"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.
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 flooded center of the Russian-occupied Nova Kakhovka following the demolition of the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant dam in Kherson Oblast carried out by Russian forces on June 6, 2023. (Lachen Pyshe/Telegram)
A zoological garden in occupied Nova Kakhovka, "Kazkova Dibrova," is completely flooded due to the explosion at the Kakhovka dam, the animal rights organization UAnimals said on June 6.
"Only swans and ducks could escape," the organization wrote.
UAnimals learned this from a source in the zoo's management, who remained anonymous for security reasons.
"We tried our best to save the zoo under the occupation. Now, it does not exist anymore," the source said, as cited by UAnimals.
Ukraine's Southern Operational Command reported early in the morning of June 6 that Russian forces blew up the Kakhovka dam, causing massive flooding of villages downstream of the Dnipro River.
The city of Nova Kakhovka was occupied by Russian forces shortly after the beginning of the full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022.
The exiled mayor of Nova Kakhovka, Volodymyr Kovalenko, reported major flooding in the city in the early morning hours of June 6.
As of 6:30 a.m. Kyiv time, Kovalenko said that the Nova Kakhovka's theater and a boat station were flooded, and water was approaching other areas in the city.
The mayor added that it was difficult to get in touch with his sources in Nova Kakhovka due to unstable internet, which he called an attempt by Russian occupation authorities to avoid information from spreading.
Igor Kossov
