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.
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.
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu (L) and Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal (R) during a joint press conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Oct. 18, 2023. (Denys Shmyhal/Telegram)
Romanian Prime Minister Marcel Ciolacu said that the Ukrainian government decided to abandon using the phrasing "Moldovan language" to refer to the language spoken by Moldovans, European Pravda reported on Oct. 18.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv, Ciolacu thanked his Ukrainian counterpart Denys Shmyhal for "the openness he showed in efforts to recognize the non-existence of the so-called Moldovan language."
"From now on, there is only one official language at the international level - the Romanian language," he added.
Ciolacu said that the measure was adopted in the context of Ukraine's accession to the EU, namely with respect to fulfilling the European Commission's recommendation on the national minorities' rights reforms, Romanian media reported.
Shmyhal did not comment on the adoption of the measure during the press conference.
A joint statement by the two prime ministers, published on a Ukrainian government website, read that "the Romanian side welcomes the decision made today by the Government of Ukraine to urgently resolve the issue of artificial separation between the Romanian and 'Moldovan' languages by implementing relevant practical measures with due consideration of all legal aspects."
Shmyhal's spokesperson did not elaborate for the Kyiv Independent on the exact measures that are to be implemented. Ukraine's Foreign Ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The concept of the "Moldovan language" was established during Soviet times and, in practice, denoted the Cyrilic-script version of the Romanian language. Moldova was one of the republics of the Soviet Union.
Following the breakup of the USSR, the Moldovan independence declaration from 1991 named Romanian as the country's official language, while the 1994 constitution referred to the "Moldovan language." The country's President Maia Sandu signed a law in March establishing the Romanian tongue as the country's official language.
The legislation of Ukraine, home to sizable Romanian and Moldovan minorities, continues to recognize the existence of the "Moldovan language," causing tensions with Romania, as Bucharest does not recognize the language's existence.
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky told Romanian journalists during his visit to Bucharest last week that the issue of the "Moldovan language" is not a priority during wartime.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
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