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."
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."
The remains of a Subaru Forester belonging to local journalist Pavlo Biletskyi were found on Dec. 5, 2021 in Uzhgorod, a regional capital in western Ukraine. The other car belonging to his family was also found burned. (Main Directorate of the National Police in Zakarpattia Oblast/Facebook)
Two cars belonging to a journalist and his wife were found burned early on Dec. 5 on the outskirts of Uzhgorod, the regional capital of Zakarpattia Oblast in western Ukraine. The National Police in Zakarpattia Oblast are investigating the incident as possible arson.
The completely destroyed Subaru Forester and a partially damaged Volkswagen Beetle are the property of Ukrainian Journalist Pavlo Biletskyi, the founder and chief editor of the Ukrainian news outlet ZIDO.
Biletskyi believes he was targeted for intimidation due to his profession, according to a statement by Serhiy Tomilenko, head of the National Council of Ukrainian Journalists.
Tomilenko called on police to promptly investigate the incident.
Arson attacks against journalists' cars are not infrequent in Ukraine.
In August 2020, a car that had been used by the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty investigations unit Schemes was burned amid an increase in attacks on Ukraine's free press.
In January 2020, a journalist working for RFE/RL said her car was burned in what may have been retaliation for her reporting.
In his statement, Tomilenko mentioned that at least four cases in which journalists' cars were burned remain uninvestigated.
Sergiy Slipchenko is a staff writer at the Kyiv Independent. He studied at York University in Toronto, Canada and worked as a reporter at the Kyiv Post.
