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.
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.
A captive named Umit allegedly agreed to serve in the Russian army in exchange for Russian citizenship and a monetary reward of 2 million rubles ($25,000).
The logo of the Russian state-run RT TV channel displayed at the company headquarters in Moscow, Russia, on Jan. 22, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes. (Kirill Kudryavtsev/AFP via Getty Images)
Estonia's Public Prosecutor's Office has charged Svetlana Burceva, an Estonian citizen who wrote for Russian state-run media, with treason and violating international sanctions, the media outlet ERR reported on Aug. 6.
Burceva was arrested in March after it was revealed that she wrote for the Russian state sponsored Balt News —an arm of the Kremlin-run RT news outlet. Another RT-subsidiary, Sputnik Estonia, was shuttered for violating sanctions in 2019, but Burceva is accused of continuing to write for the outlet and its affiliates under a pseudonym.
According to the Public Prosecutor's Office, Burceva, who became a naturalized Estonian citizen in 1994, knowingly violated sanctions.
Between 2019 and 2021, she completed a Master's degree at Sevastopol State University in occupied Crimea, where she reportedly "enrolled in a program on information and hybrid conflicts, supervised and directed by a former FBI counterintelligence officer and head of a private intelligence firm registered in Russia."
Prosecutors said that the program "aims to train international media workers and analysts to be at the forefront of combating hybrid threats Russia faces."
Upon completing her studies, Burceva reportedly wrote a book under different name, along with the program director, entitled "Hybrid War for the World," describing "a global hybrid war that Russia must win."
The book allegedly is intended to sow division in Estonia, prosecutors said.
A pre-trial investigation by the Estonian Internal Security Service (ISS) "concluded that Burceva could not be considered an independent, objective, and neutral journalist."
Russian state sponsored media outlets have been instrumental in promoting pro-Russian propaganda since the start of the full-scale invasion.
Estonia has long been concerned about undue influence from Russia, being on the far eastern flank of NATO and having a considerable ethnic Russian minority.
In a widely reported case earlier in 2024, an ethnic Russian professor at Estonia's University of Tartu was convicted of spying for his home country.
Nate Ostiller
