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.
Speaking at a press conference in Kyiv on May 10, President Volodymyr Zelensky rebuked the idea of a demilitarized zone in the war and emphasized the importance of first securing a ceasefire.
Illustrative image of a tanker transiting through the Great Belt of Denmark off the coast of Agerso, Denmark, on Thursday, Aug. 15. 2024. (Carsten Snejbjerg/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Finnish investigators say the crew of an oil tanker accused of damaging undersea power and communication cables in the Baltic Sea were preparing to cut additional infrastructure before authorities intervened, according to Reuters.
Last month, Finnish authorities boarded an oil tanker Eagle S, allegedly part of Moscow’s so-called "shadow fleet."
Since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, the Baltic Sea region has faced numerous disruptions to power cables, telecom links, and gas pipelines. NATO member states surrounding the Baltic Sea are scheduled to meet in Helsinki on Jan. 14 to discuss collective measures against such threats.
The Eagle S allegedly caused damage to the Estlink 2 power line and four telecommunications cables between Finland and Estonia by dragging its anchor over 100 kilometers along the seabed.
Risto Lohi, head of the Finnish National Bureau of Investigation, said the ship was also at risk of damaging the Estlink 1 power line and the BalticConnector gas pipeline when authorities took action. "There would have been an almost immediate danger that other cables or pipes related to our critical underwater infrastructure could have been damaged," Lohi said.
Authorities are investigating nine of the ship’s crew members, including the Georgian captain and sailors from India and Georgia.
In a separate incident, Baltic Sea nations suspect the Chinese bulk carrier Yi Peng 3 of dragging its anchor to sever two undersea fiber-optic cables in November.
Sweden's Civil Defense Minister, Carl-Oskar Bohlin, stated that evidence of anchor damage linked to the Yi Peng 3 was also found near the NordBalt power cable, which connects Sweden and Lithuania. "This obviously illustrates the seriousness of the situation we find ourselves in," Bohlin reprotedly said.
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.
Olena Goncharova
