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."
Tougher sanctions "should be applied to (Russia's) banking and energy sectors, targeting fossil fuels, oil, and the shadow fleet," the leaders of Ukraine, the U.K., France, Germany, and Poland said in a joint statement.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
While serving as a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, called the full-scale war "a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power."
Speaking to CNN on May 10, Peskov commented on the latest ceasefire proposal from Ukraine and Europe, responding that Russia needs to "think about" it, but is "resistant" to pressure.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on May 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked the idea of a demilitarized zone in the war and emphasized the importance of first securing a ceasefire.
Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov (L) hugs his Lithuanian counterpart Arvydas Anusauskas during the Ukraine Security Consultative Group meeting at the Ramstein air base on April 26 in Germany.
Ukraine can count on Lithuania's "unconditional support" in relation to NATO membership "even if it looks like an elusive goal," said Lithuanian Defense Minister Arvydas Anusauskas, according to Lithuanian media outlet LRT.
Despite the war in Ukraine, negotiations with 30 NATO member countries and other formal procedures should already begin, said Anusauskas.
"The Western countries cannot remain in the same position as before the war. Security guarantees for Ukraine must be increased now," he said.
On Oct. 2, Poland, Estonia, Latvia, Lithuania, North Macedonia, Montenegro, Romania, Slovakia, and the Czech Republic made a statement in favor of Ukraine joining NATO.
On Sept. 30, Zelensky announced that Ukraine had applied for fast-track NATO accession after Russian dictator Vladimir Putin declared the annexation of Ukraine's Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, Luhansk, and Kherson oblasts.
On that same day, NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said that NATO would never recognize the Russian annexation of Ukrainian territory but emphasized that "NATO is not part of the conflict."
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