"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.
Illustrative image: A military officer from the third separate assault brigade is seen doing recruitment job in Kyiv region. (Ashley Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A Ukrainian draft officer was injured in a violently attack on Feb. 17 in the city of Zhovkva in Lviv Oblast while escorting two mobilized individuals to a medical evaluation.
The unnamed officer was attacked around 11:45 a.m. local time by two unidentified individuals. The officer suffered lacerations after being cut by an unknown sharp object, the Lviv Oblast Territorial Recruitment Center said.
The suspects in the case fled the scene and is currently at large. No information was immediately available as to the status of the injured officer.
Investigators, who opened a criminal investigation into the matter, believe that the likely motive was to help one of the escorted conscripts escape the draft officer.
The incident follows a series of recent attacks against military enlistment officers. Last week, a Ukrainian Armed Forces service member was injured in a violent attack at a military enlistment office in Kharkiv on Feb. 12.
In another recent incident, Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) revealed that Russia recruited the perpetrator of an explosion at a draft office in Rivne on Feb. 1 that injured eight service members and killed the suspected bomber.
A separate attack on Jan. 31 saw a draft officer shot dead in Poltava Oblast, with the perpetrator detained soon after.
Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief, Oleksandr Syrskyi, condemned the recent attacks and called for a full investigation and prosecution of those responsible.
Kyiv faces challenges in mobilizing troops amid battlefield losses and the need to rotate soldiers who have been on the front lines since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
