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A little over a year after President Donald Trump scolded him during a nationally televised Oval Office meeting, insisting he held “no cards,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is proving he holds a few after all.

Setbacks for Trump ally and Russian dictator Vladimir Putin and the world’s newfound appreciation for Ukraine’s drone-focused defense industry have given Zelenskyy a remarkable reversal of fortune and a much stronger position than Trump could have predicted 14 months ago.

In Moscow on Saturday, Putin, who expected to take control of Ukraine within days of his 2022 invasion, will instead oversee a Victory Day parade that is drastically scaled down out of fear of Ukrainian long-range drones and missiles. Russian airports were closed in the preceding days and cell service periodically shut off as security measures. Putin himself has cut back on public appearances over fears of assassination attempts or even a coup.

On the same day, 1,000 miles to the southwest, Putin’s biggest defender in Europe, Hungarian autocrat Viktor Orbán, will officially hand over power to a new prime minister, Peter Magyar, whose election last month has already opened the door to more European Union and NATO help for Ukraine.

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On Wednesday, Ireland’s lower house of parliament, the Dáil Éireann, ratified the Convention establishing an International Claims Commission for Ukraine.

Irish Minister of State for European Affairs Thomas Byrne welcomed the move, saying Ireland was among the first states to move from signing the convention to full ratification.

“Russia must be held accountable for the serious damage it has caused Ukraine,” Byrne said.

The commission is part of a broader international mechanism designed to secure reparations for damage, losses and injuries caused by Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

The mechanism consists of three parts: the Register of Damage for Ukraine, which has been operational since April 2024 and records claims; the Claims Commission, which will review and adjudicate those claims; and a future compensation fund intended to provide payments to claimants.

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Russian attacks killed 22 people in cities across Ukraine on Tuesday, as President Volodymyr Zelensky condemned Moscow’s “utter cynicism” for launching deadly strikes while seeking a truce to stage its May 9 patriotic parade.

In Zaporizhzhia, a southern city close to the front line, 12 people were killed in what Zelensky described in the post as a guided aerial bomb attack with “absolutely no military justification.” Seven people remained hospitalized, while 37 people were affected overall.

“It was a guided aerial bomb attack that directly targeted the city’s civilian infrastructure. The Russians show no restraint in destroying human life,” he said.

Russian forces also struck Dnipro in the evening, killing four people, Zelensky confirmed.

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The State Department on Tuesday officially terminated the employment of approximately 200 foreign service members as part of a reduction in force (RIF), part of more than 1,300 layoffs at the agency over the past year.

State framed the layoffs as part of what the Trump administration describes as an “historic” reorganization at the agency.

But terminated foreign and civil service officers and their supporters – Democratic lawmakers in particular – allege that these firings are illegal because they targeted employees in their temporary positions.

Foreign Service Officers (FSO) are classified as commissioned officers, ranked in their experience and trained as a flexible, nonpartisan, world-wide workforce to address the needs of the department as they evolve, and when an administration changes.

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Russia’s Defense Ministry announced a unilateral truce for Victory Day, declaring a pause in fighting from May 8 to May 9, while warning it would carry out a “massive missile strike” on Kyiv if Ukraine attempts to disrupt celebrations in Moscow.

According to the BBC’s Russian service, the truce was ordered by Russian President Vladimir Putin to coincide with the anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany in World War II, marked annually on May 9, Ukrinform reported on Monday.

At the same time, Russian officials warned of retaliation if Moscow’s military parade is threatened.

The Defense Ministry said that if Ukraine tries to “implement its criminal plans to disrupt the celebration of the 81st anniversary of the Victory in the Great Patriotic War,” Russian forces would respond with a missile strike on central Kyiv.

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Ukraine on Sunday launched a wave of strikes against Russian oil targets, hitting a key loading port on the Baltic Sea and two tankers that Ukraine alleges were illegally used to transport Russian crude.

A nighttime drone strike sparked a blaze at Russia’s largest oil exporting port on the Baltic Sea, the port of Primorsk, according to Russian regional Gov. Alexander Drozdenko.

The port, operated by Russia’s state oil firm Transneft, is capable of handling hundreds of thousands of barrels per day. Primorsk, which was targeted multiple times in March, lies over 1,000 kilometers (620 miles) from Ukraine, between the Russian-Finnish border and Russia’s second-largest city of St. Petersburg.

Local Gov. Drozdenko said that the drone strike did not cause an oil spill, but gave no immediate further comment regarding casualties or damage.

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