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."
Speaking to CNN on May 10, Peskov commented on the latest ceasefire proposal from Ukraine and Europe, responding that Russia needs to "think about" it, but is "resistant" to pressure.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on May 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked the idea of a demilitarized zone in the war and emphasized the importance of first securing a ceasefire.
An Urals oil field operated by Lukoil. (Dmitry Beliakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Turkey is on track to import a record amount of Russian Urals oil this month according to energy traders, Reuters reported Nov. 13.
The market expects Urals oil sales to Turkey to surpass October's 1.4 million tons this month to beat October 2022's all-time peak of 1.43 million tons.
Russia remains a top oil exporter globally despite U.S. and EU sanctions on Moscow’s energy sector.
Ankara has been buying Russian barrels after its biggest oil refinery STAR, owned by Azerbaijan’s SOCAR, reached an agreement with Russia's Lukoil.
India and China, the world’s most populous economies, also continue purchases of Russian energy despite western pressure, with New Dehli remaining the single largest buyer of Urals oil.
Pakistan also resumed purchases of Russian oil and is seeking a long-term deal with Moscow for energy supplies.
Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.
Olena Goncharova
