"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.
Workers maintain trains from Ukraine's state-owned railway, Ukrzaliznytsia, at the Kyiv Rail depot on Nov. 25, 2022. (Jeff J Mitchell via Getty Images)
Ukraine's state-owned railway company Ukrzaliznytsia transported a record 2.1 million passengers to European countries in 2023, the company reported on Jan. 5.
The airspace above Ukraine has remained closed since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022, meaning that road or rail travel is required to enter or exit Ukraine.
Ukrzaliznytsia operates services to Warsaw, Chelm, and Przemysl in Poland, Vienna in Austria, and Chisinau in Moldova. Trains also run to Chop, a town on the border with Hungary, allowing passengers to connect with trains to Budapest.
In total, the company transported 25 million passengers in long-distance trains in 2023.
The company reported a record amount of freight in November 2023, when it transported 14 million metric tons of cargo, a 33.8% increase compared to the same period the previous year.
On the same day, Ukrzaliznytsia's Deputy Director of Commercial Work Valerii Tkachov said his company was preparing to transport 23 trucks stuck at the Polish border by train amid the ongoing blockade by Polish haulers.
Asami Terajima
