Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said that the new pontiff had a phone call with Zelensky on Monday, during which the pope expressed willingness to facilitate meetings between global leaders and vowed to support efforts for "a just and lasting peace."
In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on May 13, Macron discussed new Russia sanctions and stationing French nuclear weapons in other European countries as a deterrent against Russia.
Performing their song "Bird of Pray," Ukrainian band Ziferblat passed the Eurovision semi-finals on May 13, qualifying Ukraine for the grand final on May 17.
Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov confirmed that a Russian delegation will be in Istanbul on May 15 for direct peace talks with Ukraine. Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov will likely represent Russia.
The move follows Ukraine's ratification of the minerals agreement, deepening U.S.-Ukraine economic ties and signaling expanded U.S. involvement in Ukraine's long-term recovery.
"Ukraine has initiated a coordinated campaign to vilify Hungary in order to undermine our initiative to hold a poll on (Kyiv's) EU membership," Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban said.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz warned that further concessions from Ukraine during negotiations would be unreasonable if Russia continues to attack civilian targets.
U.S. President Donald Trump's special envoys, Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg, will travel to Istanbul for possible peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Reuters reported on May 13, citing three undisclosed sources.
Russian ultranationalist Alexander Dugin attends the plenary session of the 2024 Saint Petersburg International Economic Forum in Russia on June 7, 2024. (Contributor/Getty Images)
Ultranationalist Russian ideologue Alexander Dugin pinned hopes on Moscow's relations with the U.S. under Trump's administration in an interview with CNN aired on March 30.
Dugin, a fervent supporter of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, has long been an advocate of Russian imperialism and a leading figure of Russia's turn toward hardline nationalism and authoritarian rule.
The ideologue is also a suspect and wanted in Ukraine under the articles of genocide and encroachment on the territorial integrity of Ukraine.
In an interview with CNN, Dugin praised U.S. President Donald Trump, saying he represented an ideology that "changes the balance in the world."
"In these new conditions, I think Putin's Russia and Putin personally stops to be the main enemy, the main evil guy," Dugin claimed.
"Trumpists and followers of Trump will understand much better what Russia is, who Putin is, and the motivation of our politics," he added.
According to Dugin, Washington and Moscow have now discovered many common points. He said, however, that it may be too early to talk about an alliance between the U.S. and Russia against Europe.
"If, for example, Trump would withdraw the U.S. from the war against us in Ukraine, there could be a situation that we will fight against European globalists, European liberals in Ukraine without America," Dugin claimed, parroting long-standing Russian narratives about Washington's involvement in Russia's all-out war against Ukraine.
Dugin became widely known after Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine was justified partly by some of his earlier works on Russia’s superiority and its mission to create a "Eurasian Union," a plan for the integration of Russia with the countries that were formerly part of the Soviet Union.
In the early stages of the Moscow-instigated war in Donbas in 2014, Dugin told Russian state television that "Ukrainians need to be killed, killed, killed."
The same year, Dugin said on the VK social network that "Ukraine needs to be cleansed of idiots. A genocide of cretins is a given."
"I don't believe that these people are Ukrainians... They are some race of bastards that crept up from the sewers."
In August 2022, he lost his daughter in a car explosion that was most likely intended to target him.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
