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.
A sitting of the Verkhovna Rada, Ukraine's parliament, livestreamed from the session hall in the media room in Kyiv, Ukraine on June 5, 2024. (Eugen Kotenko / Ukrinform/Future Publishing via Getty Images)
The Ukrainian parliament supported Budget Code amendments to implement the minerals agreement with the U.S. in the first reading, lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on May 13.
This marks another step toward enacting the wide-ranging and long-contested economic agreement between Ukraine and the U.S.
The minerals deal, signed on April 30 and ratified by Ukraine on May 8, establishes a Reconstruction Investment Fund jointly managed by Kyiv and Washington and gives the U.S. special access to projects developing Ukraine's vast deposits of critical minerals, including lithium, titanium, and rare earth elements.
"Amendments to the Budget Code are needed to implement the provisions on funding the U.S.-Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund," lawmaker Roksolana Pidlasa said.
Ukraine's contribution will consist of half of the funds received after the agreement enters into force and will be sourced from rents for resource extraction under new licenses and issuance of new permits, the lawmaker added.
The changes were supported by 286 lawmakers, Zhelezniak said, adding that the deadline for submitting additional amendments was cut short. Ukrainian legislation has to pass two readings in the parliament and receive presidential signature before entering into force.
A map showing the location of critical raw materials in Ukraine. (The Kyiv Independent)
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.
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