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 soldiers adjust a national flag atop a personnel armored carrier on a road near Lyman, Donetsk Oblast, on Oct. 4, 2022, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine (Photo credit: Anatolii Stepanov/AFP).
Russia is intensifying attacks in the Lyman-Kupiansk direction of the front line in Kharkiv and Luhansk oblasts, using both ground forces and air strikes, Illia Yevlash, the spokesperson for the Eastern Grouping of Forces, said on air on Oct. 5.
According to Yevlash, Russian troops shifted their focus on a new target – Makiivka, a Luhansk Oblast village roughly 30 kilometers north of Lyman and 60 kilometers south of Kupiansk.
Eight skirmishes have been recorded in this area over the past day, the spokesperson said. Russia is also actively using its air forces, deploying both jet planes and military helicopters, he added.
Yevlash said that Ukrainian troops repelled Russian attempts to advance, destroying 13 pieces of enemy hardware, including two T-72 tanks and five armored fighting vehicles.
According to the Ukrainian military, Russia has been concentrating over 100,000 soldiers and thousands of pieces of equipment in the Kupiansk-Lyman direction since the summer.
The U.S.-based think-tank Institute for the Study of War (ISW) said that Russia's offensive in the northeast appeared to be Russia's strategy to pin Ukrainian troops, who could have been deployed elsewhere.
On Sept. 28, the ISW wrotein its daily update that Russia appeared to have recently reduced the pace of the offensive in the Kupiansk-Svatove-Kreminna front line.
Citing fewer reported Russian ground attacks in the Kupiansk and Lyman directions, the think-tank said this indicates that Ukraine's ongoing counteroffensive on other fronts has distracted Russia's offensive in the northeast.
Soldiers fighting near Kreminna, a Russian-occupied town on the Lyman axis, told the Kyiv Independent in July that there was a brief period every now and then when Russia's offensive would slow down – before it picked up the pace again after its rotation of units.
Asami Terajima
