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.
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.
The Reikartz Hotel following a Russian missile strike on Aug. 10. (Photo by Anatolii Kurtiev/Telegram)
Denise Brown, the UN's humanitarian coordinator in Ukraine, issued a statement condemning the Russian military's Aug. 10 attack on the city of Zaporizhzhia.
The missile strike, which killed one person and injured 16 others, damaged the Reikartz Hotel on the Dnipro River. The hotel was often used by UN staff and NGO workers.
Brown said she was "appalled" by the attack, calling the strike "unacceptable."
"The number of indiscriminate strikes that have damaged civilian infrastructure and killed and injured civilians has reached an incredible level," Brown said. "And they are a violation of international humanitarian law."
Brown said that the Reikartz Hotel served as a hub for UN humanitarian aid workers in the city. The UN used the hotel as a base for its civilian evacuation of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol in May 2022.
The attack on the hotel was the second deadly missile strike on Zaporizhzhia in two days. Three people were killed in the Aug. 9 attack.
Brown called for Russia to "immediately cease its indiscriminate attacks on Ukraine."
Abbey Fenbert is a senior news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She is a freelance writer, editor, and playwright with an MFA from Boston University. Abbey served as a Peace Corps Volunteer in Ukraine from 2008-2011.
Daria Shulzhenko
