Erdogan told Macron that international cooperation is critical for initiating peace negotiations and the "sensitive implementation" of Ukraine’s recovery and reconstruction processes, the Turkish Presidency reported.
The assault began around 2 a.m. on May 11, with Russian forces deploying 108 Shahed-type attack drones and decoy UAVs from multiple directions, Ukraine’s Air Force said.
"Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end... I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens."
U.S. State Department Spokesperson Tammy Bruce called for "concrete proposals from both sides" in order for Washington to "move forward" in peace negotiations.
"If they speak to each other in Russian, he doesn't know what they are saying," one Western official told NBC News. Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia, called Witkoff's approach "a very bad idea."
Tougher sanctions "should be applied to (Russia's) banking and energy sectors, targeting fossil fuels, oil, and the shadow fleet," the leaders of Ukraine, the U.K., France, Germany, and Poland said in a joint statement.
"Russia is ready for negotiations without any preconditions," Putin claimed in an address marking the end of the three-day Victory Day ceasefire. He invited Ukraine to begin talks in Istanbul on May 15.
While serving as a bishop in Peru, Robert Prevost, now Pope Leo XIV, called the full-scale war "a true invasion, imperialist in nature, where Russia seeks to conquer territory for reasons of power."
President Volodymyr Zelensky on Nov. 4, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. (Viktor Kovalchuk/Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
President Volodymyr Zelensky reassured audiences at the Reuters Next conference in New York on Nov. 8 that Ukraine is still on track to deliver military results by the end of the year.
"We have a plan. We have very concrete cities, very [concrete] directions where we go. I can't share all the details but we have some slow steps forward on the south, also we have steps on the east," he said.
Ukraine’s highly anticipated southern counteroffensive has experienced significant challenges while Zelensky’s leadership is being increasingly scrutinized.
Earlier this month, commander-in-chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi admitted that the war had reached a World War I-type stalemate. The president rebuffed these remarks in a rare public dispute.
Some fear political infighting could result from cracks in the president’s image as calls for fresh presidential elections in 2024 emerge.
“Everyone should be concentrating their efforts right now on defending the country,” Zelensky told followers in his nightly address on Nov. 6, also suggesting that no elections would be held.
“Put themselves together and do not rest; do not drown in infighting or other issues. The situation is now the same as it was before — if there is no victory, there will be no country.”
Zelensky told the Reuters audience that Nov. 8 was a "successful day" for Ukraine after the European Commission recommended opening EU accession negotiations with Ukraine.
Lance Luo (Li P. Luo) is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. Previously, he worked at Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty and Hromadske Television in Kyiv. He also spent three years in finance and strategy consulting. Mr. Luo graduated from the University of Southern California and serves as an arbitrator at FINRA.
Igor Kossov
