, the Russian Defense Ministry claimed that 13 Ukrainian drones were shot down in Crimea and that two unmanned surface drones were destroyed during an attack on a naval port in Russia's Novorossiysk.
Later that day, unnamed sources in the SBU, cited by CNN and several Ukrainian media outlets, said that a Russian landing ship stationed in the naval port of Novorossiysk was damaged by one of the surface drones.
The operation was a joint endeavor between the SBU and the Ukrainian Navy, according to the unnamed sources.
While Kyiv does not generally claim responsibility for explosions reported on the occupied peninsula, Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov said in late July that Ukraine will continue to attack targets in Crimea to reduce Russia's fighting capacity and "help save the lives of Ukrainians."
Daria Shulzhenko is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent. She has been a lifestyle reporter at the Kyiv Post until November 2021. She graduated from Kyiv International University with a bachelor’s in linguistics, specializing in translation from English and German languages. She has previously worked as a freelance writer and researcher.
Kate Tsurkan
