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.
A pile of maize grains is seen on the pier at the Izmail Sea Port, Odesa region, on July 22, 2023. (STRINGER / AFP via Getty Images)
Since Russia pulled out of the grain deal with Ukraine, its attacks on Ukrainian ports have damaged or partially destroyed 105 port infrastructure facilities, Oleksandr Kubrakov, Ukraine's infrastructure minister, said on his official Facebook page on Sept. 13.
Due to strikes on the ports of the Danube cluster and Russia's seaports blockade, grain exports to Asia, Africa and Europe were reduced by almost three million tonnes per month, according to the minister.
In July 2022, a deal was struck between Russia and Ukraine - brokered by Turkey and the UN - allowing cargo ships to sail along a corridor in the Black Sea. Almost 33 million tonnes of grain were shipped from Ukraine under the deal, and world food prices declined by roughly 20% as a result, according to the UN's Food and Agriculture Organization.
The deal expired on July 17 and since then Russia has launched a series of air attacks on Ukraine's ports, destroying thousands of tonnes of grain. The ports of the Danube cluster are currently the only waterway for Ukrainian agricultural exports.
Kubrakov stressed that the ports need "powerful air defense systems" otherwise the consequences of the attacks could be much worse.
Russia launched another drone attack on the Ismail region of Odesa overnight on Sept. 13, injuring six civilians and damaging port and other civil infrastructure.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
