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."
The World Bank Group headquarters in Washington, DC on Sept. 27, 2022. (Samuel Corum/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The private financing arm of the World Bank plans to invest $1.9 billion in projects in Ukraine over the next 18 months, Reuters reported on April 22.
According to its website, the International Finance Corporation (IFC) is the "largest global development institution focused exclusively on the private sector in developing countries."
Since the launch of Russia’s full-scale invasion, it has already invested $1.1 billion in Ukraine.
The new funding will go into projects such as river transport on the Danube or energy generation from solar and wind.
"It will allow us to start looking at investments that are longer-term in nature and more focussed on capital expenditure, so higher-risk - because these are assets that might actually, unfortunately, be damaged as conflict continues," Lisa Kaestner, the IFC's regional manager for Ukraine, told Reuters.
The investment will be a welcome boost. Despite its economy steadily improving from the first months of the full-scale invasion, very little foreign capital is currently trickling down to Ukraine’s private and public sectors.
Money from international financial institutions has helped stabilize the economy, bolstering forecasts of 3.2% gross domestic product (GDP) growth this year, according to the World Bank.
Private investors are still hesitant in the face of a protracted conflict, and war risk insurance programs have failed to persuade most.
"It's impossible to expect investments during the war. The risk of war is so huge," Serhii Fursa, the deputy managing director at investment firm Dragon Capital, told the Kyiv Independent in February.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
Dominic Culverwell
