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.
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.
A view of Yalta, a major resort city in Russian-occupied Crimea, on June 18, 2023. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images)
An apartment in Yalta, occupied Crimea, owned by the family of President Volodymyr Zelensky, was auctioned off by Russian proxies after being seized by the occupying authorities, Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's Crimean service reported on Oct. 30.
A Russian woman from Moscow bought the apartment for more than 44 million rubles ($477,000).
Russian state-run media Ria Novosti reported on the sale, claiming that the apartment was Zelensky's. However, it is officially owned by First Lady Olena Zelenska.
Russian proxies in Crimea announced in February 2023 that hundreds of high-value pieces of Ukrainian-owned real estate on the occupied peninsula would be "nationalized."
Sergey Aksyonov, the Russian-installed head of occupied Crimea, added in September that real estate "belonging to foreigners who committed unfriendly actions towards Russia" would be sold.
After the sale was announced, Vladimir Konstantinov, a Russian proxy official in Crimea, said that the new owner of Zelenska's apartment would be "offered" an opportunity to create a “museum of the fight against Nazism” in the space, RFE/RL's Crimean service reported.
Russia has been spreading a false propaganda narrative about the widespread Nazism in Ukraine for years and used it as one of the pretexts to launch a full-scale invasion of the country in February 2022.
Zelensky, who is Jewish, has said that some of his family members were killed during World War II.
Russian forces and their proxies in Crimea have also seized churches belonging to the Orthodox Church of Ukraine on the peninsula.
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.
Lucy Minicozzi-Wheeland
