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.
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.
U.N. Secretary-General Antonio Guterres at the signing ceremony of the Black Sea Grain Deal in Istanbul, Turkey, in July 2022. (Ed Jones/AFP via Getty Images)
U.N. Secretary-General António Guterres made a statement in reaction to Russia's withdrawal from the Black Sea Grain initiative. "Today’s decision by the Russian Federation will strike a blow to people in need everywhere," he wrote, expressing his regret at Russia's decision.
The deal, which was first brokered by the U.N. and Turkey and signed in Istanbul in July 2022, has ensured the safe passage of over 32 million metric tons of food commodities from Ukrainian ports on the Black Sea, according to U.N. figures.
The initiative also allowed the World Food Programme to ship over 725,000 tons of food to support humanitarian operations in regions like the Horn of Africa, and helped to reduce food prices by over 23 percent since March 2022.
Before the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, the country usually supplied the world with 45 million tons of grain every year. Guterres added that the agreement has "been a lifeline for global food security and a beacon of hope in a troubled world."
"Ultimately, participation in these agreements is a choice. But struggling people everywhere and developing countries don’t have a choice," he wrote, adding that the hundreds of millions of people facing hunger "will pay the price."
The last extension of the grain deal was in May 2023 and was set to expire at the end of the day on July 17, 2023.
Russia informed Turkey, Ukraine and the United Nations that they will not sign an extension. Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov claimed the reason was that "the part of the Black Sea agreements concerning Russia has not been implemented so far."
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independence. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
Martin Fornusek
