"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.
Sumy Oblast Governor Volodymyr Artiukh on April 10, 2025. (Sumy Regional Military Administration)
The Ukrainian government approved the dismissal of Volodymyr Artiukh as the Sumy Oblast governor and of Artem Lysohor as the Luhansk Oblast governor, said Taras Melnychuk, the government's representative in parliament, on April 15.
Artiukh's dismissal comes amid accusations that the governor planned a military awards ceremony in Sumy on April 13, the same day that Russia launched a deadly missile attack that killed 35 people and injured around 120.
Artiukh has confirmed the plans for the event but denied responsibility for initiating it.
Melnychuk did not immediately comment on the reasons for the dismissals. Oleksii Kharchenko will take over as the Luhansk Oblast governor, and Oleh Hryhorov was appointed governor of Sumy Oblast.
Artiukh has faced mounting scrutiny after Konotop Mayor Artem Semenikhin accused him of inadvertently creating a pretense for a Russian attack. The mayor argued that the governor's plan to hand out awards to soldiers of the 117th Brigade on April 13 posed an undue risk to both civilian residents and military personnel.
Russia reportedly deployed cluster munitions in heavily populated areas in an attack that was broadly denounced as a war crime.
Members of the Sumy Regional Administration Council submitted a motion of no-confidence against the governor on April 14.
Artiukh, a 66-year-old soldier and politician, was born in Amur Oblast in the USSR's Far East and previously served as the deputy head of the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces. He had led the administration of Sumy Oblast, a northeastern region at the border with Russia, since April 2023.
Lysohor, 41, was born in Dnipropetrovsk (today's Dnipro) and is a former police officer and military service member. Like Artiukh, he has served as governor since April 2023, administrating eastern Luhansk Oblast, which is currently almost entirely occupied by Russian forces.
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.
Asami Terajima
