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.
Preliminary findings suggest that one of the men killed the other before taking his own life.
Western leaders dismissed the Kremlin's proposal for talks in Istanbul on May 15 as insufficient.
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 pope said he was praying to God to grant the world the "miracle of peace."
Ushakov’s comments follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 11 invitation for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul starting May 15.
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.
Zelensky called a ceasefire the essential first step toward ending the war.
The number includes 1,310 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"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."
"An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on May 11.
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."
ISW: Kremlin continues to weaponize nuclear threats to deter support for Ukraine
The Institute for the Study of War reported on the Kremlin’s continued reliance on fears of nuclear escalation to deter the provision of Western aid to Ukraine in its latest update on March 2.
The report referenced the meeting between the U.S. Secretary of State Antony Blinken and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov at the New Dehli G20 summit that took place earlier in the day.
In the first meeting since the full-scale invasion, Blinken emphasized the American willingness to engage in strategic arms control after Russia suspended its participation in the New START Treaty on Feb. 21. The report characterized the suspension of the treaty as one of the threats Russia is using to slow down the provision of Western aid, as suggested in the previous ISW reports.
The Kremlin's continuous messaging of low-credibility threats of nuclear escalation aims to “intimidate the West and appeal to its (Kremlin's) ultranationalist base,” according to ISW.
The report also said that Russian forces likely chose to focus on the northeastern offensive around Bakhmut to pressure the Ukrainian forces to withdraw from the city. The assessment comes amid the Ukrainian military’s announcement of possible withdrawal from Bakhmut if “absolutely necessary.”
"As long as the command sees that it makes sense to keep a certain settlement, it will be fought for," Eastern Operational Command spokesman Serhiy Cherevaty said on television.

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