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.
Senate Majority Leader Chuck Schumer speaks at a news conference after a weekly policy luncheon with Senate Democrats at the U.S. Capitol Building in Washington D.C. on Feb. 6, 2024. (Anna Moneymaker/Getty Images)
The U.S. Senate overcame a significant obstacle on Feb. 12 to propel a $95.3 billion foreign aid bill forward, which includes support for Ukraine and Israel. This progress sets the legislation on a trajectory towards imminent approval in the Senate this week, yet its prospects in the House remain uncertain.
By a margin of 66-33, surpassing the necessary 60-vote threshold, the Senate successfully cleared the final procedural obstacle, thus restricting debate on the measure to a final 30-hour period before a potential vote on passage that could come as soon as Feb. 14.
The bill encompasses various provisions, allocating $60 billion to bolster Ukraine's efforts against Russia, $14.1 billion for security aid to Israel, $9.2 billion for humanitarian support, and $4.8 billion to assist regional partners in the Indo-Pacific area, among other allocations, according to the Senate Appropriations Committee.
The speaker of the U.S. House of Representatives Mike Johnson said the Senate had "failed to meet the moment" by not addressing security on the U.S.-Mexico border, which he described as the "most pressing issue facing our country."
President Joe Biden, speaking with German chancellor Olaf Scholz on Feb. 9 at the White House, said it would be “close to criminal neglect” if the U.S. Congress fails to stand by its European ally.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
