"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.
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.
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.
"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."
Maxar satellite imagery of the flooded homes in Russian-occupied Oleshky, Kherson Oblast, following the Kakhovka dam destruction, taken on June 7, 2023. (Satellite image: Maxar Technologies)
Russia's destruction of the Kakhovka dam has caused almost $14 billion in damages to Ukraine, according to a report published by the United Nations on Oct. 17.
The report, jointly compiled by the UN and the Ukrainian government, found that the immediate damage associated with the dam's destruction and subsequent flooding caused about $2.79 billion in damage to infrastructure, with total losses exceeding $11 billion.
The figure also includes the long-lasting environmental impact, which can be hard to quantify.
In particular, there were about $1.1 billion in damages to housing stock and $1.26 in losses to energy infrastructure.
Beyond factoring in the short- and medium-term damages, the report also calculated the enormous costs of recovery and reconstruction, which top $5 billion. More than $1.8 billion will be required in the immediate to short term.
The report found that the resulting flooding directly affected over 100,000 people, which includes 29 people whose death can be directly attributed to the destruction of the dam and its aftermath, and 28 who were injured.
Almost a million people lost access to safe drinking water, and 140,000 lost power.
There was also considerable damage to Ukraine's cultural heritage, such as the flooding of the home-turned-museum of famed Ukrainian painter Polina Raiko.
The report added that the recovery and reconstruction could likely continue until 2033.
On June 6, Russian forces blew up the dam connected to the Kakhovka hydroelectric power plant, unleashing a torrent of flood-water that impacted 80 settlements across the Dnipropetrovsk, Kherson, Mykolaiv, and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts.
Daria Shulzhenko
