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.
U.S. National Security Adviser Jake Sullivan speaks during a press conference at the White House on Nov. 13, 2023. (Al Drago/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
There was “nothing free or fair” about Vladimir Putin’s presidential election victory, U.S. National Security Advisor Jake Sullivan said on March 18, highlighting the extreme lengths the Kremlin went to to get the result it needed.
Speaking at a press briefing at the White House, Sullivan said the Russian president “closed the political space, imprisoned political opponents and some of his political opponents died tragically.”
“Therefore, there was nothing free or fair about these elections,” he added.
On March 17, Putin won a fifth term as Russian president with a landslide vote share of 87%, in an election in which the result was never really in doubt.
Putin was up against three other contenders who all stood no realistic chance of winning.
Sullivan portrayed an air of business as usual, saying: “The reality is that President Putin is the president of Russia, and we've had to deal with that reality throughout the war in Ukraine, during other aggressions by Russia, during other moves that are against U.S. national interests that we've seen from this president of the Russian Federation.”
“And we continued to deal with them, but that reality does not mean that this election was not something that met any benchmark of being free or fair.”
Hundreds of thousands of Ukrainians were forced to take part in "elections" at gunpoint — in Crimea, as well as regions annexed in 2022, including parts of Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk, and Luhansk oblasts.
A few hours before Sullivan spoke, Putin held a rally on the Red Square marking his victory and the illegal ten-year occupation of Crimea.
Putin took the stage in the company of his rivals, Kremlin-friendly lawmakers, Vladislav Davankov, Nikolai Kharitonov and Leonid Slutsky, who ran against Putin in the election.
All three praised Putin and offered their support.
Chris York is news operations editor at the Kyiv Independent. Before joining the team, he was head of news at the Kyiv Post. Previously, back in Britain, he spent nearly a decade working for HuffPost UK. He holds an MA in Conflict, Development, and Security from the University of Leeds.
Kateryna Denisova
