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.
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.
President Volodymyr Zelensky in a video address on Sept. 27, 2023. (Photo via President's Office)
Ukrainian forces are steadily advancing, but arms and ammunition shortages, namely air defense systems, are causing difficulties, President Volodymyr Zelensky told the Italian news channel Sky TG24 on Oct. 4.
"The initiative is in our hands. Albeit slowly, we are pushing Russia out of our country step by step," Zelensky said in the interview.
"Difficulties are posed by the minefields and by the shortages of weapons and ammunition, especially air defenses," he added.
NATO, the U.S., and the U.K. have been raising the alarm on dwindling arms and ammunition stocks, which they and other allied countries could send to Ukraine.
Admiral Rob Bauer, the chair of the NATO Military Committee, urged Kyiv's partners to ramp up their defense industry production to ensure a stable flow of weapon supplies.
Continued security assistance is also the focal point of a legislative battle in the U.S., as a right-wing faction of the Republican Party criticizes the level of support that Washington is providing to Ukraine.
In the interview, Zelensky stressed that anti-air systems are crucial not only for the ongoing counteroffensive but also to protect the civilian population.
Ukrainian officials warned earlier that Russia is likely to escalate its strikes against the civilian infrastructure in the coming winter in an effort to cripple the country's power grid. Moscow attempted such a strategy during the fall and winter of 2022-2023.
Ukrenergo, Ukraine's state energy operator, said that a wave of Russian attacks on Sept. 21 marked the first mass strike on the energy infrastructure in six months.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Daniil Ukhorskiy
