"We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X. "Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for."
The publications' latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to May 8, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of April, 2,857 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
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.
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte talks to journalists during a NATO summit in Brussels, Belgium, on Dec 4, 2024. (Mark Rutte/X)
NATO countries will do all they can to provide Ukraine with air defenses necessary to protect its infrastructure but there is no surplus of such systems, Secretary General Mark Rutte said on Dec. 4.
"In the world, we do not have an overflow of supply of air defense systems. So that means that you always have to make sure that you prioritize," Rutte told journalists during the second ministerial meeting in Brussels.
The previous day at the meeting, Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said that his country seeks at least 20 systems like NASAMS, HAWK, and IRIS-T to protect its critical infrastructure from Russian aerial strikes and prevent blackouts.
"But there was a clear agreement at the table last night that helping Ukraine, particularly with its infrastructure, has to be a priority," the secretary general continued. He did not provide a concrete number but voiced confidence that allies would provide Kyiv with whatever they could.
"We have to make sure that whatever air defense we can give them is being supplied to Ukraine."
Ukraine has previously complained that the allies are slow in fulfilling their commitments, such as providing air defenses pledged during a July summit in Washington. Kyiv received a Patriot system from Romania in October and was promised two additional IRIS-T systems from Germany by the end of the year.
Air defenses are likely to be crucial for Ukraine as the country braces for fresh Russian missile and drone strikes in what some warned may be the harshest winter of the war yet.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Dominic Culverwell
