"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
"I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people," Zelensky said.
Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak voiced doubt about leading negotiations with anyone from Russia except President Vladimir Putin, implying only the Russian leader can make real decisions.
This includes at least seven people injured in drone attacks overnight on May 12, a date from which Kyiv and its allies put forward a demand for a 30-day unconditional truce, a step that Moscow continues to reject.
"When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs," the Elysee Palace reacted to a fake story pushed by Russia.
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.
Canada's training mission, the Operation Unifier, holds medical training for the National Guard of Ukraine on March 12, 2021 in Zolochiv, Ukraine. (Canadian Armed Forces in Ukraine/Facebook)
Despite earlier considerations, Canada has decided against deploying more military personnel to Ukraine, in a bid to avoid irritating the Kremlin amid an acute security crisis in the region and fears of Russia's possible all-out invasion of Ukraine.
As Canada's Chief of Defence Staff Wayne Eyre told the Globe and Mail newspaper on Dec. 2 in Kyiv, new military backing for Kyiv could inflame the situation as the Russian President Vladimir Putin repeatedly warned against any expansion of NATO's presence in Ukraine.
“In a case like this, diplomacy has to lead," the major Canadian media outlet quoted Eyre. "We’ve got to be very careful."
In late November, the Canadian media reported that Ottawa is considering sending additional troops to the country's 200-strong military training mission, the Operation Unifier, which has been active on Ukrainian soil since 2015. According to Kyiv, over 12,000 Ukrainian military servicepersons have been trained by Canadian instructors.
The other options considered were sending a warship to the Black Sea and redeploying some of Canada's McDonnell Douglas CF-18 Hornet fighter jets currently based in Romania.
“What we’re doing with Operation Unifier… shows long-term commitment (to Ukraine), the Canadian commander told the Globe and Mail.
"But we’ve got to be very careful about the balance between deterrence and escalation, and what is the perception from the other side as well."
When asked if the Canadian reluctance meant that Putin's warnings were being taken seriously, General Eyre said that "you’ve always got to take potential adversaries seriously. Wars have started because of potential miscalculations before, throughout history."
In November, tensions skyrocketed again as Moscow was seen concentrating nearly 100,000 troops near Ukraine and in occupied territories in what many consider a possible preparation for large-scale military action.
According to Ukrainian and Western intelligence, Russia might employ between 94,000 and 175,000 troops to potentially invade the country, destroy the Ukrainian armed forces and seize much of Ukraine's territory east of the Dnipro River and the Black Sea coastline.
The threat of an all-out escalation of Russia's simmering static war in Donbas that has continued since 2014 has greatly alarmed Kyiv and the West. Nonetheless, according to Ukraine's Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov, the invasion as soon as in early 2022 is possible though not necessarily imminent.
On Dec. 7, U.S. President Joe Biden is expected to have a video conference with his Russian counterpart Putin regarding the Ukrainian crisis.
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.
