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.
President Volodymyr Zelensky would not meet any other Russian official apart from Russian President Vladimir Putin in Istanbul this week, presidential advisor Mykhailo Podolyak said on the Breakfast Show program on May 13.
U.S. and European officials held talks on May 12, during which Washington made it clear that it wanted to allow talks between Russia and Ukraine before increasing pressure on Vladimir Putin, sources told Bloomberg.
According to Steve Witkoff, the key topics in the peace discussions are the fate of the five partially or fully occupied Ukrainian regions, the status of the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant, and Ukraine's access to the Dnipro River and the Black Sea.
Employees work at a lithium-ion battery manufacturing plant on Feb. 27, 2021 in Huaibei, Anhui Province of China. (Li Xin/VCG via Getty Images)
By 2030, the European Union could become as dependent on lithium-ion batteries and fuel cells from China as it was on Russian energy supplies before the war against Ukraine, Reuters reported on Sept. 18, citing an obtained EU document.
Due to the irregular nature of renewable energy sources like solar or wind, Europe will need instruments to store energy to achieve its goal of zero carbon emissions by 2050, said the document prepared for EU leaders' meeting on economic security.
"This will skyrocket our demand for lithium-ion batteries, fuel cells and electrolysers, which is expected to multiply between 10 and 30 times in the coming years," the paper explained, as cited by Reuters.
"Without implementing strong measures, the European energy ecosystem could have a dependency on China by 2030 of a different nature, but with a similar severity, from the one it had on Russia before the invasion of Ukraine."
Although the EU holds more than 50% of the global market in the intermediate and assembly phases of producing electrolysers, the bloc relies massively on China for fuel cells and lithium-ion batteries critical for electric vehicles, Reuters wrote.
Since 2022, the EU has set the goal of weaning off itself from Russian gas supplies, as well as other fossil fuels. Using the dependency of European countries on Russian imports, Moscow has several times reduced or cut off the gas flow to undermine the EU's support for Ukraine.
However, despite being hooked on Russian gas for years, Europe reduced the pipeline gas imports and decreased the share of Russian gas in the EU's energy mix from 40% to 10% within a year.
Profits from fossil fuels have traditionally constituted a substantial segment of Russia's revenue, feeding the Kremlin's war effort against Ukraine.
Alexander Query
