"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.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov speaks at a news conference at the United Nations headquarters on April 25, 2023, in New York City. (Spencer Platt/Getty Images)
Russia is waging a disinformation campaign regarding peace negotiations to win preemptive concessions from the West ahead of talks, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its March 3 report.
"Russian officials continue to falsely blame Ukraine and the West for the lack of peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, despite numerous public Russian statements suggesting or explicitly stating that Russia is not interested in good faith peace negotiations with Ukraine," analysts said.
China and Turkey have both expressed interest in facilitating peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine, and Russian officials are exploiting that interest to perpetuate their own narratives, the ISW said.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin met with China's special representative for Eurasian affairs, Li Hui, in Moscow on March 2. Both Russia and China agreed after the meeting that "the settlements will not be reached without Moscow's participation," according to the Russian Foreign Ministry.
Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan met with Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the Antalya Diplomatic Forum in Turkey on March 1. Fidan on March 3 called for ceasefire discussions to begin, saying "it is time to start a dialogue."
Amid these calls for dialogue, Russian officials have claimed that Ukraine is at fault for delaying the peace process by refusing to talk to Russia.
Ukraine has repeatedly said that any peace talks should be held on the basis of its 10-point peace formula, which includes a full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine. Moscow has rejected this proposal.
A document obtained by the Wall Street Journal shows that Russia's proposed peace terms for Ukraine in 2022 would deny Ukraine NATO membership and shrink the country's military, leaving it permanently vulnerable to Russian aggression.
"ISW continues to assess that any Russian statements suggesting that Russia is or always has been interested in peace negotiations are very likely efforts to feign interest to prompt preemptive Western concessions regarding Ukrainian sovereignty and territorial integrity and place the onus for negotiations on Ukraine and the West," analysts said.
Andreas Umland
