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.
The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
"Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens."
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce called for "concrete proposals from both sides" in order for Washington to "move forward" in peace negotiations.
"If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn't know what they are saying," one Western official told NBC News. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, called Witkoff's approach "a very bad idea."
Hungary's Foreign Affairs and Trade Minister Peter Szijjarto attends the 10th Summit of the Heads of State of the Organization of Turkic States on Nov. 3, 2023. (Arda Kucukkaya/Anadolu via Getty Images)
Ukraine is not yet suitable for EU membership and could bring war to the bloc, Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto stated on Nov. 8.
"The manner in which Ukraine is violating the most fundamental rights of the EU on the issue of national minority rights is particularly egregious," Szijjarto stated. "And since, according to the EU assessment, Ukraine has not met the conditions for membership, we do not consider any further progress on the issue of accession negotiations with Ukraine is timely."
Szijjarto also criticized what he described as the lack of full press freedom and freedom of speech in Ukraine, as well as the lack of fair elections.
The Foreign Minister emphasized that Ukraine's entry into the EU will bring war to “the bloc, which, obviously, no one wants.”
“Ukraine is in a state of war, so we can see that neither freedom of speech nor freedom of expression is respected there, and elections are not held either," Szijjártó added. "It would be obviously absurd for EU member states to take a position on how Ukraine functions in such conditions rule of law institutions.”
Earlier this week, Balazs Orban, Political Director to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban, stated that Hungary would 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.
Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
