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.
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Monday, May 12
"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."
Monday, May 12
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.
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"There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will wait for Putin on Thursday in Turkey," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
"We cannot allow NATO's military infrastructure to get that close to our borders," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
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.
Preliminary findings suggest that one of the men killed the other before taking his own life.
Western leaders dismissed the Kremlin's proposal for talks in Istanbul on May 15 as insufficient.
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.
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CNN: Iran modifies its drones supplied to Russia to inflict maximum damage on Ukraine's energy infrastructure
• 2 min read
Iran is modifying the attack drones it delivers to Russia so that the explosive warheads can cause maximum damage to infrastructure facilities in Ukraine, CNN reported on Feb. 9, citing a new investigative report by the U.K.-based organization Conflict Armament Research (CAR).
The investigative group examined the unexploded warhead of an Iranian Shahed-131 drone discovered in Odesa Oblast in October. According to the analysts, the warheads, less than two feet long, were "hastily modified with poorly fitted layers of dozens of small metal fragments" that scatter over a large radius on impact.
There were also 18 smaller "charges" around the warhead's perimeter, which, when melted by an explosive wave, are capable of piercing armor and creating a kind of "360-degree" explosive effect, reads the CAR's report.
The combination of these elements significantly increases the warhead's ability to destroy such targets as power plants, distribution networks, power lines, and large, powerful transformers, according to the report. They also greatly complicate repair work.
"There had been a lot of speculation that perhaps these explosives were very crude, cheap, and simple," Damien Spleeters, one of the investigators working on the report, told CNN. "But looking at the warhead, it is clear that a lot of thought has been put into making sure that it can inflict as much damage as possible to infrastructure in a large radius."
Russia has launched more than ten massive strikes against Ukraine's critical infrastructure, using dozens of missiles and Iranian-made drones at a time. These attacks killed dozens of civilians and severely damaged Ukraine's energy system, causing power, heating, and water cut-offs across the country and forcing the authorities to impose blackouts.
Ukrainian Main Military Intelligence Directorate said on Jan. 4 that Russian forces had used about 660 Iranian-made Shahed-131 and -136 drones in Ukraine since their first appearance in September of 2022.
Russia has become reliant on Iranian drones because they are a cheap alternative to precision missiles, the stock of which the Russian military has significantly depleted.
CNN: US investigates how its technology ended up in Iranian drones used by Russia to attack Ukraine
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