"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.
Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
Rustem Umerov stands in the Ukrainian parliament during voting on his nomination as the Ukrainian defense minister in Kyiv on Sept. 6, 2023. (Photo by ANDRII NESTERENKO/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine's government appointed Ivan Havryliuk, Stanislav Haider, and Dmytro Klimenkov as new deputy defense ministers as part of recent personnel changes in the Defense Ministry, the government announced on Oct. 5.
Defense Minister Rustev Umerov specified that Havryliuk would be responsible for the ministry's military-technical policy, Klimenkov for procurement, and Haider for institutional development.
Umerov listed key priorities for the new appointees, such as restructuring Ukraine's defense industry according to NATO standards, standardization and digitalization of procurement processes, and ensuring transparency and accountability within the ministry.
The leadership of the Defense Ministry has been undergoing extensive personnel changes recently, starting with the resignation of Oleksii Reznikov as the department's head.
Reznikov was forced to step down following two major procurement corruption scandals and was replaced by Umerov early in September.
Just a few weeks later, the government also dismissed six deputy defense ministers and the state secretary for defense.
Three new deputy defenses – Yurii Dzhyhyr, Natalia Kalmykova, and Ekaterina Chernohorenko – were appointed in their stead on Sept. 27.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
