The comments came after Trump urged Ukraine to agree to direct negotiations with Russia, which has invited Kyiv to peace talks in Istanbul on May 15, without first agreeing to halt military operations.
A Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in Donetsk Oblast on May 12 and injured its driver, Ukrainian Railways said amid Kyiv's calls for a ceasefire.
Moscow and Hanoi agreed to negotiate and sign agreements to construct nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement on May 11.
The sanctions appear to be in response to Russia's rejection of a 30-day ceasefire that the U.K., alongside Ukraine, France, Germany, and Poland, demanded during a visit to Kyiv on May 10.
"We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X. "Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for."
The publications' latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to May 8, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of April, 2,857 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, during a news conference with Olaf Scholz, Germany's chancellor at the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin, Germany, on June 11, 2024. (Krisztian Bocsi/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Russia releasing all of its Ukrainian captives would be a good step toward peace, President Volodymyr Zelensky said at the Support Ukraine summit on Feb. 24.
"Ukraine is ready for an all-for-all exchange, it is a fair option," Zelensky said in an address to world leaders.
The comments come amid growing expectations of peace talks in 2025 amid U.S. President Donald Trump's push for a swift ceasefire.
Russia and Ukraine have held a number of prisoner swaps throughout the full-scale war, most recently on Feb. 5, when 150 Ukrainian soldiers were brought back from Russian captivity.
Ukraine does not reveal the exact figures on how many Ukrainian prisoners of war (POW) are held in Russia. According to Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets, Russia holds over 16,000 Ukrainian civilians.
Moscow has also deported or forcibly displaced over 19,500 Ukrainian children, transporting them to Russia, Belarus, or other Russian-occupied territories of Ukraine.
"Thousands of people are being held in Russia. And some of them have been held not only since 2022, but much earlier, since 2014," Zelensky said.
Ukraine floated the idea of an all-for-all prisoner exchange already back in 2024, but Russia has not agreed to the proposal.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Kateryna Hodunova
