"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."
Slot machines in a casino. Illustrative purposes only. (Sean Murphy/Getty Images)
At least 600 illegal online gambling websites have been blocked in Ukraine since the beginning of 2024, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.
The negative impacts of gambling, especially on the Ukrainian soldiers, have recently become a topic of public discussion in Ukraine as a petition demanding restrictions on online gambling reached the president's table in March.
President Volodymyr Zelensky signed a decree on April 20 approving restrictions on online gambling and banning it for the military while martial law remains in force.
The maximum penalty for running a website for an illegal online casino is Hr 850,000 (around $21,500), with the deprivation of the right to hold certain positions or engage in certain activities.
In total, law enforcement officers are investigating over 450 criminal offenses related to the illegal organization of gambling as of mid-May, the Prosecutor General's Office said.
"Among those (criminal offenses) recently exposed by law enforcement officers are an underground hall in an elite residential complex in Kyiv, where more than 50 slot machines were seized, and a network of underground poker clubs in Kyiv, Odesa, and Kharkiv," the statement read.
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Ukraine Weekly By Olga Rudenko
The founders and officials of one of the banks were also exposed for organizing an illegal gambling business.
The offenders used logos of well-known brands and mirror sites, according to the investigation. The bank raised players' funds of nearly Hr 5 billion (around $127 million), which were later legalized.
The Kyiv Pechersk District court previously seized the bank accounts of Pin-Up and Vbet, one of the major gambling platforms in Ukraine, on May 13 as part of the State Bureau of Investigation's criminal proceedings.
Kateryna Denisova
