"I invited His Holiness to make an apostolic visit to Ukraine. Such a visit would bring real hope to all believers and to all our people," Zelensky said.
Previously, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk accused the Russian intelligence services of orchestrating a May 2024 arson attack on the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw.
Presidential Office chief Andriy Yermak voiced doubt about leading negotiations with anyone from Russia except President Vladimir Putin, implying only the Russian leader can make real decisions.
This includes at least seven people injured in drone attacks overnight on May 12, a date from which Kyiv and its allies put forward a demand for a 30-day unconditional truce, a step that Moscow continues to reject.
"When European unity becomes inconvenient, disinformation goes so far as to make a simple tissue look like drugs," the Elysee Palace reacted to a fake story pushed by Russia.
The comments came after Trump urged Ukraine to agree to direct negotiations with Russia, which has invited Kyiv to peace talks in Istanbul on May 15, without first agreeing to halt military operations.
A Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in Donetsk Oblast on May 12 and injured its driver, Ukrainian Railways said amid Kyiv's calls for a ceasefire.
Moscow and Hanoi agreed to negotiate and sign agreements to construct nuclear power plants in Vietnam, the two countries said in a joint statement on May 11.
The sanctions appear to be in response to Russia's rejection of a 30-day ceasefire that the U.K., alongside Ukraine, France, Germany, and Poland, demanded during a visit to Kyiv on May 10.
"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.
Ukraine's Defense Minister Rustem Umerov attends an in-person Ukraine Defense Contact Group meeting at Ramstein Air Base, southwestern Germany, on Sept. 19, 2023. (AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's note: A previous version of this story said that "Ukraine will mobilize Ukrainian men living abroad." It has been updated to reflect clarifications from Ukraine's Defense Ministry
Ukraine wants to recruit Ukrainians living abroad and may sanction those who do not show up to recruitment offices, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said in an interview with German media outlet Die Welt on Dec 21.
After the story was originally released, Defense Ministry press officer Illarion Pavliuk told the Ukrainian media outlet Babel that Umerov's comments had been taken out of context. Umerov spoke generally about how to communicate to Ukrainians, including those living abroad, about the importance of joining the army, Pavliuk said.
There is currently no active discussion on the recruitment of Ukrainians from abroad, he added.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a press conference on Dec. 19 that Ukraine plans to mobilize 450,000-500,000 new soldiers. He instructed Umerov and Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi in November to formulate a new procedure for mobilizing such a significant number of people.
Zelensky also said that the plan will need to address a number of key issues before he can officially support it, including provisions for the rotation and demobilization of troops that have been fighting for almost two years.
Umerov said that Ukrainian men living abroad would first be "invited" to report to recruiting offices, but added that measures would be taken if they did not show up willingly.
"We are still discussing what will happen if they don’t come voluntarily,” Umerov said.
BBC Ukraine reported in November that as many as 650,000 Ukrainian men of military age had left the country for Europe since the beginning of the full-scale invasion.
Under martial law, it is prohibited for men aged 18-60 to leave Ukraine, barring special circumstances.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Daria Shulzhenko
