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.
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.
Ukrainian and Russian officials pose prior to the talks between delegations from Kyiv and Moscow in Belarus on March 7, 2022. (Maxim Guchek/Belta/AFP via Getty Images)
Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty's (RFE/RL) investigation project Sistema reported on Nov. 4 it had obtained the first draft of Moscow's peace offer to Kyiv, issued days after the start of Russia's all-out war against Ukraine.
Moscow and Kyiv held unsuccessful talks in Belarus and Turkey in the early months of the full-scale war, with no direct negotiations having been taking part ever since.
The six-page document, published by Sistema, had four pages of annexes and was dated March 7, 2022. Russian delegation handed it over to the Ukrainian side during the third round of talks in Belovezhskaya Pushcha in Belarus.
Sistema received a draft from an unnamed Ukrainian source familiar with the talks, and a Russian source who confirmed its authenticity.
The unilateral terms of the document apparently meant Kyiv's capitulation, the article read.
The New York Times (NYT) in June published the 17-page purported draft in full dated April 15, 2022. Although it has similarities to the first draft, such as the lifting of all sanctions against Moscow, Russia softened its stance on other demands.
In the initial document, dated March 7, Moscow demanded Ukraine to reduce its army to 50,000 people, five times less than the country had by 2022, as well as reduce the number of ships, helicopters, and tanks.
Russia planned to ban Ukraine from developing "any other types of weapons as a result of scientific research." According to the draft, Moscow demanded not to produce, acquire or deploy in Ukraine missile weapons "of any type with a range of more than 250 km."
Ukraine also reportedly should have confirmed the independence of the country's eastern Donetsk and Luhansk oblasts, by then partly occupied by Russia, and rebuild the the regions' infrastructure destroyed since following Russia's invasion.
Among other things, Russia demanded to de facto legalize Soviet and communist symbols in Ukraine.
Russian President Putin said in June 2024 that, as a condition for peace negotiations, Ukrainian troops must leave the country's Donetsk, Luhansk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia oblasts. He added that Ukraine must recognize Russia's annexation of the regions and abandon any ambition to join NATO. Kyiv rejected this demand.
Ukraine said the peace talks should be held on the basis of its 10-step peace formula, which includes a full withdrawal of Russian troops from Ukraine.
Francis Farrell
