President Volodymyr Zelensky said he will meet with Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan in Ankara, but said both leaders are ready to fly to Istanbul if Russian President Vladimir Putin chooses to attend the talks there.
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.
Illustrative purposes only: A Russian Il-76 military transport plane. (Wikipedia)
Despite Russia's claims, there were no Ukrainian prisoners of war on the downed Russian Il-76 transport plane that crashed on Jan. 24, National Security and Defense Council Secretary Oleksii Danilov told Babel in an interview that was published on Feb. 9.
"I can definitely tell you that our prisoners were not there," said Danilov during the interview.
A Russian Il-76 transport aircraft crashed in Russia's Belgorod Oblast on Jan. 24, which Russia claimed was transporting 65 Ukrainian prisoners of war (POWs) for an exchange.
Russia has yet to provide evidence that there were any POWs on the downed aircraft.
After Russia began circulating its claims, Ukraine requested that Russia return the bodies of the killed POWs home.
Russia's government never responded to the appeal. Russia also reportedly blocked the International Committee of Red Cross from investigating the circumstances of the crash.
In response to Russia's claim, Danilov accused Russia of fabricating the story, adding that if Ukrainian POWs were on the plane, Russia would have filmed evidence of the crash site for propaganda purposes.
Danilov said that "biological material" would have been present in large quantities, as there was at the crash site of downed Ukraine International Airlines Flight 752 in 2020.
"There was nothing like that there; they had the whole story prepared," Danilov said. "They have nothing to show because if this had really happened, the picture would have been completely different."
Anonymously U.S. officials told The New York Times that an American-made Patriot missile system was likely responsible for the plane crash. According to the officials, the plane was also likely carrying at least some Ukrainian prisoners.
U.S. officials report that Ukraine likely acted on weak intelligence as the plane was previously used to transport missiles, making it a valuable target for Ukraine's military.
Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has opened a criminal case into the matter.
Dmytro Basmat is a senior news editor for The Kyiv Independent. He previously worked in Canadian politics as a communications lead and spokesperson for a national political party, and as a communications assistant for a Canadian Member of Parliament. Basmat has a Master's degree in Political Management from Carleton University in Ottawa, Canada, and a Bachelor of Arts in Politics and Governance from Toronto Metropolitan University.
Rachel Amran
