"We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X. "Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for."
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.
Radio enthusiasts have begun spamming a Russian military radio frequency with memes and propaganda after the frequency allegedly began transmitting encoded messages to elements of the Russian military. (Knowyourmeme.com)
The frequency of a suspected Russian military shortwave radio broadcast, known as the “buzzer” for its recognizable repeating channel marker, has become the battleground for rival Russian and Ukrainian radio enthusiasts, who have been attempting to hijack the frequency to play memes and propaganda.
The UBV-76 transmission, which can be listened to at 4625khz on shortwave radio, is suspected to be used by the Russian military for relaying coded messages to military forces. The signal has been transmitted since the late 1970s, during the height of the cold war.
There has been much speculation about the exact purpose of the radio signal, however according to Numbers Station Research and Information Center, the most widely accepted theory is that the transmissions are used to send communications between Russia's Western Military District.
The radio signals originate from the village of Naro-Fominsk, near Moscow. The frequency is allegedly marked by the Russian military with a repeated buzz, which is occasionally interrupted by live coded messages.
With tensions between Russia and Ukraine mounting, enthusiasts noted that the encrypted radio messages were becoming much more frequent.
Since the end of November, listeners reported that encrypted radio messages had become a frequent occurrence. The cryptic messages can be picked up hundreds of miles away using strong antennae.
Following this flurry of military radio activity, enthusiasts decided to take to the airwaves themselves, flooding the frequency with memes, propaganda, and pirated music. Radio enthusiasts, including many users suspected to be based in Ukraine, are using internet-based radio transmitters to blast songs such as Korean viral-hit “Gangnam Style”, MGMT’s “Little Dark Age”, and other hits.
Modern shortwave radio receivers also allow users to visualise audio transmissions, leading radio enthusiasts to compete to create images, such as Ukrainian symbols or popular memes.
The flood of memes and music means that the original users of the frequency, suspected to be from the Russian military, are now struggling to be heard.
In a Dec. 11 broadcast, live encoded messages were drowned out by Linkin Park’s hit song “In The End.”
In response, Russian listeners began blaring the Soviet national anthem, Russian 90s rock songs, and Russian state propaganda. The frequency is now also being blocked by heavy radio jamming, possibly by the Russian military getting fed up with pirates using their frequency.
A livestream of the broadcast can be viewed on YouTube.
Dylan Carter is a staff writer at the Kyiv Independent. He studied modern languages at the University College of London and Paris Sorbonne IV. He worked as an assistant lecturer at the Kyiv School of Economics and at Ukrinform before joining the Kyiv Post in June 2021.
