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.
U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will travel to to Antalya, Turkey, for a NATO foreign ministers’ meeting from May 14–16, where he is expected to address the war in Ukraine and push for stronger Allied defense commitments.
U.S. President Joe Biden (L) and Russian President Vladimir Putin hold a video conference on Dec. 7, 2021 regarding the security crisis caused by Russia's preparations for a potential invasion of Ukraine. (Kremlin.ru)
U.S. President Joe Biden warned his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin that the U.S. and its allies "would respond with strong economic and other measures" against Moscow if it launches a military escalation against Ukraine.
The two leaders held a two-hour-long video conference on Dec. 7 to discuss the acute security crisis that unfolded in November when Russia amassed nearly 100,000 troops poised to surround Ukraine, raising fears of a full-fledged invasion.
The high-stakes talks are expected by many to be a turning point in the grave crisis instigated by the Kremlin.
"Biden reiterated his support for Ukraine’s sovereignty and territorial integrity and called for de-escalation and a return to diplomacy," the White House announced following the meeting.
"The two presidents tasked their teams to follow up, and the U.S. will do so in close coordination with allies and partners."
Biden and Putin also discussed the strategic stability between the two powers, as well as ransomware and joint work on regional issues such as Iran. Neither made any personal statements following the dialogue.
Prior to the meeting, Kremin spokesman Dmitriy Peskov asserted that an immediate breakthrough in U.S.-Russian relations following the conference was unlikely.
Earlier in the day, Biden also held a video conference with key European allies, including Germany, Italy, France, and the United Kingdom regarding Ukraine and the Russian military buildup.
It was earlier announced that Biden would have a call with President Volodymyr Zelensky, following the conversation with Putin. Biden will reportedly talk to Zelensky on Dec. 9.
Amid the preparation for the talks with Putin, Biden on Dec. 3 vowed to take a "comprehensive and meaningful set of initiatives" to make a Russian attack difficult in the event of major escalation. Biden, however, did not specify any particular steps contemplated.
On Dec. 7, Bloomberg reported that in case of Russian invasion, the White House intended to push Germany into closing the Nord Stream 2 gas pipeline project aggressively advocated by the Kremlin.
Moreover, the U.S. administration has also prepared a plan to cut Russia off from SWIFT, the international banking payment system, and impose crushing sanctions on the inner circle of Russian elites and energy producers, to counter a possible invasion of Ukraine, according to CNN.
Nonetheless, according to unnamed CNN sources, the U.S. administration acknowledges its limited options to totally deter the invasion and is contemplating a contingency plan to evacuate U.S. citizens from Ukraine in the event of Russia's attack.
According to the Ukrainian intelligence, Russia might employ over 94,000 troops to launch a full-scale invasion and seize much of Ukraine's territory in the south and east to the Dnipro River, which might happen in early 2022. Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksiy Reznikov said on Dec. 3 that the invasion is probable though not yet imminent.
Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.
