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.
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.
Photo for illustrative purpose. German drone Quantum Vector during the presentation on August 24, 2024 in Ukraine. (Viktor Fridshon/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The militaries of NATO member states continue to rely on security principles and weapons "inherited from the Korean War" that will not be relevant in modern warfare, Valerii Zaluzhnyi, Ukraine's former commander-in-chief and current ambassador to the U.K., said on Oct. 17, according to a Kyiv Independent reporter.
"There will be no war of the 1953 model. I am talking about the Korean War. It ended in summer 2023 in Ukraine, when two professional armies of more than a million personnel each faced each other on the battlefield," the retired general said at Chatham House in London.
When Zaluzhnyi was in charge of Ukraine's army in 2023, the Ukrainian military launched its counteroffensive aimed at pushing toward the Sea of Azov to cut Russia's land corridor to Crimea.
Failing to reach its goals, it was limited to the liberation of a few villages in Zaporizhzhia and Donetsk oblasts, significantly slowed down by Russian minefields and a lack of air superiority and equipment.
Since then, the near-complete saturation of the front line with drones and other unmanned system has continued to change how the war is fought.
The ambassador also stressed that modern warfare brought new technologies to the battlefield, such as drones and artificial intelligence.
Zaluzhnyi noted that it is impossible to produce expensive missiles, fighter jets, and aircraft carriers at the "massive scale" that modern warfare requires, meaning these systems will become less efficient.
South Korea and the U.S. fought against North Korea and China in a bloody war in 1950-53, leading to a ceasefire and a division along the demarcation line that stands today.
In the same speech, Zaluzhnyi said that it is almost impossible to escape the state of "protracted" war with Russia.
Martin Fornusek
