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.
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."
Ukraine's Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi (Ukraine's Agriculture Ministry/Facebook)
Ukraine's Specialized Anti-Corruption Prosecutor's Office (SAPO) will request the arrest of Agriculture Minister Mykola Solskyi with an alternative option of a Hr 200 million ($5 million) bail, Economic Pravda reported on April 24.
Solskyi was accused of illegally appropriating Ukrainian state-owned land worth Hr 291 million ($7.3 million) and attempting to seize another plot worth an additional Hr 190 million ($4.8 million), according to Ukraine's National Anti-Corruption Bureau (NABU).
A session of Ukraine's High Anti-Corruption Court of Ukraine, where preventative measures were supposed to be imposed against the minister, was postponed until April 25.
Solskyi was reportedly called up to the parliament to meet with the President Volodymyr Zelensky's Servant of the People faction.
NABU said that the scheme involved the destruction of documents that showed the Ukrainian state had permanent ownership of two plots of land in Sumy Oblast.
Following this, the conspirators, allegedly including Solskyi, worked from 2017-2021 to create new fictitious land ownership documents.
The documents were then reportedly distributed amongst the members of the scheme, resulting in the seizure of the first plot, worth Hr 291 million ($7.3 million).
At least four people have been accused of participating in the scheme, according to NABU.
Following the accusations, a group of lawmakers registered a draft resolution in the parliament to dismiss Solskyi.
Solskyi has denied the allegations, saying he was not planning on resigning. He said that the case concerned the period of 2017-2018 when Solskyi served as a lawyer, not as a minister.
"I guarantee maximum openness to establish the truth, but there is no need for this — all the data is open to law enforcement, and the evidence and arguments of the parties are being considered by the courts," the minister said.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Elsa Court
