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."
Tougher sanctions "should be applied to (Russia's) banking and energy sectors, targeting fossil fuels, oil, and the shadow fleet," the leaders of Ukraine, the U.K., France, Germany, and Poland said in a joint statement.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
While serving as a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, called the full-scale war "a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power."
People being evacuated from flooded areas after the explosion at the Kakhovka Hydroelectric Power Plant's dam unleashed floodwaters in Kherson, Ukraine, on June 7, 2023. (Photo by Muhammed Enes Yildirim/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Russian forces announced a quarantine in the town of Hola Prystan in the Kherson Oblast, which suffers unprecedented flooding Russia blew up the Kakhovka dam up the Dnipro River, the local media reported on June 11.
Currently, the water level in the Russian-occupied town is falling, but still reaches up to 2 meters in some areas, according to the head of the city’s Military Administration Svitlana Linnyk.
“The city is blocked. The Russians closed all entrances and exits,” said Linnyk.
As a result, volunteers are not able to transfer humanitarian aid to local residents.
“I don’t yet know whether the delivery of drinking water and food will be organized,” she added.
In addition, some local residents died as a result of the flood, but relatives can’t bury them.
"Families cannot bury these people in the cemetery, even though it is located in a non-flooded part of the city. The occupiers do not allow people there,” said Linnyk.
The day after the Kakhovka dam was blown up on June 6, Hola Prystan with around 6,000 people was 85% flooded by noon.
Kherson Oblast Governor Oleksandr Prokudin reported that as of June 11, 112 people, including 54 women and 7 children, were evacuated from the Russian-occupied left bank of the Oblast.
As of evening, the average water level in the flooded region is 3,93 meters, but the figure decreases. According to Prokudin, at the moment, 46 settlements remain flooded, of which 32 are on the right bank and 14 are on the left bank.
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Francis Farrell
