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.
Illustrative purposes only: Barbed lines a wall of a Lefortovo prison wall in Moscow, Russia, on April 4, 2023. (Vlad Karkov/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
A Russian military court sentenced a Krasnodar Krai resident to 14 years in prison for allegedly preparing to sabotage railway relay cabinets and for purported links with an anti-Kremlin militia, the court's service said on July 30.
The court called Artem Sanzharaev a "convinced ideological opponent of the state" who "voluntarily joined" the Freedom of Russia Legion through Telegram.
The legion, established in March 2022 in Ukraine, is an armed group made up of ethnic Russians fighting alongside Kyiv's forces against Russia.
According to the Russian court, Sanzharaev was instructed by the legion to carry out the sabotage. For that purpose, he "acquired the necessary weapons and equipment, after which he arrived at the indicated relay cabinets and began making Molotov cocktails," the court said.
Sanzharaev did not manage to carry out his tasks as he was detained by Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) officers, the statement read.
The Kyiv Independent cannot verify this information, and the Russian judicial system is widely thought to be systematically unfair. Torture and forced confessions are also commonplace practices among law enforcement officers, human rights organizations have found.
Russian President Vladimir Putin's crackdown on dissent since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine has seen thousands of his citizens arrested and many jailed.
Nate Ostiller
