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.
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."
The famous Petrivka book market is the largest single place to buy books in all of Ukraine. (Courtesy)
Kyiv's famous Petrivka book market will be torn down and replaced by another shopping mall, according to documents available on the urban planning department website of the Kyiv City State Administration.
The open air book market has attained legendary status among residents of the capital. It is the largest place to buy books in the country, with over 100,000 titles. It's also the ideal place for book lovers to browse for hours, constantly uncovering new material.
A weekly flea market is also held along the railroad tracks running near the market, widely known as the place to buy any number of antiques and unusual treasures.
The urban planning documents appeared on Dec. 2, specifying that the mall will be built on two sites, with areas of 3.55 and 0.91 hectares.
The larger section will sit on the Verbova, Kurenivska, Bohatyrska, Naberezhno-Rybalska streets, Moskovsky Avenue and the railway track in the Obolonsky district. The smaller segment will replace the Petrivka book market at 10 Stepana Bandery Avenue.
The shopping and entertainment complex is expected to have an area of 350,000 square meters.
Novoye Vremya reported that the mall is being developed by the Swedish company Stadsis AB belonging to Ukrainian developer and shopping mall tycoon Vagif Aliyev, who also owns Mandarin Plaza, Blockbuster Mall, Lavina Mall, Terminal Mall and others. Still under construction are his Ocean Mall, Lesnaya Mall and Hippodrome Mall.
The plans to tear down the book market provoked a petition calling for its preservation, signed by 1,261 Kyivans in 2020.
On Nov. 22, Kyiv City Council deputy Vladyslav Trubitsyn had promised the Petrivka book market would not be demolished and the mall project had been reworked to be built on the opposite side of the market. Based on the urban planning documents, this does not appear to be the case.
On Nov. 16 the chairman of the supervisory board of Mandarin Plaza Oleksandr Chernytsky promised to Novoye Vremya that the mall would “take into account the interests of all parties, so a modern book market will be opened as part of the mall, which will sell not only books but also licensed films and music.”
Nine more shopping centers are expected to open in 2021-2022 in Kyiv with a total rental area of 267,000 square meters, the Ukrainian Trade Guild (UTG), a real estate consulting firm, reported in July.
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.
