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.
Photo for illustrative purposes. Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky (L) and his Lithuanian counterpart, Gitanas Nauseda, meet in Vilnius, Lithuania, on April 11, 2024. (Ukraine's Presidential Office)
The Lithuanian government will provide Ukraine with six AMBER-1800 radars within the German-led air defense Initiative Immediate Action on Air Defence (IAAD), German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on May 17.
Berlin launched the initiative in April amid Kyiv's increasingly dire need for air defenses, facing heavy Russian aerial attacks against population centers and the energy grid.
Belgium and Canadahave already publicly pledged to the initiative.
The AMBER-1800 radar was developed by the Lithuanian company LitakTak. The radar was designed to automatically detect aerial targets, their azimuth, and range coordinates.
The approximate date of the radars' arrival in Ukraine, as well as the amount of Lithuanian contribution, were not specified after the meeting between Pistorius and his Lithuanian counterpart Laurynas Kasciunas.
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War Notes
Pistorius said that Germany would also contribute to the Lithuanian initiative for demining in Ukraine.
Initially criticized for its sluggish delivery of military aid to Ukraine following the beginning of the full-scale invasion, Germany has become the second-largest provider of military equipment after the U.S.
Berlin has previously provided IRIS-T air defense systems to Ukraine, including three IRIS-T SLM systems, with a range of up to 40 kilometers, and one IRIS-T SLS, with a range of up to 12 kilometers.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said on April 6 that Ukraine needed 25 Patriot air defense systems to cover the country's skies from Russian attacks.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Kateryna Hodunova
