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."
"An unconditional ceasefire is not preceded by negotiations," French President Emmanuel Macron told reporters on May 11.
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."
Ukraine's intelligence: More than 3,000 Russians have contacted surrender hotline in March
The figure represents a sharp increase as it accounts for twice as much as previous monthly figures, Vitaly Matvienko, the spokesman of the program set up to help Russian troops surrender, reported.
Ukraine's military intelligence claimed the increase could be linked to a potential Ukrainian counteroffensive that could take place in several areas in spring, according to Defense Minister Oleksii Reznikov.
"The Ukrainian counteroffensive operation on the ground has not yet begun, but its effect is already producing results," the report read.
Launched in September 2022 by Ukraine's Main Directorate of Intelligence, the 24-hour "I Want to Live" hotline helps Russians to surrender themselves or their units to the Ukrainian army willingly.
Russians are promised that after the surrender, they will be held in compliance with the Geneva Conventions.
Nearly 10,000 Russians have contacted the Ukrainian hotline set up for the Russian soldiers looking to surrender themselves to Ukrainian forces as of March, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War reported.
Over 1.2 million calls have been made to Ukraine’s “I Want to Live” hotline as of mid-December, according to the Defense Ministry’s Intelligence Directorate’s representative Andriy Yusov.
In addition to the hotline, there is also a chatbot and a website in Russian run by Ukraine's Defense Ministry with information about the program.

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