"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.
People’s deputies stand during a moment of silence in Verkhovna Rada in Kyiv, Ukraine on Sep. 4, 2024. (Andrii Nesterenko/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
The Ukrainian parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, supported a draft law on the elimination of the system of medical examination commissions (MSEC) for determining the severity of disabilities in the first reading on Nov. 20.
President Volodymyr Zelensky issued a decree in October to liquidate the commissions in the wake of accusations of Ukrainian officials using corrupt schemes to acquire falsified disability certifications.
A total of 260 members of parliament voted in favor of the bill, said Yaroslav Zhelezniak, a member of the Holos party.
Obtaining disability status through medical examination commissions allows one to avoid military service and receive a higher pension, among other social benefits.
The draft law's authors proposed replacing the system of medical examination commissions with "an assessment of a person's daily functioning."
"The system of medical and social expertise that currently exists in Ukraine was formed before Ukraine gained independence. It does not meet the current challenges that our country faces during the armed aggression by the Russian Federation, nor the current approaches to establishing disability adopted in the world," the explanatory note to the draft law read.
The draft law's authors expect that the new system will help create a transparent procedure for assessing the needs of the applicants. The replacement of commissions is expected to reduce the administrative burden and help reduce appeals against their decisions.
Following the National Security and Defense Council meeting on Oct. 22, Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) head Vasyl Maliuk said that the SBU had exposed corruption schemes at medical examination commissions in 2024, resulting in the cancellation of 4,106 fake disability status certificates.
Maliuk added that 64 officials at medical examination commissions have been charged with committing crimes, while another nine suspects have been convicted.
According to Zelensky's October decree, all commissions in Ukraine are to be eliminated by Dec. 31, 2024. Ukraine's Prosecutor General Andrii Kostin submitted his resignation on Oct. 22 following the reports of prosecutors illegally obtaining disability status.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Anna Belokur
