The comments came after Trump urged Ukraine to agree to direct negotiations with Russia, which has invited Kyiv to peace talks in Istanbul on May 15, without first agreeing to halt military operations.
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.
The colors of the Hungarian flag are illuminated on the Parliament Building in Budapest to mark Hungary's National Day on August 20, 2023. (Serhat Cagdas/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Hungary will not allow the opening of negotiations on Ukraine's accession into the European Union as long as a controversial language law is upheld in the country, Balazs Orban (no relation), Political Director to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, said in an interview with Dutch broadcasting service NOS on Nov. 7.
Reports from Bloomberg and RFE/RL on Nov. 7 said that the European Commission may vote on Nov. 7 to formally recommend opening negotiations on Ukraine's accession to the European Union.
Nonetheless, Ukraine's current minority language laws could prove to be a stumbling block in securing Hungary's vote.
“New laws have been introduced that have made life miserable for Hungarians in Ukraine," Balazs Orban said. "The Hungarian position is crystal clear: as long as this law exists, there can be no discussions with the Ukrainians about their integration into the European Union."
The language law that Balazs Orban referred to, which "made life for Hungarians in Ukraine," was instituted in 2017 and requires at least 70% of education above fifth grade to be conducted in Ukrainian.
Ukraine has significant Hungarian and Romanian minorities, and the minority language law has created rifts at times with both countries, particularly with Hungary.
The measure attracted criticism from Romania's President Klaus Iohannis, who said in 2017 that it "drastically limits" the access of minorities to education in their native language.
Ukraine responded that it does not intend to crack down on its minorities, only to ensure that every Ukrainian citizen has sufficient knowledge of Ukraine's official language.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed an updated law on national minorities on Nov. 3, allowing for the publishing of advertisements in the language of a national minority within its community, as well as public and cultural events to be held in a minority language.
The law does not apply to the Russian language.
Ukraine officially applied for EU membership in late February 2022, just days after the beginning of the full-scale war.
Ukraine was granted candidacy status in June and presented with seven criteria it needs to fulfill in order to begin the talks. It often takes many years for candidate countries to have accession negotiations opened by the European Union.
Earlier on Nov. 7, the European Parliament said that Ukraine has fully implemented four of the seven steps required to start EU accession talks but that three remaining criteria, including the protection of national minorities, remain unfulfilled.
Mark Leonard
