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.
A Belarusian soldier walks through a newly-built camp on a site previously used by the Belarusian army that could potentially accommodate up to 5,000 Wagner troops, on July 07, 2023. (Photo by Adam Berry/Getty Images)
Russia's Wagner mercenary group is using military warehouses at a disused Belarusian military camp, monitoring group Belarusian Hajun reported on August 1.
Belarusian Hajun believes the warehouses began to be used by the group around July 18th and are located at Paplavy, a village 30 minutes by car from the the Wagner camp at Tsel.
Since July, the anti-government group has been tracking Wagner convoys as they cross into Belarus and verifying the equipment the group is bringing with them.
According to @Hajun_BY, old military storage facilities near Paplavy village, not far from Asipovichy, started to be used since mid-July. Activity there was noticed after Wagner convoys started arriving to the tent camp in Tsel village:https://t.co/IxdTYQxMsa 1/8 pic.twitter.com/ebzNSod08I
On July 14, Belarusian state media reported that Wagner mercenaries were in the country to train Belarusian territorial defense forces. They may be supplanting the Russian military as the Belarusian military's key training partner, the Institute for the Study of War said in their August 1 report.
Belarusian dictator Alexander Lukashenko allegedly helped broker a deal for Wagner founder Yevgeny Prigozhin and his troops to relocate to Belarus after their armed "rebellion" in late June stopped short of reaching Moscow.
The Ukrainian authorities reported that as of July 22, about 5,000 Wagner mercenaries are in Belarus, but the border is secure and is being monitored for additional risks.
Ukraine's National Resistance Center stated on July 26 that the organization was recruiting fighters in Belarus, under the condition that the new recruits are ready "to participate in hostilities in Poland and Lithuania.
On July 29, Polish Prime Minister Mateusz Morawiecki said that more than 100 mercenaries were deployed to the Grodno area in Belarusnear the Suwalki Gap, an area southwest of the Lithuania-Poland border, between Belarus and the Russian exclave of Kaliningrad.
He stated that the fighters could infiltrate Poland from Belarus in a "hybrid attack."
Poland had announced on July 18 that Poland's border with Belarus will be reinforced with two additional military brigades due to the Wagner Group's presence.
In March, the Lithuanian parliament officially recognized the Wagner as a terrorist organization. The resolution stated that their members pose a threat to the security of the Lithuanian state and society.
The Wagner Group claimed on July 30 that it had "indefinitely" suspended recruitment of new members as it possesses sufficiently "large personnel reserves."
However, it did not mention whether this decision extends to recruiting new members in Belarus where a significant number of the contractors are based at the moment.
Anastasiia Lapatina
