"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."
The publications' latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to May 8, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of April, 2,857 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
The offices of Raiffeisen Bank International AG in Prague, Czech Republic, on Monday, Aug. 26, 2024. (Milan Jaros/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Austria-headquartered Raiffeisen Bank International (RBI) agreed to sell its stake in its Belarusian subsidiary Priorbank, marking the first step toward fully withdrawing from the Belarusian market, RBI announced on Sept. 20.
RBI said it had signed an agreement to sell its 87.74% stake in Priorbank to Soven 1 Holding Limited, an investor from the United Arab Emirates, after more than six months of negotiations.
RBI has come under heavy criticism from Western institutions since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine for continuing its business in Russia and Belarus, thereby fuelling Russia's war through paying taxes.
Raiffeisen is the largest remaining Western bank in Russia. Hesitant to fully withdraw from the Russian market, the bank eventually announced in July 2024 that it would "drastically" reduce its operations in the country.
The decision came after the European Parliament sent Austrian officials a letter in April, urging them to compel Raiffeisen to cease its activities in Russia in compliance with EU sanctions.
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The European Central Bank has also asked Raiffeisen to scale back its business in Russia by 2026.
The sale of Priorbank is expected to create a loss of around 300 million euros ($335 million), "which essentially results from the difference between the purchase price and the book value of the equity of Priorbank," RBI said.
With the completion of this transaction, "RBI will successfully withdraw from the Belarusian market and thus reduce operational complexity in line with its risk mitigation strategy in Eastern Europe," the Sept. 20 press release said.
Earlier in September, a Russian court issued a preliminary ruling that banned the transfer of Raiffeisen shares. "This complicates the sales process" and will "inevitably lead to further delays" in Raiffeisen's exit from Russia, RBI said.
Elsa Court
