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."
Speaking to CNN on May 10, Peskov commented on the latest ceasefire proposal from Ukraine and Europe, responding that Russia needs to "think about" it, but is "resistant" to pressure.
Remnant of Kh-47M2 Kinzhal missile at an exhibition showing remains of missiles and drones that Russia used to attack Kyiv on May 12, 2023 in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Oleksii Samsonov /Global Images Ukraine via Getty Images)
All Kinzhal ballistic missiles fired by Russia at targets in Kyiv have been downed since the U.S. provided Patriot air defense systems in May 2023, Ukrainian Air Force Colonel Serhii Yaremenko said in an interview with Ukrinform published on July 4.
Kinzhal missiles are launched from MiG-31K aircraft and have an operational range of some 2,000 kilometers, which means that all of Ukraine is at risk if the missile is launched from Russian airspace.
Russia claims the advanced air-launched Kinzhal missile is hypersonic, and the weapon was considered near-impossible to intercept and shoot down before the arrival of Patriot systems.
Yaremenko, who is the commander of the 95th anti-aircraft missile brigade, said that Kyiv has been targeted by more than 20 Kinhzal missiles, but none of them have hit the capital.
"When we work against ballistics, it doesn't matter to us whether it's the Kh-47M Kinzhal, or the Iskander-M, or the 48N, or a Zircon," Yaremenko said.
Ballistic missiles are fired high into the atmosphere before falling to their targets in an arc, attaining speeds several times the speed of sound before hitting their target.
"For us, it is primarily a ballistic target," and only after expert analysis does the Air Force find out exactly what was downed, Yaremenko said.
"I will say only one thing: all the Kinzhals that were launched at the capital of Ukraine, from the moment it was announced that the Patriot anti-aircraft missile complex was put on combat duty, were all successfully intercepted."
Yaremenko added that "more than 20 Kinzhal missiles were launched over Kyiv and all of them were successfully intercepted" since May 2023.
The first time a Kinzhal was downed over Kyiv was on May 3, 2023, at 2:35 a.m at an altitude of about 10 kilometers, Yaremenko said.
"We very carefully used the Patriot anti-aircraft missile complex," after receiving information that a Kinzhal had been fired from a Russian MiG-31K.
"At the moment when there were signs of a launch, we turned it on and identified the target. The speed was so high that there was no time to clarify the task, characteristics. I was told it was ballistics, I authorized the use of the Patriot, and it was destroyed," Yaremenko said.
Kyiv has been calling on its partners to provide additional air defenses as Russia intensifies its strikes against Ukrainian population centers and infrastructure.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said in April that he will not say how many Patriot systems Ukraine has, but that "to cover Ukraine completely in the future, it is preferable to have 25 Patriot systems, with 6-8 batteries each."
In June, both Romania and the U.S. said they will provide Ukraine with an additional Patriot system, while the Netherlands said it would supply components for a Patriot system for Ukraine together with another country.
Kateryna Hodunova
