The publications' latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to May 8, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of April, 2,857 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
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.
Czech Republic President Petr Pavel attends a meeting of the NATO-Ukraine Council during the NATO 75th anniversary summit at the Walter E. Washington Convention Center in Washington, DC, on July 11, 2024. (Samuel Corum/AFP via Getty Images)
The "temporary" occupation of some Ukrainian territories by Russia is the most likely outcome of Moscow's full-scale invasion, Czech President Petr Pavel said in an interview published on Sept. 23.
Speaking to The New York Times (NYT), Pavel said neither Ukraine nor Russia should expect to achieve outright victory.
"To talk about a defeat of Ukraine or defeat of Russia, it will simply not happen. So the end will be somewhere in between," he said.
As of late August, Russia was in control of around 27% of Ukrainian territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.
Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts are partially controlled by Russian troops. Russia claims to have annexed the whole territory of those regions despite not controlling two regional capitals — Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Moscow also controls all of Ukraine's Crimean peninsula.
Russian President Vladimir Putin declared the illegal annexation of four oblasts in September 2022, and in June called for Ukrainian troops to leave these territories as a condition for peace negotiations, a proposal which was rejected by Ukraine.
Pavel said that Ukraine "will have to be realistic" about the prospects of recapturing the Russian-occupied territories.
"The most probable outcome of the war will be that a part of Ukrainian territory will be under Russian occupation, temporarily," Pavel said, though he added this could last for years.
Ukraine says peace talks should be held on the basis of its 10-step peace formula, which includes a full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Zelensky is also expected to present his "victory plan" to President Joe Biden during his ongoing visit to the U.S. this week.
"There is not and cannot be any alternative to peace, no freezing of the war or any other manipulations that will simply move Russian aggression to another stage," Zelensky said in his evening address on Sept. 18.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Kateryna Hodunova
