"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.
The Kremlin said the leaders held a detailed discussion about the Russian initiative and Erdogan expressed full support, reiterating Turkey’s readiness to provide a venue and assist in organizing the negotiations.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
Chinese Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning speaks at a press conference in Beijing on Feb. 8, 2023. (Kyodo News via Getty Images)
Chinese Foreign Ministry's spokesperson Mao Ning said on April 24, as cited by Bloomberg, that Beijing "respects the status of the former Soviet republics as sovereign countries after the Soviet Union's dissolution," adding that the country's position remains "unchanged."
Mao's remarks, which she claims to represent China's official government stance, come days after the Chinese ambassador to France Lu Shaye's scandalous statement questioning the independence of post-Soviet countries.
Earlier on April 21, in an interview with the French television channel LCI, Shaye said that former Soviet countries "have no effective status in international law" as "there is no international agreement to materialize their status of a sovereign country."
According to Bloomberg, the Chinese Embassy in France has deleted the transcript of Lu Shaye's interview initially published on its official WeChat account.
Shaye's statement outraged Ukraine as well as Baltic countries Estonia, Latvia, and Lithuania, which said they would summon Chinese diplomats to their capitals for explanations.
European Union's top diplomat Josep Borrell called the statement "unacceptable." Meanwhile, EU Council President Charles Michel said that the EU-China policy would be "on the agenda" of the next council's meeting in June.
China hasn't denounced Russia's brutal aggression against Ukraine since February 2022, claiming it has a neutral stance on the war.
However, in March, Chinese President Xi Jinping signed an agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to open a "new era" of bilateral cooperation.
Dinara Khalilova is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a news editor. In the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, she worked as a fixer and local producer for Sky News’ team in Ukraine. Dinara holds a BA in journalism from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Master’s degree in media and communication from the U.K.’s Bournemouth University.
Thaisa Semenova
