Last weekend saw a flurry of diplomatic activity surrounding the war in Ukraine. First, European leaders assembled in Kyiv on Saturday with President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in a show of unity to put pressure on Russian President Vladimir Putin for a ceasefire.

Both Moscow and Kyiv each accused the other of violating a truce Ukraine had never agreed to — even as it prompted Ukraine, with backing from European leaders (France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Poland) and the United States (it seems), to demand an extended 30-day ceasefire from the Kremlin.

The new round of negotiations comes amid a long history of delaying tactics by the Russian side as the fighting in Ukraine grinds on.

From left, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, French President Emmanuel Macron, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz make a call to U.S. President Donald Trump from Kyiv, Ukraine, on Saturday, May 10, 2025. (AP Photo/Mstyslav Chernov)

The Russian economy is in an increasingly precarious state as a result of a shift to a war mode and of Western sanctions over Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, a report by the Stockholm Institute of Transition Economics (SITE) said on Tuesday.

Donetsk region. On May 9, two civilians were killed and two others injured in attacks by Russian forces on Donetsk province in Ukraine’s east. The deaths were reported in the towns of Siversk and Rivne by the region’s military governor Vadym Filashkin.

Ukraine says Russia has launched widespread attacks, calling Putin's declaration of a three-day truce a "farce."

The United Nations aviation agency has ruled that Russia was responsible for shooting down a Malaysian Airlines flight over Ukraine in 2014 that killed all 298 people on board.