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).
Russia's Buryatia Republic declared a state of emergency on May 13 over massive forest fires that have engulfed multiple regions in the Russian Far East.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko's statement came as Strong Shield 5 exercises involving military personnel from other NATO countries began in Lithuania.
"Amendments to the Budget Code are needed to implement the provisions on funding the U.S.-Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund," lawmaker Roksolana Pidlasa said.
During reconnaissance in an unspecified front-line sector, Special Operations Forces' operators detected Buk-M3 and Uragan-1 on combat duty, the unit said.
The suspect quit his job at the Rivne NPP before the full-scale war began. In the spring of 2025, a GRU liaison contacted him and offered cooperation in exchange for money.
Illustrative image: Oil pumping jacks, also known as "nodding donkeys", in an oilfield near Neftekamsk, in the Republic of Bashkortostan, Russia, on Nov. 19, 2020. (Andrey Rudakov/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The European Commission is exploring options to legally prohibit EU companies from signing new contracts for the supply of Russian gas, Reuters reported on April 22, citing an undisclosed senior EU official.
The EU is also considering ways to allow companies located in member states to terminate existing gas supply contracts with Russia without penalties, the official told Reuters.
Following Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Europe began to wean itself off Russian fossil fuels to stifle Russia's revenue that finances its war chest.
The European bloc plans to completely phase out Russian fossil fuels by 2027, and the European Commission is expected to provide a plan by May 6 – a deadline postponed from March amid uncertainty over U.S. President Donald Trump's tariff policies.
The ban on new contracts aims to reduce European companies' spot purchases of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG). Although Russian pipeline gas supplies have declined sharply since the all-out war, the EU increased its imports of Russian LNG last year.
The EU's imports of Russian LNG in 2024 reached a record level, despite the bloc's efforts to reduce its gas dependence after Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine, according to the Financial Times.
Svitlana Romanko
