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.
Neighbors sign to collect materials to rebuild their houses that were attacked at dawn by the invading Russian troops with an S-300 missile in a central neighborhood on Kostyantynivka, Donetsk Oblast, on July 22, 2023. (Jose Colon/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
In Ukraine’s front-line and liberated regions, 57% of residents would like to see more news about the progress of the war with Russia, a poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) found.
About a third of respondents said they lack information on state support programs, services available in the community, and reconstruction plans.
KIIS interviewed 1,000 adults in the Ukraine-controlled parts of front-line and border oblasts on Aug. 7-12 to discover their media consumption patterns. Those regions are Donetsk, Luhansk, Dnipropetrovsk, Zaporizhzhia, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, Kharkiv, Kherson and Chernihiv.
As for trust in news sources, Telegram channels lead the race, with 51% of respondents expressing confidence in them. Telegram channels are followed by international media (47%), Ukrainian online media (45%), the national TV marathon (44%) and radio (37%).
According to the survey results, 16% of Ukrainians in front-line and liberated areas receive news from Russian sources weekly or daily.
Among primary motivations for this, the respondents named the need to compare information between Ukrainian and Russian sources (17%), interest in how Russia presents news (14%), pro-Russian sentiments (11%), and the desire to be informed about events in Russia due to their importance for Ukraine (11%).
Dinara Khalilova is a reporter at the Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a news editor. In the early weeks of Russia’s full-scale invasion, she worked as a fixer and local producer for Sky News’ team in Ukraine. Dinara holds a BA in journalism from Taras Shevchenko National University of Kyiv and a Master’s degree in media and communication from the U.K.’s Bournemouth University.
Dinara Khalilova
