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.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg (R) and President Volodymyr Zelensky hold a joint press conference after a meeting at NATO headquarters in Brussels on Dec. 16, 2021. (NATO)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg has called for a new meeting of the NATO-Russia Council in early 2022 to establish a dialogue regarding the Kremlin’s ongoing threat of full-fledged war against Ukraine.
Stoltenberg made the statement on Dec. 21 during his Brussels meeting with newly-appointed Romanian Prime Minister Nicolae Ciuca.
The two discussed the security situation on the Ukrainian-Russian border, where Moscow has deployed nearly 100,000 troops in what many see as a threat of a full-scale invasion.
The NATO-Russia Council was established in 2002, but then halted following the Kremlin’s annexation of Ukraine’s Crimea in early 2014. Brief contacts between the sides’ militaries were partially resumed after 2017 on the security situation in Syria and Iraq.
“Despite international calls for transparency and de-escalation, the (Russian) build-up continues,” Stoltenberg said.
“We have made clear that any further aggression against Ukraine would carry a very high price. We will also continue to support our close partner Ukraine, politically and practically. And we stand up for the sovereignty and territorial integrity of Ukraine and we stand also for Ukraine’s right to choose its own path.”
The official also said the Alliance remains ready for meaningful dialogue with Russia.
“Any dialogue would need to be based on the core principles of European security and that it would need to take place in consultation with NATO's European partners -- including Ukraine,” he added.
On Dec. 17, Moscow suggested agreements with the West that de facto aim to reinstate its Cold War era area of exclusive influence in Eastern Europe and also prevent Ukraine from ever joining NATO.
Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.
