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.
Andriy Yermak, Zelensky's chief of staff, said that the new pontiff had a phone call with Zelensky on Monday, during which the pope expressed willingness to facilitate meetings between global leaders and vowed to support efforts for "a just and lasting peace."
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.
Russian President Vladimir Putin chairs a meeting with members of the government via a video conference at the Kremlin in Moscow on July 4, 2023. (Photo: Alexander Kazakov/Sputnik/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian dictator Vladimir Putin met with the founder of the Wagner Group Yevgeny Prigozhin days after Wagner's short-lived rebellion against Russian authorities, the Russian state news agency TASS cited Putin's spokesperson Dmitry Peskov on July 10.
"This meeting took place in the Kremlin on June 29. It lasted almost three hours," Peskov reportedly said.
"The details of it are unknown, but the only thing we can say is that the president gave an assessment of the company's actions at the front during the special military operation, and also gave his assessment of the events of June 24."
According to the Kremlin's spokesperson, Putin invited 35 people to the meeting, including the leadership of the Wagner Group.
The commanders of the private military company presented "their version of what happened" during the insurrection on June 23-24, while reaffirming their loyalty to the country and its leader, Peskov said. In turn, Putin offered the Wagner leaders further options on employment and combat deployment, according to the statement.
Prigozhin launched a "march for justice" against Russian military leaders on June 23 after the Russian army allegedly targeted Wagner troops in Ukraine. His mercenaries occupied Rostov and marched 200 kilometers to Moscow, only to abruptly end the rebellion less than 24 hours after its start.
As a result of an undisclosed agreement allegedly mediated by Lukashenko, Prigozhin and his contractors were allowed to leave for Belarus to avoid persecution.
On June 27, the Belarusian dictator said that the mercenary boss had arrived in the country shortly after reports that Prigozhin's business jet landed at the Machulishchy military airfield near Minsk.
Already the same day, however, the independent monitoring group Belaruski Hajun said that the oligarch's plane left back to Russia, though it was unclear whether Prigozhin was on board.
The French media outlet Liberation reported earlier on July 10 that the mercenary leader has been present in Moscow at least since July 1.
Petro Burkovskyi
