"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.
"I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people," Zelensky 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.
Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak voiced doubt about leading negotiations with anyone from Russia except President Vladimir Putin, implying only the Russian leader can make real decisions.
This includes at least seven people injured in drone attacks overnight on May 12, a date from which Kyiv and its allies put forward a demand for a 30-day unconditional truce, a step that Moscow continues to reject.
"When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs," the Elysee Palace reacted to a fake story pushed by Russia.
The comments came after Trump urged Ukraine to agree to direct negotiations with Russia, which has invited Kyiv to peace talks in Istanbul on May 15, without first agreeing to halt military operations.
A Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in Donetsk Oblast on May 12 and injured its driver, Ukrainian Railways said amid Kyiv's calls for a ceasefire.
Moscow and Hanoi agreed to negotiate and sign agreements to construct nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement on May 11.
The sanctions appear to be in response to Russia's rejection of a 30-day ceasefire that the U.K., alongside Ukraine, France, Germany, and Poland, demanded during a visit to Kyiv on May 10.
"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."
PSD vice-president Paulo Rangel, now Portugal's foreign minister, during the first of a two-day European People's Party Political Assembly on November 17, 2022, in Lisbon, Portugal.(Horacio Villalobos#Corbis/Corbis via Getty Images)
The new Portuguese government is fully in support of Ukraine's EU bid, the country's foreign minister, Paulo Rangel, said on April 4, presenting it as a shift from the "ambiguous" stance of the previous administration, Euractiv reported.
Portugal's former prime minister, Antonio Costa, has been supportive of Ukraine and even backed the EU's accession talks with Kyiv last December. However, Costa has also repeatedly said that any EU enlargement must be accompanied by extensive reforms within the bloc and that Kyiv's accession should not be disconnected from the integration of Western Balkan countries.
Costa, from Portugal's Socialist Party, was replaced by center-right Luis Montenegro following the parliamentary elections in March.
Speaking after the NATO ministerial meeting in Brussels, Rangel recognized that Costa's government was "totally on Ukraine's side" but added that when it came to the EU's enlargement, "there was at least some hesitation there, which always created a margin of ambiguity."
"Prime Minister Luis Montenegro has given a clear signal that he is in favor of EU enlargement. This is something that I think needed to be clarified because Portugal had some hesitations, especially when it (Ukraine) was being given candidate status last year (sic)," Rangel said.
Ukraine applied for EU membership early in 2022 in the wake of Russia's full-scale invasion. The European Council agreed to grant it candidate status already later that year.
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
