"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.
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.
A locomotive body with the inscription "Ukrzaliznytsia" on March 22, 2022 in Lviv, Ukraine. (Stanislav Ivanov/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
Ukrainian Railways (Ukrzaliznytsia) announced on March 27 that it had resumed online selling services after the "largest cyberattack" the company had ever suffered.
The company's website and application became unavailable on March 23 over what was initially described as a "technical failure.."
On March 24, Ukrzaliznytsiasaid it had been targeted by a "large-scale and sophisticated cyberattack" carried out by "the enemy."
On the morning of March 27, the company said in a post on social media that its website and app were restored after "89 hours of non-stop operation," and that it had sold more than 12 thousand tickets since the restoration of online services.
But it said "temporary technical interruptions" were still affecting services due to the volume of people trying to buy tickets. The Kyiv Independent could not access the site or app at the time of publication.
Ukrzaliznytsia said tickets can be purchased at ticket offices, and trains have been running as normal despite the cyberattack.
Also on March 27, Russia attacked Ukrzaliznytsia's infrastructure in Kherson, damaging a train station, power and water supply facilities, and a train carriage, the company reported.
Other Russian strikes in Kherson on March 27 killed two people and injured five others, Suspilne Kherson reported.
BothRussia andUkraine have widely employed cyberattacks during the full-scale war, with multipleUkrainian companies andstate agencies being targeted by hackers in the past three years.
Martin Fornusek
