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.
Preliminary findings suggest that one of the men killed the other before taking his own life.
Western leaders dismissed the Kremlin's proposal for talks in Istanbul on May 15 as insufficient.
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 pope said he was praying to God to grant the world the "miracle of peace."
Ushakov’s comments follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 11 invitation for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul starting May 15.
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.
Zelensky called a ceasefire the essential first step toward ending the war.
The number includes 1,310 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"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."
"An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on May 11.
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."
Recent explosions at Russian military facilities in the occupied Crimea do not violate the terms of the Black Sea grain deal, spokesperson for Ukraine's military intelligence Andrii Yusov told Suspilne.
Yusov called Russian claims of Ukrainian attacks on civilian infrastructure and threats to freeze the grain agreement "deceitful manipulation."
"The latest events in Crimea concerned only military facilities and are in no way connected with the grain agreement, which relates to Ukrainian ports and civilian ports when it comes to the Ukrainian-controlled territory," the intelligence official said on April 25.
"Ukraine complies with international obligations, including fulfilling all commitments related to the grain corridor."
On April 25, the Russian Ministry of Defense accused Ukraine of violating the grain agreement by purportedly attacking Russia's fleet in occupied Sevastopol with drones and allegedly deploying them in the humanitarian corridor area.
The ministry said that the alleged drone attack could jeopardize the extension of the grain deal after May 18.
The UN and Turkey-brokered deal, first signed in July 2022, has been paramount in stopping global food prices from soaring. Ukraine's grain exports had been blocked by Russia in the first months of the full-scale invasion before the establishment of the deal.
However, Russia has repeatedly threatened to exit the deal if certain conditions weren't met and blocked cargo ships with Ukrainian grain in the Black Sea.

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