(Updated: )
"There is no point in prolonging the killings. And I will wait for Putin on Thursday in Turkey," President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
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Sunday, May 11
"We cannot allow NATO's military infrastructure to get that close to our borders," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said.
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.
Preliminary findings suggest that one of the men killed the other before taking his own life.
Western leaders dismissed the Kremlin's proposal for talks in Istanbul on May 15 as insufficient.
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 pope said he was praying to God to grant the world the "miracle of peace."
Ushakov’s comments follow Russian President Vladimir Putin's May 11 invitation for direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul starting May 15.
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.
Zelensky called a ceasefire the essential first step toward ending the war.
The number includes 1,310 casualties that Russian forces suffered over the past day.
"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."
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UK Defense Ministry: Pace of Russian offensives across front line 'lowest since January'
• 2 min read
Russia's regular army and Wagner Group forces have recently "obtained footholds" west of the Bakhmutka river in the center of Bakhmut, where the Ukrainian military continues its defense, the U.K. Defense Ministry reported on March 17.
"However, more broadly across the front line, Russia is conducting some of the lowest rates of local offensive action seen since at least January 2023," the ministry wrote in its latest intelligence update.
Russia's low pace of offensives is "most likely" linked to the Russian military temporarily exhausting the combat effectiveness of the deployed formations to an extent, which makes even local offensive actions unsustainable, reads the update.
The ministry added that Russian leadership would try to restore its forces' offensive potential after replenishing the personnel and ammunition reserves.
"In the meantime, commanders will likely be forced to choose between carrying out offensive operations and conducting a credible defense of the full line."
The Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said in its assessment on March 16 that the Russian state-backed mercenary company Wagner Group's offensive on Bakhmut "appears to be nearing culmination."
Wagner's founder Yevgeny Prigozhin recently claimed his forces captured Zaliznianske, a small village about nine kilometers north of the embattled city of Bakhmut in Donetsk Oblast. Kyiv hasn't confirmed the village's capture.
According to the ISW, "the capture of Zaliznianske and other similarly small towns north of Bakhmut is unlikely to enhance Wagner's ability to capture Bakhmut itself or make other operationally significant gains."
A U.K. official said during his speech in Vienna on March 15 that "since May last year, between 20 – 30,000 Wagner and regular Russian forces have been killed and wounded in the area around Bakhmut alone."
Bakhmut-bound infantry assault troops: 'We are holding on, ready for any scenario’
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