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."
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.
Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin at the "Ukraine. Year 2024" panel in Kyiv, Ukraine, on Feb. 25, 2024. (Courtesy: "Ukraine. Year 2024" forum)
Ukraine's capacity to produce drones similar to the Iranian-designed Shahed "are no longer inferior to Russia's," Strategic Industries Minister Oleksandr Kamyshin said in an interview aired on Feb. 26.
Ukraine has intensified its efforts to ramp up domestic production of attack drones, a critical tool on the battlefield, aiming to manufacture one million drones this year.
Russia has used Shahed-type kamikaze drones, both supplied by Iran and domestically produced, to attack Ukraine since the start of its full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The Ukrainian version of the Shahed drone is identical to the original "in terms of the amount of explosives they carry, their range, and other technical parameters," Kamyshin said on national television.
Since autumn 2022, Russia has regularly attacked Ukrainian cities and infrastructure with thousands of Shahed-type drones, initially delivered from Iran but now produced domestically in new factories.
Ukraine's capabilities for 2024 are six times higher than they were last year, and the country's defense industry also produced three times more in 2023 than it did in 2022, Kamyshin said at a forum in Kyiv on Feb. 25.
The Unmanned Systems Forces will focus on improving Ukraine's work with drones, creating special drone-specific units, ramping up training, systemizing their use, increasing production, and pushing innovation.
Kateryna Hodunova
