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.
"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."
Illustrative purposes only: A European Union flag flies in front of the District Court in Burgas, Bulgaria, on March 13, 2024. (Michaela Vatcheva/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
Ukraine has received 1 billion euro ($ 1.1 billion) from the European Union under the G7's Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration (ERA) initiative, the European Commission announced on May 8.
The ERA mechanism, totaling $50 billion, provides loans to Ukraine that will be repaid using future profits from frozen Russian assets.
This is the fourth such tranche from the bloc which is secured by proceeds from frozen Russian assets.
The EU's contribution to the initiative totals 18.1 billion euros ($20.4). With the recent payment, the Commission's total lending to Ukraine under this MFA has reached 6 billion euros ($6.8 billion) since the start of the year, the statement read.
Prime Minister of Ukraine Denys Shmyhal said that the government will use the funds to "cover critical budget expenditures and strengthen the state."
"It is part of a consistent and just response: the aggressor must pay for the devastation it has caused," Shmyhal wrote on X.
"We are counting on further steps — full confiscation of assets and toughening sanctions in response to Russia's continued atrocities," he added.
Since Russia's full-scale invasion in 2022, G7 countries have frozen approximately $300 billion in Russian sovereign assets.
The ERA initiative, backed primarily by the U.S. and the EU, aims to use profits from these frozen assets to finance Ukraine's defense and reconstruction.
Previously, in March, Ukraine received the first tranche of 2.5 billion Canadian dollars (about $1.7 billion) from Ottawa and 752 million pounds ($970 million) as the first installment of the U.K.'s contribution to the G7 loan.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Liliane Bivings
