The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
"Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens."
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce called for "concrete proposals from both sides" in order for Washington to "move forward" in peace negotiations.
"If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn't know what they are saying," one Western official told NBC News. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, called Witkoff's approach "a very bad idea."
Tougher sanctions "should be applied to (Russia's) banking and energy sectors, targeting fossil fuels, oil, and the shadow fleet," the leaders of Ukraine, the U.K., France, Germany, and Poland said in a joint statement.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
While serving as a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, called the full-scale war "a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power."
Speaking to CNN on May 10, Peskov commented on the latest ceasefire proposal from Ukraine and Europe, responding that Russia needs to "think about" it, but is "resistant" to pressure.
The logo of Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) is pictured above the entrance of the bank's headquarters building on Feb. 1, 2023 in Vienna, Austria. (Photo: Heinz-Peter Bader/Getty Images)
The largest Western banks that continue to operate in Russia have paid 800 million euros ($857 million) in taxes to its budget in 2023, which is four times more than before Moscow's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the Financial Times (FT) reported on April 29, citing its analysis.
In the immediate aftermath of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Russia's banks – increasingly isolated from the global economy and laden with heavy Western sanctions – saw profits fall by 90% compared to 2021.
Despite this, the Russian banking industry is once again thriving. Russia's state-owned Sberbank reported a record annual profit of $16.3 billion in 2023, a more than five-fold increase compared to 2022.
Seven European banks with the largest assets in Russia — Raiffeisen Bank International, UniCredit, ING, Commerzbank, Deutsche Bank, Intesa Sanpaolo, and OTP — reported combined profits of over 3 billion euros ($3.2 billion) in 2023. This is three times more than in 2021.
The jump in profitability resulted in European banks paying about 800 million euros in taxes, compared to 200 million euros ($214 million) in 2021, according to the FT analysis. This was in addition to the profits of U.S. lenders such as Citigroup and JPMorgan.
The taxes paid by the banks are equivalent to about 0.4% of all expected non-energy Russian budget revenues for 2024, the FT reported.
"(This is) an example of how foreign companies remaining in the country help the Kremlin maintain financial stability despite Western sanctions," the media outlet wrote.
The growth of European banks' profits is partly explained by the funds they cannot withdraw from Russia due to restrictions imposed by Moscow after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, according to the FT.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Kateryna Denisova
