"I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take. So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The air raid was announced at around 2:30 p.m. local time, while the explosion sounded around 2:50 p.m. The number of victims killed rose to three, Sumy Oblast Governor Oleh Hryhorov reported at 8:42 p.m.
If confirmed, the decision would mark the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion that President Volodymyr Zelensky is absent, either physically or virtually, from a NATO summit.
The disclosure follows a warning from Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who on May 6 said Moscow was carrying out an "unprecedented" interference campaign.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had appealed to his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, to ask Putin if he was willing to conclude a peace agreement.
Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.
The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
A man walks past the Naftogaz logo of the national oil and gas company Naftogaz of Ukraine seen at the entrance to the company's office in Kyiv. (Pavlo Gonchar/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images) // UEW
Ukraine got through the winter using domestic gas production only for the first time in history, Naftogaz’s CEO Oleksiy Chernyshov wrote on his Facebook on March 1.
Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Jan. 31 that despite Russian attacks, Ukraine's energy sector remains stable as the country relies on its own gas this winter season.
"Ten years ago, nobody would believe in it. Two years ago, when the full-scale war began, it was also difficult to believe in it. But we did it, and now we plan to maintain the trend of Ukraine’s energy independence in the future," Chernyshov said.
Naftogaz, Ukraine's state-owned oil and gas giant, has accumulated 14 billion cubic meters of gas reservesby the end of summer 2023 to prepare for the heating season.
Chernyshov told Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty in October that this number had risen to 16 billion cubic meters, creating a chance to pass the upcoming winter without imported gas.
Despite Russia's full-scale war causing millions in damages to the company's facilities, increasing domestic gas production has long been Naftogaz's goal.
Naftogaz's production branch, Ukrgasvydobuvannya, increased the daily production rate of domestic natural gas by 11% in 2023. This figure has been the biggest since April 2019.
Ukrgasvydobuvannya also hit a record for daily gas production for the first time over the past five years. The company reached 38.54 million cubic meters of commercial gas produced per day, Naftogazreported in February.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Martin Fornusek
