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.
German Chancellor Olaf Scholz is received in Beijing by Chinese President Xi Jinping in Beijing on April 16, 2024. (Michael Kappeler/picture alliance via Getty Images)
Germany’s vice-chancellor expressed readiness to discussions with Beijing regarding EU tariffs but adopted a more stringent stance on Chinese exports to Russia during the first visit to mainland China by a senior European politician since the tariffs were introduced.
Robert Habeck, the minister for economic affairs and climate action, indicated his anticipation of imminent talks between Beijing and Brussels, according to the Financial Times. He clarified that the tariffs of up to 38 percent on Chinese electric vehicles were "not punitive."
"There’s room for discussion," he said at a press conference in Shanghai. "I hope that in the days to come the European Commission and the Chinese trade minister will talk."
While adopting a conciliatory tone on the yet-to-be-finalized tariffs, Habeck was critical of China’s increasing exports to Russia. He highlighted Germany’s own measures to halt the export of "dual-use" goods with potential military applications.
"I looked at the trade figures and Chinese trade with Russia increased more than 40 per cent last year," he said. "Of course energy is a high part [of] it, but something like half of it is related to dual-use goods."
Germany maintains a close economic relationship with China, its largest trading partner and a vital market for its auto industry. Berlin has strived to carefully navigate the increasing tensions between Beijing and Washington, which worsened significantly after Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
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.
Martin Fornusek
