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.
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.
The Kyiv Independent reporter Francis Farrell holds a cat during a field trip in Velyka Novosilka, Donetsk Oblast, on Sept. 11, 2023. (Anastasia Vlasova)
The Kyiv Independent's journalist Francis Farrell was announced as the winner of the Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award for war correspondents in the Young Reporter (print) category on Oct. 14.
The award, sponsored by Credit Agricole Normandie, was for Farrell's coverage of the Battle of Bakhmut, a city in Donetsk Oblast that was occupied by Russian forces after 10 months of fierce fighting that nearly razed it to the ground.
The annual Bayeux Calvados-Normandy Award has been presented by the French town of Bayeux, in association with the Calvados Department and the Normandy region for more than 20 years "to pay tribute to journalists who work in hazardous conditions to provide us with information."
Farrell was awarded alongside journalists and photographers from CNN, BBC, Le Monde, The Times, RTS-France Info, Getty Images, and others.
Since he joined the Kyiv Independent in August 2022, Farrell has mostly covered Russia's war against Ukraine, reporting from some of the hottest spots along the front line. Aside from the Battle of Bakhmut, he has covered the liberation of Kharkiv and Kherson oblasts, as well as the ongoing counteroffensive in Zaporizhzhia Oblast and Donetsk Oblast.
Before joining the Kyiv Independent, Farrell worked as a freelance journalist and documentary photographer and also was the managing editor at the online media project Lossi 36.
Farrell has previously worked in OSCE and Council of Europe field missions in Albania and Ukraine. He is an alumnus of Leiden University in The Hague and University College London.
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Francis Farrell
