"I myself have heard relatives talking: our village is being attacked, let's roll the car out of the garage, maybe they will shell it — at least we will get money. The car is old, we can't sell it," Belgorod Oblast Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said.
The new tranche brings total recent EU defense support for Ukraine to 3.3 billion euros ($3.6 billion), marking a significant expansion of European efforts to boost Kyiv's defense industry.
"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.
Both men face charges related to terrorism and espionage. Daniil B. was detained in Lithuania, where he is in temporary custody, while Oleksandr V. remains at large in Russia.
Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Ukraine and its allies discussed tougher sanctions against Russia's banking sector, central bank, and energy industry.
"We are ready for all options. But of course, we are separately waiting for a response on the ceasefire," a source close to President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Kyiv Independent.
The EU plans to unveil on May 14 its next package of sanctions imposed against Russia over its aggression against Ukraine, an EU official told the Kyiv Independent on condition of anonymity.
Polish truckers plan to restrict freight traffic at the Yahodyn-Dorohusk checkpoint on the Ukrainian border, Ukraine's State Border Guard said on May 12.
"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
Russia's Black Sea fleet warships take part in the Navy Day celebrations in the port city of Novorossiysk on July 30, 2023. (Stringer/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian forces in occupied Crimea are constructing barriers at the entrance to Sevastopol Bay to prevent further Ukrainian strikes on the Black Sea fleet, the partisan group Atesh reported on March 27.
In recent months, Ukraine has intensified its attacks on Black Sea fleet targets in occupied Crimea, successfully targeting several ships and forcing Russian forces to redeploy to safer waters.
While the most recent strikes used missiles to hit three ships and a military communication center, the measures reported by Atesh appear to be an attempt to prevent Ukrainian sea drone attacks.
“After the strikes of the Ukrainian Defense Forces with cruise missiles and naval drones on the Battleships ‘Yamal’ and ‘Azov,’ the command of the Russian Black Sea fleet blocks the passage of boats and puts up new barriers at the sea entrance to the bay,” the group said in a post on Telegram.
Accompanying the post was a picture and short video showing cranes operating near a section of water in the bay.
The post ended with an appeal to “residents of the occupied peninsula” to “continue to transmit information about the situation in the bay.”
Ukraine struck two Russian Ropucha-class landing ships, "Yamal" and "Azov," in occupied Crimea in the late hours of March 23, Ukraine's Armed Forces confirmed on March 24.
On March 26, it reported the landing ship Konstantin Olshansky had been hit by a Neptune missile during the same attack.
Ukraine’s domestically-produced Magura V5 naval drones have scored several successes, most recently destroying a Black Sea fleet patrol ship, the Sergey Kotov.
The Strategic Communications Center of the Armed Forces of Ukraine (StratCom) recently reported that as of early February 2024, 33% of the fleet’s warships had been disabled, including 24 ships and one submarine.
Russia has taken a number of steps to address the continuing threat, including replacing the commander of the Russian Navy earlier this month.
Igor Kossov
