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.
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.
A portrait of Victoria Amelina stands on her grave among flowers during a burial ceremony at the Lychakiv cemetery on July 5, 2023, in Lviv, Ukraine. (Photo by Oleksandr Hryvul/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
President Volodymyr Zelensky has given posthumous awards to four Ukrainian cultural figures, Victoria Amelina, Maksym Kryvtsov, Vasyl Kukharskyi, and Volodymyr Vakulenko, according to a decree published on Jan. 23.
All four were killed by Russian forces during Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Amelina was a writer but became a war crimes researcher after the start of the full-scale invasion.
In this role, she raised international awareness of the death of Vakulenko, a celebrated children's literature writer who was kidnapped in the spring of 2022 by Russian forces occupying his village in Kharkiv Oblast.
Vakulenko's body was identified on Nov. 28, 2022, after being found in a mass grave in a forest near Izium. He was 49 years old when he was killed.
Amelina was critically injured in a Russian missile strike on a restaurant in Kramatorsk and died on July 1, 2023, aged 37.
Kryvtsov was a poet and public figure who would have turned 34 on Jan. 22 but was killed on Jan. 7 while fighting on the front line.
After participating in the EuroMaidan Revolution of 2013-2014, he joined Ukraine's Armed Forces as a volunteer after Russia started the war in Ukraine's Donbas.
In 2022, when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Kryvtsov returned to the front line and continued writing.
Kukharskyi, an actor in theater and film, joined Ukraine's Armed Forces shortly after Russia's full-scale invasion began in 2022. He died on Dec. 7, aged 42, having been severely injured at the front in September.
Dinara Khalilova
