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.
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.
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.
Norway's Minister of Defense, Bjørn Arild Gram, sits in the back of an F-16 aircraft at Bodø airport, Norway, where the final preparations are being made before two Norwegian F-16 aircraft are sent to Denmark to be used in the training of Ukrainian pilots on Jan. 3, 2024. (Jan Langhaug / NTB / AFP via Getty Images)
Ukrainian pilots are "very impressed" with American-made F-16 fighter jets, the Ukrainian service of the Voice of America reported.
A pilot, identified by the call sign "Phantom," mentioned in an interview with the outlet that Ukrainian pilots undergoing training on multirole fighters in the U.S. and Europe had praised the aircraft.
Several Western allies pledged to transfer F-16 jets to Ukraine. The exact number of the jets to be delivered has not yet been announced, but The Telegraph estimated in January that the Netherlands, Denmark and Norway are offering as many as 60 F-16s to Ukraine. All of the jets are around 40 years old.
On Feb. 5, the Netherlands announced that the country is preparing to send Ukraine an additional six U.S.-made F-16 fighter jets to Ukraine. This brings the total number of jets pledged to Ukraine by the Netherlands to 24.
"Our pilots are very impressed," Ukrainian pilot interviewed by the Voice of America said. "This aircraft has simply exceeded their expectations. Even with the amount of information they have received during their training, they already see great prospects for how this aircraft will help our Air Force increase the capabilities of our combat aviation."
"Phantom" noted, however, that the process of retraining pilots on the sophisticated aircraft posed certain challenges, as many of them were accustomed to operating older Soviet-built Su-27s and MiG-29s.
Pentagon Press Secretary Air Force Brig. Gen. Pat Ryder announced in August that the U.S. would begin training Ukrainian pilots on the F-16 jets "in support of the international effort to develop and strengthen Ukraine's long-term defenses."
A coalition of 11 countries was established a month earlier, aimed at coordinating the delivery of fighter jets and facilitating the training of Ukraine and its pilots in their operation. Subsequently, this coalition expanded to encompass 14 countries.
The U.S. began training Ukrainian pilots in October, while the Royal Air Force of the U.K. initiated its training program in August. Pilots underwent flying and English language courses before the first group commenced specialized F-16 training in Denmark in December.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Dinara Khalilova
