Russia seems to be preparing a significant offensive in Ukraine as it is moving troops toward key positions on the front, the Financial Times reported on May 13, citing undisclosed Ukrainian intelligence officials.
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.
The car of Nikopol's deputy mayor who was killed on Feb. 8, 2024, by unknown perpetrators. (Prosecutor General's Office/Telegram)
A deputy mayor of Nikopol in Dnipropetrovsk Oblast was shot to death in his car on Feb. 8 by unknown perpetrators, the Prosecutor General's Office reported.
Even though Nikopol regularly suffers from Russian attacks, often inflicting civilian casualties, the prosecutors did not link the killing to Russian forces.
According to the investigation, unknown people opened fire against the deputy mayor's car in the street, killing the man on the spot. The attack also set the vehicle on fire, which was later extinguished by first responders, the police said.
The Prosecutor General's Office began investigating the case as murder.
"Currently, urgent investigation is underway to identify the persons involved in the crime," the prosecutors said.
According to the police, the incident was reported at 9 a.m. local time. The police report spoke only of one unnamed perpetrator.
The Ukrainian outlet New Voice said that the victim was Vitalii Zhuravlov, a member of Yuliia Tymoshenko's Batkivshchyna (Fatherland) party, who became Nikopol's deputy mayor in September 2021.
Nikopol, a city of around 100,000 people, lies at the mostly dried-up Kakhovka reservoir, just across from Russian troops occupying the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant and the city of Enerhodar.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Daria Shulzhenko
