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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 05-10-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
A coalition of the willing that arrived in Kyiv has called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire after a phone call with Donald Trump. Ukraine agrees. Everyone is awaiting Russia’s response.
While on a historic visit to Kyiv, French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday the United States had committed to monitor a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine proposed by Kyiv’s European allies.
Macron said the ceasefire “will be monitored mainly by the United States of America, to which all Europeans will contribute,” AFP reported, and that the truce would pave the way for “immediate work and negotiations on parties involved to build a robust and lasting peace.”
For centuries, Ukraine has been viewed by the West as a sub-category of Russia. Only now is the West realizing what a fatal misunderstanding this is – and how Moscow is taking advantage of it.
Now in the fourth year of its full-scale resistance, Ukraine continues to defy the assumptions of a Western world that, in February 2022, largely expected its rapid collapse. Ukraine’s belief in freedom runs deep in its history.
The national poet Taras Shevchenko believed in the unifying power of the struggle for freedom among Ukrainians. His writings “inspired Ukrainians to dream of freedom while angering Russian official censors.” This spirit was rooted in the legacy of the Cossacks, who built a tradition of self-rule and resistance to foreign domination. Yet while both the West and Russia have long believed they “know” Ukraine, both have consistently misjudged its resilience.
Air strikes, spy-catchers and a new pope – here’s your full summary of the week in Ukraine, as of May 10, 2025.
The apartment of an electrician scheduled to be working in Putin’s residence outside of Moscow blew up. Russian media channels are fueling a frenzy of conspiracy theories.
On May 4, an explosion occurred in a Moscow apartment. Three people reportedly died, and one man was left in a coma. The man in the coma, an electrician named Mikhail Mukhin, was allegedly scheduled to be working in Russian President Vladimir Putin’s palatial Valdai residence outside of Moscow, which he is said to share with his purported lover Alina Kabaeva, 41, and their two young children, according to Telegram channel VChK-OGPU.
As a result of the explosion on General Tyulenev Street, after which a strong fire began, two apartments were destroyed – on the eighth and ninth floors – and three people died, all members of the same family.
Here’s what people are saying about Moscow’s parade.
Russia is celebrating the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany with a large military parade today. State guests from around 30 countries including Belarus, China, Slovakia and Brazil are attending. Commentators examine the symbolism of the ostentatious celebrations as the country wages war against Ukraine, as well as the motives of those attending.
No innocent gesture
There may be chaos in Western geopolitics, but Ukraine is fine-tuning their place as the world’s leading army when it comes to drone warfare capabilities.
If necessity is the mother of invention, then innovation and adaptability are the elements required to keep that invention relevant on the modern battlefield. After Russia’s brutal full-scale war, this has been a lesson the Ukrainians have been forced to learn the hard way, and that is just what they have done. In three years, the Ukrainian army has become the world’s leading producer of drone combat capabilities and has rewritten the way the modern large scale battlefield functions.
I saw this first hand as I stood in a bunker with Ukrainian frontline soldiers as they operated the vast web of drone defensive and offensive capabilities near the Pokrovsk sector of the front. I returned to eastern Ukraine with a Polish team of volunteers bringing aid and equipment to Ukrainian medics and frontline defenders.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told American TV that Putin will not agree to a ceasefire as long as Western countries continue to send arms to Ukraine.
Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov said Russian President Vladimir Putin needed to see “certain dynamics” on the battlefield before agreeing to an extended ceasefire.
Peskov insisted in an interview with ABC News that arms deliveries from Ukraine’s allies must stop before there can be any pause in hostilities.
EU Commission President says “ball is in Moscow’s court.”
A ceasefire in Ukraine must be implemented without pre-conditions, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday, warning that Moscow would face more sanctions if it breached it.
“We support the proposal for a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire. It must be implemented without pre-conditions to pave the way for meaningful peace negotiations,” she said on X, formerly Twitter.
In a show of solidarity, four of Europe’s leaders met in the Ukrainian capital to discuss how to push Moscow into an unconditional ceasefire already accepted by Ukraine.
President Volodymyr Zelensky hosted leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland in Kyiv on Saturday. The Europeans are making an unprecedented joint visit to Ukraine for talks meant to increase pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire.
The trip by French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer is the first time the leaders of the four European nations have made a joint visit to Ukraine.
Amid the specter of Moscow’s influence leading to pro-Russian candidate victorious in the upcoming election run-off, Romanians take to the streets to show support for the EU.
Tens of thousands rallied in Romania’s capital Friday to demand a commitment to the country’s pro-European path ahead of next week’s presidential run-off, after a far-right candidate came out on top in the initial vote.
The rally came after George Simion, an EU critic who opposes sending aid to neighboring Ukraine, comfortably triumphed in the first round of a tense presidential rerun, with opinion polls suggesting he will win the run-off on May 18.
A historical moment as Zelensky honors the fallen with Ukraine’s staunchest European allies.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky posted images of himself and his wife in Kyiv on Saturday with the leaders of France, Britain, Germany and Poland, all of whom are paying homage to fallen soldiers from Ukraine and elsewhere at a makeshift monument on Independence Square.
The Europeans are making an unprecedented joint visit to Ukraine for talks meant to increase pressure on Russia to accept a ceasefire.
Putin-Xi solidarity sends worrying signal for Kyiv, Washington, European capitals, analyst warns
Calling for peace in Ukraine from hundreds of miles away, Chinese leader Xi Jinping has long been trying to position himself as a possible mediating force in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
However, as he wrapped up his three-day trip to Moscow on Friday after marking the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe, complete with a slew of deals to honor a “no limits” partnership with Russia, policy analysts in Washington have been alarmed at what they see as China coming off the fence on Ukraine.
After 11 years of war, Ukraine, the victim, is increasingly pressured to make numerous concessions to Putin’s Russia, the predatory violator of the Budapest Memorandum.
In the Manifesto below, Col. Gen. Ihor Smeshko calls on the international community, and especially the signatory parties of the Memorandum, to open their minds and hearts to the unparalleled contributions Ukraine has made to global security, and urges support in restoring its sovereignty and territorial integrity.
Winston Churchill once said, “The price of greatness is responsibility.” And living up to one’s responsibilities is recognized as a matter of highest honor.
French President Macron announced on Friday that he had spoken with his US counterpart Donald Trump Thursday night “several times” to push for a 30-day ceasefire in the Russo-Ukrainian War.
WASHINGTON DC – The United States and European Union are considering joint coercive measures, including sanctions, in order to force Russia to accept the truce terms proposed by President Donald Trump, two Western officials told Kyiv Post on Friday.
Ukraine in March accepted the Trump administration’s proposal for a 30-day ceasefire, to be followed by talks on matters including the location of an armistice line, possible deployment of a European peacekeeping force and other key steps.
Although visibly frustrated, Trump would not admonish Russia for what US intelligence has assessed as a serious threat of air attack. “Get this stupid war over,” was his message for “both parties.”
The US embassy in Kyiv issued a warning on May 9 to all US citizens in Ukraine that an attack by Russia is imminent.
The statement read: “The US Embassy in Kyiv has received information concerning a potentially significant air attack that may occur at any time over the next several days. The Embassy, as always, recommends US citizens be prepared to immediately shelter in the event an air alert is announced.”
Although it came on the heels of frosty relations and numerous points of contention between Poland and Germany, the visit may have created an opportunity for a breakthrough.
Friedrich Merz traveled to Warsaw on Wednesday, just one day after taking office as Germany’s chancellor. This symbolic gesture was intended to signal a new phase in Polish-German relations.
Despite their proximity and very close cooperation, including in economic matters, Polish-German relations during the rule of the Law and Justice (PiS) party and its coalition partners (2015-2019, 2019-2023), as well as the first half of the term of Civic Coalition (KO) and its partners (2023-), have been cold.
Alex Ovechkin, one of the most dominant figures in North American sports continues, unfortunately, to back the man who wants to destroy Ukraine.
Imagine for a moment an American hockey superstar advocating support for Russia’s initial war against Ukraine, which has evolved into the most terrible destructive war in Europe since World War II.
Unfortunately, this is not imaginary. Alex Ovechkin, captain for the Washington Capitals hockey team recently broke the NHL’s all-time scoring record. But his political involvement with Russian President Vladimir Putin and support for Russia’s war in Ukraine mars the celebration.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
As the US signals a retreat from its traditional commitments to Europe, Poland and other EU nations must consolidate alliances in the face of Russian aggression.
Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and French President Emmanuel Macron signed the Treaty on Enhanced Cooperation and Friendship between the Republic of Poland and the French Republic.
The document was signed in a symbolic location – Nancy, the city where Stanisław Leszczyński, King of Poland in the 18th century, once lived.
Although Trump’s team has “tested the waters” with several governments to get them to accept deportees who are not US citizens, Ukraine wasn’t even on the shortlist, a senior official tells Kyiv Post.
WASHINGTON DC – The White House on Friday dismissed recent reports alleging that the Donald Trump administration had asked Kyiv early this year to take in third-country nationals deported by the US, all while Ukraine was fending off Russia’s attacks.
“I’ve never heard that before,” Stephen Miller, President Trump’s deputy chief of staff and top policy and homeland security adviser, told Kyiv Post’s Washington correspondent.
What the 2025 Moscow Victory Day Parade reveals about Russia’s shifting global alliances – and why the age of Kremlinology is over.
During the Cold War, the May 9 Victory Day parade was essential viewing for anyone seeking insight into the Kremlin’s cryptic power structure. Kremlinologists dissected every image as if decoding scripture. The placement of officials, the absences, the subtle shifts in proximity to the General Secretary – each detail hinted at political currents behind closed doors.
Alongside Revolution Day (November 7), state funerals, and Central Committee meetings, the parade offered a rare glimpse of Soviet leaders assembled in public. Analysts parsed the lineup to gauge influence, rivalry, and survival. Today, that ritual has faded as the art of Kremlinology seemed to become obsolete at the end of the Cold War. Understanding Russian power now begins and ends with a single figure: the age of Putinology has arrived.
