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.
Peter Szijjarto's announcement came after Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) allegedly dismantled a Hungarian military intelligence network operating in Zakarpattia Oblast.
Moscow and Washington discuss the potential resumption of Russian gas supplies to Europe, among other issues related to the peaceful settlement of Russia's war in Ukraine, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed to the Russian state-run Interfax news agency.
Acting Deputy Secretary of State and Under Secretary for Political Affairs Victoria Nuland holds a briefing in Mykhailivska Square, Kyiv. (Kirill Chubotin / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
Victoria Nuland, the third-ranking American diplomat known for her strong backing of Ukraine, will resign from her position as under secretary of state for political affairs in the upcoming weeks, the U.S. State Department announced on March 5.
John Bass, the under secretary of state for management, will serve as her interim replacement, according to Secretary of State Antony Blinken, who commended Nuland's extensive diplomatic career, including roles as department spokesperson, top European diplomat, and NATO ambassador.
Nuland has a extensive background in Ukraine, assuming a pivotal role as America's representative in Kyiv after the 2014 EuroMaidan Revolution and the onset of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
"It’s Toria’s leadership on Ukraine that diplomats and students of foreign policy will study for years to come," Blinken said in a press statement. "Her efforts have been indispensable to confronting Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, marshaling a global coalition to ensure his strategic failure, and helping Ukraine work toward the day when it will be able to stand strongly on its own feet – democratically, economically, and militarily."
The Russian foreign ministry swiftly responded to the news, interpreting it as an acknowledgment of the U.S.' unsuccessful approach towards Russia. Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova asserted that the cause, though not explicitly stated, was evident: the Biden administration's anti-Russian stance, championed by Victoria Nuland, has led to their decline.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Rachel Amran
