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.
Flowers and candles are left at a memorial on Feb. 16, 2024, in front of the Russian embassy in Berlin, after the announcement that the Kremlin's most prominent critic Alexei Navalny had died in an Arctic prison. (John Macdougall/AFP via Getty Images)
Negotiations were in progress for a prisoner exchange involving Russian opposition leader Alexei Navalny at the time of his death on Feb. 16, but no proposal had been presented to the Kremlin, two Western officials briefed on the discussions told Politico.
When asked if there were ongoing talks regarding a prisoner exchange involving Navalny prior to his death, one Western official said "no formal offer had been made, but early discussions to that effect were underway." The official further disclosed that the U.S. and Germany were engaged in conversations about potentially forming some kind of deal.
Navalny, Putin's main political opponent, died on Feb. 16 in a penal colony in the town of Kharp, Yamal Nenets Autonomous District. He had been convicted in several fabricated criminal cases as part of the Kremlin's crackdown on dissent.
Leaders around the world have blamed Russian President Vladimir Putin for his death. It remains unclear whether the harsh prison conditions caused his death or whether it was an intentional murder.
Another Western official corroborated that negotiations were ongoing, emphasizing that not even an informal offer had been conveyed to Moscow.
An associate of Navalny’s uploaded a video on YouTube on Feb. 26 alleging that discussions for a prisoner swap to secure Navalny's release had been underway for several months prior to his death. Maria Pevchikh additionally said that "by the spring of last year our plan was approved." Navalny was killed in prison to prevent his exchange with Vadim Krasikov, a convicted Russian hitman sentenced to life imprisonment in Germany, according to Pevchikh.
The officials who spoke to Politico declined to provide further details on the discussions, but noted there was no plan so far advanced as Pevchikh claimed.
Oleg Sukhov
