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.
A medical worker leaves an ambulance on Oct. 28, 2021 in Kyiv. (kyivcity.gov.ua)
As the epidemic situation improves in Ukraine, the city of Kyiv and eight oblasts eased Covid-19 quarantine restrictions, moving from the strictest "red" status on Dec. 7.
Donetsk Oblast has been moved into an "orange," second-strictest zone. Seven more oblasts, Dnipropetrovsk, Ivano-Frankivsk, Luhansk, Lviv, Odesa, Rivne, and Kherson oblasts now have the "yellow" status.
Currently, 14 Ukrainian oblasts are yellow, one is orange, and 10 are red.
To visit venues and events in the yellow zone, people must have proof of at least one dose of vaccine, a negative PCR test done within 72 hours or a certificate of recovery from Covid-19.
In yellow zones, people without the mentioned documents are banned from:
Dining at bars, restaurants, and cafes.
Partaking in religious, social, sporting, entertainment, cultural, and other events.
Attending theaters, cinemas, gyms, museums, and other cultural establishments.
Grocery stores, banks, pharmacies, gas stations, and pet stores are accessible to everyone but they must enforce social distancing and face covering. Public transport must run at 50% capacity and enforce mask-wearing.
Ukraine has seen falling numbers in new Covid-19 cases for four weeks in a row, Health Minister Viktor Liashko said at a briefing on Dec. 6. In the past week, the number of detected cases declined by 15% and hospitalizations were down by 13%.
Infections soared in Ukraine this fall with the coronavirus's contagious Delta variant but Liashko said Ukraine has passed the peak of this latest wave in late November.
As of Dec. 8, Ukraine has fully vaccinated over 12 million people, or 29% of the general population.
Victoria Petryk is a staff writer at the Kyiv Independent. She studied philology at Kyiv National Linguistic University. She worked at the Embassy of Israel in Kyiv as an information officer before joining the Kyiv Post as a staff writer in October 2021.
