Ukraine: Merz, Macron, Starmer and Tusk en route to Kyiv

The leaders of Britain, France, Germany and Poland are on their way to the Ukrainian capital, according to a joint statement released late on Friday night.

French President Emmanuel Macron, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer will make an unprecedented joint visit to Kyiv on Saturday for talks with Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and to urge Russia to agree a ceasefire.

Ahead of the visit, the four leaders called on Russia to "agree a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire" and warned that "we will ratchet up pressure on Russia's war machine" until it does.

Earlier in the day, Zelenskyy announced in a video conference that the "coalition of the willing" would meet in Kyiv on Saturday.

The "coalition of the willing" is made up of around 30 countries and is led by France and Britain. They are all working on plans to help Ukraine after a possible ceasefire.

Russia supports the implementation of a 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine conflict, but only with due consideration of "nuances" in the more than three-year-old war, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.

"This theme was long put forward by the Ukrainian side. And as soon as it was advanced by the (US administration of Donald Trump), it was supported by President (Vladimir) Putin with the reservation that it is very difficult to discuss this in detail if no answers are found to a large number of nuances around the notion of a ceasefire," Peskov said.

Russia has previously said that the introduction of a long-term ceasefire depends on the establishment of mechanisms to monitor and maintain such a move.

Iran is preparing to deliver in the near future launchers for short-range ballistic missiles that the US said Tehran sent to Russia last year for use against Ukraine, Reuters reported, citing two Western security officials and a regional official.

With a range of 120 kilometers, the Fath-360 could be used against Ukrainian frontline troops, nearby military targets and population centers near the border with Russia, analysts said.

The Western security officials and the regional official, speaking on condition of anonymity, claimed the delivery of the Fath-360 launchers was imminent.

Russia and Iran have previously denied that Tehran has shipped the missiles or any other weapons to support a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, which Moscow launched in February 2022.

US, Ukrainian and European officials say Iran has provided Russia with thousands of drones and artillery shells.

The US Embassy in Kyiv has warned of a "potentially significant" air attack in the coming days.

"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 said on its website.

The embassy advised US citizens to take shelter immediately in the event of an air alert.

Support for Ukraine is the "absolute focus" of Britain and its northern European allies, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer said as he attended a meeting of the Joint Expeditionary Forces (JEF) in Oslo.

Speaking after the summit, Starmer said the UK-led group's top priority was to defend the values "hard-won" during the Second World War and to continue to stand behind Kyiv.

"That's where our absolute focus is — with Ukraine, defending the values that yesterday at VE Day we were remembering and commemorating, that were hard-won in the Second World War," Starmer stressed.

The JEF is a military coalition of mostly northern European nations that includes Denmark, Finland, Norway, Sweden, Iceland, the Baltic states and the Netherlands.

French President Emmanuel Macron called for the rapid drafting of a US-European plan for a 30-day ceasefire in the war between Russia and Ukraine, backed by "massive sanctions."

"My wish ... is that in the coming hours and coming days, we manage to all come together to commit to a ceasefire, saying that if one of the parties betrays it, there will be massive economic sanctions," Macron told Polish television channel Telewizja Polska.

He said there needed to be stronger action "so that we are much more dissuasive, Europeans and Americans united."

On Thursday, US President Donald Trump called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. He warned that Washington and its partners would impose further sanctions if the ceasefire was not respected.

Ukraine has imposed sanctions on 58 Russian citizens and 74 foreign companies, according to a presidential decree.

Most of them are Russian companies linked to the military-industrial complex.

However, the list also includes one based in Hong Kong, three Iranian companies, and three Uzbek companies.

Smart Kit Technology Limited is from Hong Kong, while Alvand Motorbuilding Industries Company, Bonyan Danesh Shargh Private Company and Pishro Sanat Aseman Sharif Private Company are registered in Iran.

The decree did not give a reason for the restrictions, but Ukraine has previously accused both China and Iran of supporting Russia's war effort.

The United States and European countries are finalizing a proposal for a 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine that, if rejected, would see them jointly impose new sanctions on Russia, Reuters news agency quoted a French diplomatic source as saying.

The source added that the proposal had not yet been given the green light and would be worked on at a summit in Ukraine over the weekend.

Meanwhile, Finnish President Alexander Stubb, speaking shortly after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and US President Donald Trump, said efforts to secure an agreed ceasefire in Ukraine were moving in the right direction.

"We can't give a timetable now, but in an ideal world a Ukraine ceasefire would be declared over the weekend," Stub told a press conference with his Norwegian counterpart Jonas Gahr Stoere after a meeting of Northern European nations' leaders in Oslo.

Trump on Thursday called for a 30-day unconditional ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine. He warned that Washington and its partners would impose further sanctions if the ceasefire is not respected.

Britain, France and a group of northern European nations said they supported a US proposal for an unconditional 30-day cease-fire between Russia and Ukraine.

Pro-Ukrainian activists staged a protest at a Soviet memorial in Warsaw, where Moscow's ambassador laid a wreath as Russia marked World War II Victory Day.

About two dozen demonstrators wrapped in white sheets, their clothes and faces splashed with a red substance imitating blood, lay at the foot of a monument at the cemetery for Soviet soldiers in the Polish capital.

They chanted "terrorists" as Russia's ambassador to Poland, Sergei Andreyev, made his way to the monument with a wreath commemorating the Soviet defeat of Nazi Germany.

About a dozen people also gathered at the site for a counter-protest. Minor scuffles and verbal altercations broke out between the groups.

Russia's ambassador to Germany, Sergei Nechayev, has laid wreaths at Soviet memorials in Berlin on the occasion of the 80th anniversary of the end of World War II.

Nechayev visited both the huge memorial in Treptower Park, in former East Berlin, and the site in Tiergarten near the Brandenburg Gate, in the city's western sector.

Russia commemorates the victory over Nazi Germany on May 9, while Europe celebrates the end of the war on May 8.

The pro-Kremlin Russian Communist Party has unveiled a bust of Soviet dictator Joseph Stalin in the Russian-controlled southern Ukrainian city of Melitopol.

The unveiling came a day before a military parade in Moscow to mark the victory over Nazi Germany 80 years ago.

The party later said it was the first monument dedicated to Stalin in "Novorossiya," as Moscow calls illegally annexed parts of Ukraine.

Stalin, who led the Soviet Union in the war against Nazi Germany and is still considered a hero by many in Russia, was also responsible for starvation, terror, murder and repression of his own people.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said leaders from the "coalition of the willing" will meet in Kyiv on Saturday.

"We need this coalition, and we need it to be strong enough to guarantee security," Zelenskyy told a military summit in Oslo via video link on Friday.

The coalition is an initiative led by France and the United Kingdom that was announced by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer after a summit of Kyiv's allies in London.

That summit was held in the wake of US mediation efforts with Russia, talks that did not include Ukrainian or European officials.

The initiative has been joined by 33 nations that have vowed to provide more support for Ukraine against Russia's invasion, including being part of a potential peacekeeping force on Ukrainian territory.

Most of the EU's 27 members have signed up, with four notable exceptions. Malta has opted out, citing its neutrality, although Ireland — which is also neutral — has joined.

Hungary and Slovakia have also refused to join the coalition. 

The rest of the initiative's partners are made up of Australia, New Zealand, Canada, Japan, Iceland, Turkey and Norway.

Russia has said that it will view the presence of any Western troops in Ukraine as a hostile act, and has warned that the coalition could trigger a war between NATO and Moscow.

Kyiv has been calling on its European allies to send soldiers to enforce a potential ceasefire and ward off any potential future aggression by Russia, as well as urging them to increase sanctions.

Ukraine's European Union allies have endorsed creating a special tribunal to prosecute senior Russian leaders, including President Vladimir Putin, for crimes committed during Moscow's invasion of Ukraine.

EU foreign ministers, as well as the EU's foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, were meeting the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday in a symbolic show of support for Ukraine.

Kallas said the EU was sending "a very important signal" by endorsing a "tribunal for the crimes of aggression" Russia has committed.

"That means that nobody can go unpunished for the crimes they commit," she said, urging all other nations "who stand for the principles enshrined in the UN Charter" to support the creation of the tribunal.

"If there is no accountability, we will see this happening again," Kallas warned.

In her remarks, she also confirmed that Europe would provide a further €1 billion ($1.13 billion) for the Ukrainian defense industry.

The meeting in Lviv was held at the same time that Russia was marking victory in World War II with a massive military parade in Moscow. 

Hungary has expelled two Ukrainian diplomats accused of being spies, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said Friday.

"Today we have expelled two spies from Hungary working under diplomatic cover at Ukraine's Embassy in Budapest," Szijjarto said on Facebook, accusing Kyiv of conducting a "smear campaign" and of contributing to "growing anti-Hungarian propaganda".

The move came after the SBU, Ukraine's internal security service, said Friday it had arrested two alleged Hungarian spies.

The SBU accused the "two agents" of gathering military intelligence in western Ukraine near the border with Hungary. The Zakarpattia region is home to around 150,000 ethnic Hungarians.

The suspects are former soldiers — a 40-year-old man and a woman — the SBU said, adding that they both face life in prison. 

Ukrainian authorities believe they were recruited by a handler in Hungarian military intelligence and given cash and specialist equipment for secret communications.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha later said in a social media post that two Hungarian diplomats must leave Ukraine within 48 hours.

"We are acting in response to Hungary's actions, based on the principle of reciprocity and our national interests," he wrote on X.

Ties between Kyiv and Budapest have been strained for years. Hungary's Prime Minister, Viktor Orban, has sided with Moscow and Russian President Vladimir Putin since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

Orban has refused to join Western sanctions against the Kremlin, and has opposed Ukraine's bid to join the European Union.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says he is more optimistic about the future of the NATO alliance than he was three months ago when he questioned its continued existence in light of the attitude of the US administration under President Donald Trump.

"What has changed is the acceptance of what we, as European NATO partners, are doing," Merz told a joint Brussels news conference with NATO chief Mark Rutte.

"And that is why I associate the NATO summit in June with more hope today than I did back in February—that we will succeed in developing a joint strategy with the Americans," he added, referring to a NATO meeting planned for next month in the Netherlands.

Merz also said he had no hopes of Ukraine joining NATO in the near future, as he visited Brussels for the first time since taking office.

After Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kyiv applied for membership in the European Union and urged allies in the NATO military alliance to issue an invitation for it to join.

While NATO agreed last year to admit Ukraine in the future without setting a date, the US administration under Donald Trump has since ruled out such a move. NATO allies must unanimously agree on admitting new members.

Merz said Ukraine would not join NATO until it had also joined the EU, something that most experts say won't happen until 2030 at the latest.