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."
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.
Patrol car of the Finnish border guard at 8 p.m. at the prematurely closed Vaalimaa border check point between Finland and Russia in Virolahti, Finland on Dec. 15, 2023. (Vesa Moilanen / Lehtikuva / AFP via Getty Images)
Finland's eastern border with Russia has remained stable, without an influx of asylum seekers, since the country once again closed its border crossings after announcing a temporary reopening, the Finnish news outlet Yle reported Dec. 17.
Finland closed all its eastern border crossings in late November in order to combat a migrant crisis allegedly organized by Moscow. While Finland announced on Dec. 14 that it would reopen two crossing points, the government quickly reversed the decision, closing the entire eastern border again starting from the evening of Dec. 15.
The country's Border Guard reported that as of the re-closing, the situation at the border has been largely stable.
No asylum seekers have arrived at the Niirala crossing point since Dec. 15, the Border Guard said. One asylum seeker scaled the fence near the southeastern Vaalimaa crossing point on Dec. 15, and another crossed the land border in the area the same day.
Finland has said that the large number of third-party asylum seekers attempting to enter the country through the eastern border without proper documentation is the result of a Kremlin operation meant to penalize Finland for joining NATO.
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin said on Dec. 17 that Finland is "now going to have problems" because of its accession to NATO. He also said he planned to concentrate Russian troops at the Finnish border.
When Finland re-closed the border on Dec. 15, Finnish Interior Minister Mari Rantanen attributed the ongoing border crisis to Russian aggression and interference.
“This is a sign that the Russian authorities are continuing their hybrid operation against Finland. This is something that Finland will not tolerate,” Rantanen said.
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
