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.
The Ukrainian military near Avdiivka, Donetsk Oblast, published on Nov. 10, 2023. (Valerii Zaluzhnyi/Facebook)
Several Ukrainian officials have underscored the complexity of the front-line situation, affirming that Ukrainian forces maintain control of the battlespace.
The Institute for The Study of War (ISW) cited Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Valerii Zaluzhnyi who emphasized the heightened intensity in the Avdiivka, Kupiansk, and Marinka directions during a conversation with U.S. Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff General Charles Brown on Nov. 13.
Ground Forces Commander Oleksandr Syrskyi highlighted Russian forces' simultaneous offensive actions in various directions, particularly aiming to reclaim the initiative north and south of Bakhmut.
Ukrainian officials’ statements about the current tempo of Russian operations along the frontline are consistent with ISW's assessment about ongoing Russian offensive operations, particularly in the Kupiansk, Bakhmut, and Avdiivka directions.
While Russian forces may face challenges in fully regaining the initiative across the theater, Ukrainian forces continue their own offensives, securing tactical gains in western Zaporizhzhia Oblast and on the east bank of Kherson Oblast.
The Russian military command now confronts decisions on whether to allocate forces for defense against Ukrainian offensives or redeploy them to support operations elsewhere, potentially limiting their ability to fully regain the initiative in the coming weeks.
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.
Daria Shulzhenko
