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."
Ihor Mozhaev holds a special chair of his handicapped daughter Maria (12) who died under the rubble of his house in Markhalivka, near Kyiv, on March 5, 2022. On March 4 he was lying on his bed when at nearly 15:00 an airstrike demolished his home and buried him under rubble. Luckily neighbors came quickly and dug him out as well as his two grandchildren (7 and 8 years old). Unfortunately, his wife, his mother-in-law, daughter, and three other relatives and friends of the family died on the spot. (Volodymyr Petrov)
To all our friends in the West: We know that you want to postpone a possible direct engagement, a direct war with the Russians… I’d like to be wrong, but I think it’s quite obvious that the direction we are heading in… is a direct war and direct action between Russia and NATO. So, the sooner we start acting together, the sooner we close the skies over Ukraine, the more civilian lives we can save and the more chances we give to the peace process in general.
Editor’s Note: Andriy Shevchenko, Ukraine’s former Ambassador to Canada, spoke at a March 9 webinar titled “Live from Kyiv: The Battle for Ukraine." New Pathway recorded the main take-aways from the webinar. The Kyiv Independent is aggregating it as a recommendation to our readers.
Andriy Shevchenko is Ukraine’s former Ambassador to Canada who is currently serving with Ukraine’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is an officer in the reserves.
