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.
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."
The SBU reported on June 5 that it had apprehended members of a Russian spy wring operating in central and southern Ukraine. (Photo: SBU / Telegram)
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) reported on June 5 that it apprehended three members of a Russian spy network operating in Dnipropetrovsk, Vinnytsia, and Odesa oblasts.
According to the SBU, the Russian spy ring was attempting to collect intelligence on the Ukrainian military's locations, weaponry, and personnel composition in the three oblasts.
Members of the spy ring received up to $500 for each completed task, depending on the "urgency" and "quality" of their work.
In Dnipropetrovsk Oblast, a Russian agent who went by the codename "Thunder" posed as an unemployed person in Kryvyi Rih.
He took up short-term employment assignments near critical facilities so that he could draw up defensive line schemes and identify locations where equipment and ammunition were stored in the city, according to the SBU.
In Odesa Oblast, another spy obtained the codes used to move freely within the city during curfew and pass through checkpoints by covertly attempting to "utilize his acquaintances among Ukrainian military and law enforcement personnel," the SBU wrote.
He was also reportedly tasked with determining the coordinates of military facilities in the region.
In Vinnystia Oblast, another spy attempted to determine the coordinates of the Air Force Command Headquarters and National Guard units.
Kate Tsurkan is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent who writes mostly about culture-related topics in Ukraine, Belarus, and Russia. Her newsletter Explaining Ukraine with Kate Tsurkan, which focuses specifically on Ukrainian culture, is published weekly by the Kyiv Independent. The U.S. publisher Deep Vellum published her co-translation of Ukrainian author Oleh Sentsov’s Diary of a Hunger Striker in 2024. Some of her other writing and translations have appeared in The New Yorker, Vanity Fair, Harpers, The Washington Post, The New York Times, The Los Angeles Review of Books, and elsewhere. She is the co-founder of Apofenie Magazine.
Daria Shulzhenko
