Hungary cancelled a meeting planned for May 12 with a Ukrainian delegation on the rights of national minorities, Hungary's Deputy Foreign Minister said on May 11, amid a deepening spying scandal between the two countries.
Three were injured in Russia's Kursk Oblast when the town of Rylsk was allegedly struck by a missile attack on May 11, local governor Alexander Khinshtein claimed.
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.
General Keith Kellogg, US special envoy for Ukraine, participates in the panel discussion "Peace through Strength - A Plan for Ukraine" at the 61st Munich Security Conference in Munich, Germany on Feb. 15, 2025. (Johannes Simon / Getty Images)
U.S. Special Envoy Keith Kellogg on April 29 dismissed Russia’s plan for a three-day ceasefire next week as "absurd" and reiterated that the United States is seeking a comprehensive and lasting peace deal to end the war.
"A three-day ceasefire is absurd. What the president wants is a permanent, comprehensive ceasefire — sea, air, land, infrastructure — for a minimum of 30 days, and then we can extend that," Kellogg said during a Fox News interview. "The president has this one right on the money, and that’s where we want to go to."
Russian President Vladimir Putin announced on April 28 a temporary ceasefire from May 8 to 11 to mark the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi Germany.
The move follows Trump’s growing frustration over what he views as Moscow’s unwillingness to bring an end to the three-year war, as Russian attacks against Ukraine continue. Meanwhile, Putin continues to demand formal recognition of Russia’s control over Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson—territories Russia annexed on paper in 2022 but has never fully occupied.
Ukraine also dismissed the Kremlin’s proposed short-term truce. "If Russia truly wants peace, it must cease fire immediately," Ukrainian Foreign Affairs Minister Andrii Sybiha wrote on X. "Why wait until May 8th? If the fire can be ceased now and since any date for 30 days—so it is real, not just for a parade."
Kellogg, who recently led U.S. talks on Ukraine in London, said negotiators produced a 22-point term sheet focused on ending the war. He acknowledged that Ukrainian officials "didn’t like them all," but described that as usual during negotiations.
"When you look at everything the Ukrainians are willing to work with — now, it’s over to the Russians, over to Putin," he said, adding that the Ukrainian side "really doubled down on this (peace proposal)."
Kellogg likened the diplomatic process to a long-distance race. "The first mile isn’t the hardest, it’s the last one that’s the hardest, and we’re in the last mile," he said.
"Nobody is going to win this war militarily," Kellogg told Fox News. "So when Russia says they're winning-no, they're not. If they were winning, they would have already won this war... So I think they need to sit back and realize it. I think Ukraine's in a good position."
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
