"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.
This week, the world watched in anticipation for Russia’s Victory Day parade after President Volodymyr Zelensky commented that he could not guarantee the safety of those attending. Meanwhile, the European Union moves one step forward to banning Russian gas from the European continent. It is also revealed this week that U.S. Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth has fallen out of step with the White House.
"(Russian) President (Vladimir) Putin... doesn't want to have a ceasefire agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the bloodbath. Ukraine should agree to this, immediately," U.S. President Donald Trump said.
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.
An employee works at a blast furnace shop at the steel maker plant company of Zaporizhstal in Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine on Sept. 21, 2023. (Andrii Kalchenko/AFP via Getty Images)
Ukraine's massive steel industry has faced significant losses as a result of Russia's war and the related blockade of the Black Sea, Reuters reported on Oct. 26.
The industry, which made up 10% of Ukraine's GDP and 30% of exports before the full-scale invasion, has shrunk by more than 80% since 2021.
The sector has been primarily hampered by the almost complete inability to ship cargo through the Black Sea. Although steel has been sent overland via rail, the associated tariffs raise the cost four-fold.
In addition, some of the biggest plants, such as the now famous Azovstal factory in Mariupol that saw months of brutal fighting in early 2022, are now in occupied territory or near the front lines.
The Azovstal plant was almost completely destroyed during Russia's siege of the city.
Roman Slobodianiuk, the director of the Zaporizhstal steel plant in Zaporizhzhia, also said it has simply been difficult to keep the factory fully staffed. Many workers and their families fled during the first few weeks of the war due to its close location to the front lines, and more than a thousand others joined the army. Overall, Slobodianiuk said that his staff decreased by 20%.
Ukraine's steel plants have been afflicted with the same wartime woes as other industries- Russia's strikes on Ukraine's electrical grid degraded the ability of the plants to function at full capacity.
There is one bright spot, however. The massive increase in Ukraine's defense industry, as well as the construction of bomb shelters and rebuilding of cities, has also caused a rise in domestic consumption.
It will not be enough to compensate for the massive decrease in other areas.
"If we do not have open sea ports, our industry will not survive, and all other (industries) will follow us," said Oleksandr Kalenkov, head of Ukraine's steelmakers' union.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Liliane Bivings
