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."
Speaking to CNN on May 10, Peskov commented on the latest ceasefire proposal from Ukraine and Europe, responding that Russia needs to "think about" it, but is "resistant" to pressure.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on May 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked the idea of a demilitarized zone in the war and emphasized the importance of first securing a ceasefire.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky addresses the Ukrainian Parliament in Kyiv, Ukraine on Dec. 28, 2022. (Ukrainian Presidency / Handout/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
The Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's Parliament, passed in the first reading on Aug. 9. a bill restoring the obligation of political parties to report on their funding.
"(The bill) is aimed at minimizing the potential oligarchic influence on political parties, improving the mechanisms of public funding and state control over the activities of political parties," First Deputy Chairman of the Verkhovna Rada Oleksandr Korniienko wrote on his Telegram channel.
"Its main goal is to restore reporting by political parties and verification of their reports," he added.
If the bill is adopted as law, it will return the mandate to the National Agency for the Prevention of Corruption to ensure legal restrictions on the financing of political parties.
The obligation for political parties to submit their quarterly reports on property, income, and expenses was adopted in 2015 as part of reforms on political financing. However, the measure was suspended on April 2, 2020 during the Covid-19 pandemic.
Following the suspension, only 7.4% of registered parties submitted their financial reports by Oct. 2021, the Ukrainian news outlet LB.UA reported. The situation was further complicated by the start of the full-scale invasion, as martial law provided the parties with an additional reason not to publish their financing.
As stipulated by Ukraine's anti-oligarch law, oligarchs are banned from financing political parties or other political activities.
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.
Alexander Query
