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."
Ukraine's corruption perception has been downgraded in 2021, according to a report by the watchdog Transparency International. (Transparency International Ukraine)
Ukraine has slipped in the Corruption Perceptions Index (CPI) released annually by the watchdog Transparency International.
In 2021, Ukraine earned 32 points out of 100, one point less than in the previous year. It placed 122nd out of 180 countries analyzed.
"This decline in error indicates a period of stagnation. The authorities are delaying the implementation of many important anti-corruption promises," said Andriy Borovik, executive director of Transparency International Ukraine.
Compared to its neighbors, Ukraine was only ahead of Russia, which placed 136th, with 29 points. Slovakia improved the most, gaining 3 points, while Belarus was the worst performer, dropping 6 points.
The report highlighted that Ukraine's improvements were not enough to outweigh the negatives in the corruption fight.
The report attributed several factors to Ukraine's poor performance last year. The main factors were the delayed judicial reform, anti-monopoly legislation, and the Constitutional Court's interference in anti-corruption work.
The failure to form an independent and professional judiciary had the largest impact on Ukraine's score. Implementing an independent judiciary was among Transparency International's five recommendations to improve Ukraine's score in 2022.
The watchdog also recommended adopting an anti-corruption strategy, implementing constitutional reform and increasing transparency.
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.
