"I am waiting to see who will come from Russia, and then I will decide which steps Ukraine should take. So far, the signals from them in the media are unconvincing," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
The air raid was announced at around 2:30 p.m. local time, while the explosion sounded around 2:50 p.m. The number of victims killed rose to three, Sumy Oblast Governor Oleh Hryhorov reported at 8:42 p.m.
If confirmed, the decision would mark the first time since Russia's full-scale invasion that President Volodymyr Zelensky is absent, either physically or virtually, from a NATO summit.
The disclosure follows a warning from Digital Affairs Minister Krzysztof Gawkowski, who on May 6 said Moscow was carrying out an "unprecedented" interference campaign.
Brazilian President Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had appealed to his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, to ask Putin if he was willing to conclude a peace agreement.
Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.
The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
Slovak Prime Minister Robert Fico during an interview with Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva. Screenshot from a video posted on Skabeyeva's Telegram on Oct. 30, 2024.
Slovakia's Prime Minister Robert Fico gave an online interview to chief Russian propagandist Olga Skabeyeva, with parts published on Skabeyeva's Telegram channel on Oct. 30.
Fico is known for inflammatory statements on Ukraine and the war that often echo Moscow's talking points. He has repeatedly criticized military aid for Ukraine and called for restoring relations with Russia after the war.
Talking to the propagandist sanctioned by several Western countries, the prime minister of a NATO and EU member country discussed several topics, including the Nord Stream pipeline explosions and the supposed Western fatigue over the support of Ukraine. Fico also reiterated his desire to visit Moscow for the May 9 Victory Day celebrations.
Based on the snippets published on Skabeyeva's channel, Fico claimed that in April 2022, real agreements were on the table that could immediately end the war.
The unsuccessful talks in 2022 held in Belarus and Turkey were the only occasion when Ukraine and Russia took part in direct negotiations. A resulting draft treaty, which reportedly precluded Ukraine from joining NATO and postponed the matter of occupied territories, was never signed due to disagreement on several key points and a shifting tide on the battlefield.
"And today we all look at this war, and I feel, excuse the frankness, we look away and say: Here are your weapons, here is your money, fight, just don't bore us with it, we just don't want to have anything to do with it anymore, with this war," the Slovak prime minister said.
Fico expressed skepticism over earlier reports that the Nord Stream pipeline was blown up by Ukrainian officers, calling the allegation "nonsense." He also said it was his personal duty to visit Moscow on the 80th anniversary, marking the end of the Second World War.
German investigators reportedly linked the Nord Stream explosions in September 2022 to a group of Ukrainian nationals, implicating even some top ex-officials like former Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi. Kyiv has denied any involvement, pointing to Russia as the culprit instead.
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Sonya Bandouil
