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.
The Kyiv Independent's defense reporter Illia Ponomarenko poses for a photograph in a shrapnel-riddled truck garage at the combat spot of Promzona near the city of Avdiivka in Donbas, an eastern Ukrainian region affected by Russia's war, on June 21, 2018. (Volodymyr Petrov)
Russia’s invasion threat seen through the eyes of a reporter who knows the consequences of war all too well.
Episode #5 of our origin story podcast “Media in Progress” is out:
Elina-Alem Kent is the producer of Media in Progress, a podcast documenting the origin story of the Kyiv Independent and following the journey the team takes as they make an independent English media company from scratch in Ukraine. She previously worked at the lifestyle desk at the Kyiv Post covering the booming techno and art scenes of Ukraine as well as produced the Kyiv Post podcast. She has an International Relations degree from Boston University.
