Ukraine’s Western allies including the US are threatening to slap Russia with more sanctions if Moscow fails to sign up to the 30-day truce in Ukraine proposed by the United States.

US President Donald Trump on Thursday added the threat of additional sanctions from the US and “its partners” to his latest call for an “unconditional ceasefire” between Russia and Ukraine that Moscow has repeatedly rejected. A key meeting of leaders of Ukraine’s European allies is expected in Kyiv on Saturday in a further sign of growing pressure on Russia.

Trump has made ending the war in Ukraine one of his priorities and he has invested much effort into trying to get Russian President Vladimir Putin on board. Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff went to Russia four times to meet with Putin and there have been several other high-level meetings between US and Russian officials since Trump returned to the White House in January.

But despite offering some previously unthinkable concessions to Russia, the Trump administration has not been able to get Russia to agree to the limited ceasefire proposal, intended as opening a path towards a permanent truce.

Now it seems that Trump is rapidly losing his patience with Putin over this stalling. And the latest move by Trump marks another shift in US stance on the conflict, which had at times been sympathetic to Kremlin.

Just days ago, the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio threatened the US would walk away from the talks if there is no progress. Instead, the US is now leading Ukraine’s other Western allies in trying to put more pressure on Russia.

European leaders back Trump’s proposal

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky hinted on Friday that an announcement outlining details of the ceasefire proposal is expected as early as on Saturday.

He said that leaders of the so-called “Coalition of the Willing” – a group of Western nations that have pledged to help defend Ukraine against Russia – will meet in Kyiv on Saturday, without giving any details of who would be attending the summit.

Trump spoke to Zelensky and a number of European leaders about the ceasefire proposal and sanctions on Thursday.

The French President Emmanuel Macron said he spoke with Trump “several times” on Thursday, “commending his strong call for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire.”

“We must all work towards this goal without delay, false pretenses, or dilatory tactics. Ukraine has already expressed its support for such a ceasefire nearly two months ago. I now expect Russia to do the same,” Macron said on X.

Macron added that if Russia fails to accept the proposal, France was “ready to respond firmly, together with all Europeans and in close coordination with the United States.”

Speaking on Friday alongside the Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, Macron confirmed there would be “a meeting, partly virtual and partly in-person” in Kyiv on Saturday.

Trump also spoke to the leaders of 10 countries northern European countries that form the security alliance known as the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF) on Thursday. The leaders of the United Kingdom, Denmark, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, Netherlands, Norway, Sweden and Finland called both Trump and Zelensky during their dinner at a summit in Oslo, according to statements from the governments of several of the countries represented at the meeting.

“Our message to both presidents was that we are committed to a just and lasting peace in Ukraine. We also conveyed our full support for the proposal for a 30 days ceasefire and continued European and US commitment to the peace process,” Sweden’s Prime Minister Ulf Kristersson said in a statement on X.

On Friday, just as Putin hosted number of Kremlin-friendly world leaders, including the Chinese leader Xi Jinping, at a pompous military parade in Moscow, Ukraine’s European allies showed their support for Kyiv by sending top level delegations to a meeting in Ukraine.

Dozens of foreign delegations were in the western Ukrainian city of Lviv on Friday to endorse the ceasefire proposal and the establishment of a special tribunal to investigate crimes of aggression against Ukraine.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy, Germany’s new Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul, the French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot and dozens of top diplomats from other European countries were among those attending.

Ukraine said Friday it had exposed a network of Hungarian spies trying to obtain defense secrets in a border region of Ukraine – the first time it said such an operation has been discovered.

The Security Services of Ukraine (SBU) said it had detained two Hungarian special services agents, whom it claims were reporting to a handler in Hungarian military intelligence and were looking for ground and air defense vulnerabilities in the southwestern Zakarpattia region, which borders Hungary.

“Comprehensive measures are currently underway to bring all members of the Hungarian intelligence network to justice,” said the statement.

Hungary responded to the arrests by expelling two of the staff at the Ukrainian embassy in Budapest.

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto said on his Facebook page that two spies who had been working “under diplomatic cover” at the embassy were ordered to leave.

Ukraine and Hungary are at odds over the conflict between Ukraine and Russia and Ukrainian accession to the European Union. Hungary has also criticized European sanctions against Moscow.

The Hungarian government has also frequently complained that the ethnic Hungarian minority in Zakarpattia is discriminated against.

“The past three years have shown that the war in Ukraine is being fought not only on the battlefield, but also in the information space. Anti-Hungarian propaganda is often used without any factual basis,” Szijjarto said in a post on X in response to the arrests.

Speaking to reporters, Szijjarto said: “If we receive any details or official information, then we will be able to deal with this. Until then, I must classify this as propaganda that must be handled with caution.”

“We will not tolerate smear campaigns against Hungary and the Hungarian people,” he said, before alleging that “anti-Hungarian propaganda has intensified,” since the start of the war.

“We haven’t let Hungary be dragged into this war — and we won’t. That’s exactly why we keep being targeted,” Szijjarto said.

Ukraine’s SBU said the Hungarian spies were tasked with gathering information about the military security and studying the views of residents and “behavior scenarios” if Hungarian troops entered Zakarpattia.

The SBU alleged that one man from Berehove in Zakarpattia was recruited in 2021 and “activated” last September. It accused him of collecting information on the location of Ukrainian defense systems, including its S-300 anti-aircraft missile system in the region.

It also alleged he had attempted to recruit two other men as he tried to establish a “network of informants.”

The second person detained, a woman who left her unit in Ukraine’s Security and Defense Forces this year, had been tasked with informing the Hungarian special services about the defense systems of her unit and informing on the presence of aircraft and helicopters in the Zakarpattia region, the SBU claimed.

The Zakarpattia region stayed part of Ukraine after the breakup of the Soviet Union. The region was once part of the former Kingdom of Hungary and later Czechoslovakia.

According to a census in 2001, just over 150,000 ethnic Hungarians lived in the region, but the number is widely thought to have declined since then. Last year, representatives of the Hungarian-speaking community criticized a draft Ukrainian law that would have restricted the use of Hungarian in schools by allowing it to be used only in classroom activities and not outside classroom settings.

The two countries had disagreements over Hungary’s 2011 decision to relax its naturalization procedures and allow anyone who can speak Hungarian and has Hungarian ancestry to gain citizenship – even if they have never stepped a foot in the country. Tens of thousands of Ukrainians were granted Hungarian passports since then, despite Ukraine not allowing dual citizenship.

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban has opposed Ukraine’s accession to the EU in part because of claims that ethnic Hungarians in western Ukraine face discrimination.

Orban has remained on good terms with Moscow throughout the conflict and has opposed the growing raft of EU sanctions against Russia as well as EU aid packages for Ukraine.

On Wednesday, Orban said EU President Ursula von der Leyen “wants to pour further billions into Ukraine, pull Europe further into a losing war, and rush a bankrupt state into the EU.”

“Hungary won’t go along with this,” he said.

Two men have been found guilty of criminal damage for felling a landmark sycamore tree in northern England.

Daniel Graham, 39, and Adam Carruthers, 32, were each found guilty of two counts of criminal damage, one relating to the tree and the other to Hadrian’s Wall that the tree fell on, according to the UK’s PA Media news agency on Friday.

The verdict was handed down following a trial at Newcastle Crown Court in northeast England. Both men will be sentenced on July 15.

The tree had stood sentinel on Britain’s Roman-built Hadrian’s Wall for more than 200 years before being “deliberately felled” in September 2023 in what authorities at the time called an “act of vandalism.”

The sycamore tree, located in the Northumberland National Park in northern England, was made famous to millions around the world when it appeared in Kevin Costner’s 1991 blockbuster movie “Robin Hood: Prince Of Thieves.”

The tree – at a spot known as “Sycamore Gap” – was located on the historic UNESCO World Heritage listed Hadrian’s Wall, which was constructed around 1,900 years ago to guard the furthest northwestern frontier of the Roman Empire.

Daniel Graham leaves Newcastle Crown Court.

Adam Carruthers arrives at Newcastle Crown Court.

During the trial, prosecutor Richard Wright KC said the felling was an act of “mindless vandalism.” He detailed how the two men drove 30 miles (48 kilometers) at night to reach the tree before one cut it down while the other filmed it.

The jury determined Graham and Carruthers caused £622,191 (about $826,000) of criminal damage to the tree and £1,144 ($1,500) of damage to Hadrian’s Wall, according to PA Media.

Jurors heard how the two men sometimes worked together and had experience of cutting down large trees. Although originally the “best of pals,” the two defendants now appear to have fallen out and their friendship has “unravelled,” the court was told.

During testimony, Graham told the court that Carruthers had told him that the tree “was the most famous tree in the world” and had spoken about cutting it down, reports PA Media.

Russian President Vladimir Putin has taken center stage at Russia’s Victory Day parade on Friday, surrounding himself by friendly world leaders in a highly choreographed show designed to show the Western world that Russia is far from isolated.

Watching as thousands of troops marched across Moscow’s Red Square, Putin stood next to his guest of honor, the Chinese leader Xi Jinping.

The annual May 9 commemoration of the Soviet Union’s victory over Nazi Germany in World War II is one of the most important days in Putin’s calendar, and this year marks its 80th anniversary.

Traditionally, the day has been dedicated to the estimated 25 million to 27 million Soviet soldiers and civilians who died during the conflict. But since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Victory Day has become more of a propaganda exercise, with Putin framing the war against Russia’s much smaller neighbor as a continuation of what Russians call the Great Patriotic War.

And while celebrations were muted in the past three years, Russia has not held back this time.

Putin and Xi were joined by scores of other world leaders, most of whom had the black and orange ribbon of Saint George pinned to their lapels. Many of them have also sent troops to march in the parade, alongside Russian servicemen.

The Russian military symbol dates back to imperial times, but it has become hugely controversial in recent years, having been coopted as a sign of support for Moscow’s aggression against Ukraine. It has been banned in a number of countries.

Brazil’s President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, the Egyptian President Abdel Fattah el-Sisi, Serbia’s President Aleksandar Vucic, Venezuela’s President Nicolas Maduro and Mahmoud Abbas, the President of the Palestinian Authority were all in attendance, marking a significant upgrade to last year’s guestlist which was limited to a handful of delegations from post-Soviet states, Cuba and a few other countries.

Robert Fico, the Prime Minister of Slovakia, a European Union member state, was also in Moscow on Friday. His appearance side by side with Putin was particularly significant given the EU’s tough stance against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine.

Unilateral ceasefire, breached multiple times

Last month, Putin declared a three-day unilateral ceasefire around the anniversary – an announcement that was promptly rejected by Ukraine.

“The Kremlin’s proposal for a three-day truce is not about peace, but about ensuring the safe conduct of the parade in Moscow. This is political manipulation,” Andriy Yermak, the head of the Ukrainian Presidential Office, said in a statement on Thursday.

Kyiv said that if Russia wanted a truce, it should sign up to the US proposal for a 30-day ceasefire that Ukraine has already agreed to. Russia has repeatedly refused this offer, despite multiple high-profile meetings with top US officials.

Kyiv said on Thursday that Russia had breached the ceasefire hundreds of times since it came into effect. Several civilians were killed and injured in guided bomb attacks against Ukrainian cities, Kyiv said.

Kyiv is openly indifferent to the smooth-running of Putin’s parade, saying that it “cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation” because of the war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said his country would not be “playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin’s exit from isolation on May 9.”

In the run-up to the parade, Ukraine launched several drone attacks against the Russian capital, with authorities forced to shut down all four Moscow airports on Wednesday.

Estonia, Latvia and Lithuania also threw in some logistical complications for international parade-goers, shutting their airspaces to diplomatic planes traveling to Moscow. Several pro-Kremlin leaders were forced to reroute their journeys to Moscow to circumvent the Baltic states.

“In Latvian society, there is a clear and principled understanding that Russian propaganda and glorification of war crimes cannot be supported or encouraged … given this context, Latvia cannot grant diplomatic overflight permits for flights facilitating participation in the 9 May event,” the Latvian Foreign Ministry said in a statement on Thursday.

Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico, one of the leaders affected by the closures, criticized the move, saying on Wednesday that it was “extremely disruptive.”

Serbian President Aleksandar Vucic was also forced to re-route after the Baltic states said he wouldn’t be allowed to enter their airspace. According to Serbian media, he ended up flying via Baku in Azerbaijan.

For the first time in history, the majority of humans live in cities — spaces often defined by concrete, glass and a disconnect from the natural world. Access to nature is no longer guaranteed.

In 2020, Miles founded Nature Is a Human Right, a campaign advocating for daily access to green spaces to be recognized in the Universal Declaration of Human Rights. Frustrated by the slow pace of institutional change, Miles says she “lost faith in the top-down process.” So she took matters into her own hands. Her weapon? Not protest banners or petitions, but seeds and shovels.

She became a so-called guerrilla gardener — “Grassroots planting in a public place, with a purpose,” Miles explains. “Think of it like graffiti, but with wildflowers instead of spray paint.” This form of urban activism involves transforming neglected or overlooked spaces — cracks in pavements, roadside verges, abandoned lots — into mini-oases for people, pollinators and biodiversity.

What began during the Covid pandemic — when parks were shut and access to green space became scarce — grew into a weekly ritual. Miles and her neighbors would meet on Sunday mornings, armed with bulbs and trowels, planting in overlooked corners of the London Borough of Hackney.

Guerrilla gardening

In the UK, guerrilla gardening occupies a legal gray area: while planting on public land without permission is not technically lawful, authorities often turn a blind eye — so long as it doesn’t cause damage, obstruction or a public nuisance.

According to the Royal Horticultural Society, guerrilla gardeners should ensure their planting doesn’t inconvenience others and be careful to not restrict public access or create trip hazards. It’s also important that anything planted is removable, and that the roots won’t cause structural damage to sidewalks and buildings.

Guerrilla gardening dates back to the 1970s, when the Green Guerrillas, founded by Liz Christy in the US, transformed vacant lots into community gardens. The movement has since spread worldwide, from Ron Finley, the “Gangsta Gardener” in Los Angeles, to Ta Mère Nature in France, and the Ujamaa Guerrilla Gardening Collective in South Africa.

Miles has brought the underground movement into the spotlight on TikTok and other social media. Her upbeat videos demystify the process, showing everything from creating seed bombs to planting moss graffiti — a form of street art where living moss is used to create patterns or words on walls. “I wasn’t a gardener. I was learning as I went along,” she admits. “But I just wanted the streets to be greener.”

As Miles’ seeds grew, so did her online following. “Young people today are very awake to issues like climate change, inequality, and mental health,” Miles says. “Guerrilla gardening intersects with all of that. It’s something you can do with your own two hands and see the impact immediately.”

“A lot of activism can feel intangible,” she adds. “With guerrilla gardening, you see the results. It’s empowering.”

And it’s more than just symbolic: “It’s been shown that having access to green spaces is as vital to your mental and physical health as regular exercise and a healthy diet,” says Miles. “We need it around us. We need the phytoncides (compounds plants release into the air) that plants produce. The experience of having plants around us calms us.”

A study of 20,000 participants by the UK’s University of Exeter found that people who spent at least 120 minutes a week in green spaces reported significantly better physical health and psychological well-being than those who didn’t. For young children, access to green spaces has been linked to reduced hyperactivity and improved attention spans. Communities can benefit too: a US study showed that greening vacant lots can lead to lower crime rates.

Miles’ message is simple: anyone can get involved. “It’s spring now,” she continues. “Find native wildflowers, scatter them when it’s raining then you won’t even have to water them.” For those who want to go further, Miles has written a book on the subject and teaches a free four-week online course through the nonprofit Earthed, which has attracted over 300 participants. She advises gardening as a group — community is key.

Her vision is bold but refreshingly practical: “Why aren’t all our sidewalks lined with hedges?” says Miles. “Our buildings could be covered in plants. Our rooftops and bus stops could be buzzing with flowers. It’s a no-brainer.”