"If the Russians are using this level of specialists in urban combat, they are probably facing some difficulties," Ivan Petrychak, spokesperson for the 24th Separate Mechanized Brigade, said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
"Perhaps in some areas, the intensity decreased slightly to create an image of compliance with their own announcement. But in reality, (Russia) continued attacks every day, using all available weapons — including aircraft to drop guided bombs on Ukraine," Andrii Demchenko, spokesperson for Ukraine’s State Border Guard Service, said.
Beijing supports all efforts toward achieving peace in Ukraine, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said on May 12 when asked about Kyiv and Europe's proposal for a 30-day truce.
"I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people," Zelensky said.
Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak voiced doubt about leading negotiations with anyone from Russia except President Vladimir Putin, implying only the Russian leader can make real decisions.
This includes at least seven people injured in drone attacks overnight on May 12, a date from which Kyiv and its allies put forward a demand for a 30-day unconditional truce, a step that Moscow continues to reject.
"When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs," the Elysee Palace reacted to a fake story pushed by Russia.
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.
A damaged portrait of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad is hangs in the city of Qamishli, as Syrian Kurds celebrate the fall of capital Damascus to anti-government fighters on December 8, 2024. Islamist-led rebels declared that they have taken Damascus in a lightning offensive on December 8, sending President Bashar al-Assad fleeing and ending five decades of Baath rule in Syria. (Delil SOULEIMAN /AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's Note: This is a developing story and is being upodated.
Russian news agencies reported on Dec. 8 that Syria's Bashar al-Assad and his family have arrived in Russia, where they have been granted asylum by Russian authorities, according to a Kremlin source.
"President Assad of Syria has arrived in Moscow. Russia has granted asylum to him and his family on humanitarian grounds," the source told TASS news agency.
A Russian plane took off from Latakia a few hours ago, then turned off its transponder and headed towards Russia, BBC Russia reported citing data from the Flightradar website, which tracks the movement of aircraft.
The aircraft may have departed from the Russian military base in Khmeimim or from Latakia airport, according to the outlet. The plane's transponder was reportedly briefly switched on near Moscow and then turned off again before landing.
Russia deployed troops to Syria in 2015, providing support to the Assad regime against multiple anti-government forces. Damascus has supported the Kremlin throughout the full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
President Joe Biden said on Dec. 8 that the sudden collapse of the Syrian government under Bashar al-Assad represented a "fundamental act of justice" after decades of repression, but also acknowledged that it marked "a moment of risk and uncertainty" for the Middle East.
Biden's remarks came hours after rebel groups completed their takeover of Syria, following more than a dozen years of violent civil war and decades of Assad family rule. Biden said the U.S. has been monitoring reports suggesting he was seeking refuge in Moscow.
Former President Donald Trump also commented, saying that Assad had fled Syria—where his family had ruled for decades—because his close ally, Russian President Vladimir Putin, "was not interested in protecting him any longer."
When celebrations of the regime's downfall begin to fade, Syria's new leaders will face a challenge of restoring stability to a country devastated by years of conflict.
The civil war in Syria began in 2011 as an uprising against Assad’s government, and his forces, along with Russian allies, bombed cities to rubble. The war created one of the largest refugee crises in modern history, with millions fleeing the country, and led to a political reckoning in Europe when over a million refugees arrived in 2015.
In recent years, Turkey supported the rebels in a small enclave in northwest Syria, near its border, while the United States, which still has 900 troops on the ground, backed a Kurdish-led alliance that fought Islamic State jihadists from 2014 to 2017.
Both Russia and Iran had intervened early in the war to prop up Assad, helping him regain most of the territory and all of Syria's major cities. Four years ago, the front lines had been largely frozen under a deal between Russia, Iran, and Turkey.
However, Moscow’s focus on its war in Ukraine, along with setbacks for Iran’s allies following the war in Gaza—particularly the heavy losses suffered by Hezbollah in the past two months—left Assad with little support as his government collapsed.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Oleg Sukhov
