The sanctions appear to be in response to Russia's rejection of a 30-day ceasefire that the U.K., alongside Ukraine, France, Germany, and Poland, demanded during a visit to Kyiv on May 10.
"We now know for sure that the great fire of the Marywilska shopping centre in Warsaw was caused by arson ordered by the Russian special services," Prime Minister Donald Tusk said on X. "Some of the perpetrators have already been detained, all the others are identified and searched for."
The publications' latest report covers the period of February 24, 2022 to May 8, 2025. Since it was last updated at the end of April, 2,857 additional Russian military personnel have been confirmed killed.
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.
This photograph shows a French Air and Space Force multirole fighter aircraft Dassault Rafale parked on the runway of a Croatian air base located near Zagreb, on April 29. 2025, after the first day of the joint military exercise PEGASE 25. On April 22, 2025, the French army began the deployment of a dozen aircraft in Sweden, followed by Poland and Croatia, for a "power projection operation" on NATO's northern and eastern flanks. (Damir Sencar/ AFP via Getty Images)
France plans to manufacture 1,200 AASM Hammer guided air bombs in 2025, up from 830 units produced in 2024, Le Parisien, a French daily newspaper, reported on May 2.
The French-made precision bombs are being transferred to Ukraine as part of ongoing defense support, and their use by Ukrainian fighter jets has grown significantly since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
The AASM Hammer, developed by French company Safran, has become a weapon of choice for Ukraine’s air force thanks to its high accuracy and resistance to Russian electronic warfare, according to Le Parisien.
The French government asked Safran to integrate air-to-surface missile systems onto Ukrainian fighter jets after American JDAM GPS-guided munitions failed to hit targets. Safran reportedly completed the integration "in less than four months in the fall of 2023," enabling precise targeting from Ukraine’s Soviet-era jets.
Safran's CEO Franck Saudo highlighted the system’s resistance to GPS jamming and compatibility with Ukrainian MiG and Su aircraft. Saudo explained that the module feature protects the bombs from Russian GPS jamming and guarantees high target accuracy. The French Defense Ministry confirmed earlier that the bombs can be launched from Ukraine’s existing aircraft fleet.
According to Le Parisien, France hopes to supply Ukraine with around 50 AASM bombs each month. The weapon entered service with the French military in 2008 and became standard for the Dassault Rafale, a French twin-engine, multirole fighter aircraft but has since been adapted for use on other aircraft, including the F-16 and Mirage 2000.
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
