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.
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."
Cash in U.S. dollars used to bribe Prosecutor General Office's prosecutors, seized by law enforcement officers. Photo published on July 16, 2024. (NABU)
Two prosecutors at the Prosecutor General's Office are under investigation for allegedly taking a $170,000 bribe to close a criminal case, the office's head, Andrii Kostin, said on July 16.
One of the prosecutors had been charged and detained at the workplace following an investigation by the National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU) and the Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO).
Charges against "other participants" in the suspected crime are being prepared, NABU said.
"I have always stressed: zero tolerance for corruption is our guiding principle," Kostin said on Telegram, adding that "similar cases only confirm the need for the continuous development of corruption prevention system in law enforcement bodies."
No further details on the case have been published at the moment.
According to Kostin, six prosecutors have been charged over corruption and other abuses only this year.
Ukraine's top prosecutor's office came under the spotlight recently after the assets of Kostin's deputy, Dmytro Verbytskyi, became the subject of an internal investigation.
The office initiated the probe into Verbytskyi following several RFE/RL articles suggesting that Verbytskyi and his girlfriend own a luxury car and expensive homes in affluent areas of Kyiv, which appeared to be beyond their expected salaries as public officials.
On June 19, Kostin failed to show up in the Verkhovna Rada, where he had been summoned by lawmakers over the RFE/RL articles on his deputy.
Rachel Amran
