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.
Oleksandr Kamyshin, Ukraine's minister for strategic industries, during an interview in Kyiv, Ukraine, on June 28, 2023. (Pete Kiehart/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ukraine used the first hybrid air defense system under the FrankenSAM program, a joint project between the U.S. and Ukraine, to shoot down a Shahed drone launched by Russia on Jan. 17, Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin said on the sidelines of the World Economic Forum in Davos.
"One of these systems was successfully used for the first time last night. We shot down a kamikaze drone from a distance of nine kilometers," Kamyshin said.
As further military aid packages for Ukraine remain stalled in Congress, the joint project, which combines old Soviet-era surface-to-air missile systems with new U.S.-made missiles and radars, has been a way for Ukraine to continue its fight against Russia in the meantime.
The AP earlier reported that U.S. engineers have been able to work with Ukraine to modify its numerous Soviet-era Buk air defense launchers to fire RIM-7 missiles, of which the U.S. has large stockpiles.
According to Kamyshin, five projects have been developed under the FrankenSAM concept. All the systems have already been deployed on the battlefield.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Dinara Khalilova
