Brazilian President Lula da Silva claimed that Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha had appealed to his Brazilian counterpart, Mauro Vieira, to ask Putin if he was willing to conclude a peace agreement.
Earlier reporting from the Washington Post cited a former Russian official who claimed Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov and Putin’s foreign policy aide, Yuri Ushakov, would represent Moscow in the talks.
The Council of Europe on May 14 approved the creation of a special tribunal to prosecute Russia's top leadership for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, Ukrainian lawmaker Maria Mezentseva reported.
Viktoria Roshchyna, 27, disappeared in August 2023 while reporting from Ukraine's Russian-occupied territories. Moscow admitted she was in Russian detention the following year.
Dutch Justice Minister David van Weel speaks about the future of the EU-led special tribunal for the crime of aggression against Ukraine and its role in bringing Russia to justice.
Turkish officials told Bloomberg that while they don't expect Trump to visit Istanbul, they are not ruling it out, and preparations for any scenario are underway.
Melkonyants was arrested in August 2023 in connection with the activities of the European Network of Election Monitoring Organizations (ENEMO), which was co-founded by Golos's legal predecessor, the Golos association.
Ukraine's underground storage facilities are currently using 19.4% of their capacity. Almost 32%, or 2.79 bcm, less gas is available in the storages than in the previous year, according to the estimates.
The majority of Ukrainians, 71%, do not support holding elections before a full peace deal, even in the case of a ceasefire and security guarantees, according to a poll published by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology (KIIS) on May 14.
"He'd like me to be there, and that's a possibility. ... I don't know that he would be there if I'm not there. We're going to find out," U.S. President Donald Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One while traveling to Qatar, Reuters reported.
Trump has long demanded that NATO allies increase their military spending, previously calling for the alliance to raise its benchmark from 2% to 5% of GDP.
Garry Kasparov in New York City on May 14, 2023. (Photo by Jason Mendez/Getty Images)
The Syktyvkar city court in Russia issued arrests in absentia to world chess champion and Free Russia Forum co-founder Garry Kasparov, along with several other activists, on charges of creating a "terrorist community," financing "terrorist activities," and publicly calling for terrorism.
Activist Yevgeniya Chirikova, former executive director of the Russian solidarity movement Ivan Tyutrin, and former State Duma deputy Gennady Gudkov were also issued arrests. Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty reported that a criminal case was initiated based on the materials of Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) in the Republic of Komi.
The details of the case are not yet available.
Garry Kasparov is the 13th world chess champion and chairman of the Human Rights Foundation. He fled Russia in 2013 and currently lives in New York City. Kasparov co-founded the Free Russia Forum with activist Ivan Tyutrin back in 2016. The Forum positions itself as an intellectual alternative to the current political regime in Russia.
Earlier this year, Kasparov was added to a list of "terrorists and extremists" by Russia's financial intelligence wing, Rosfinmonitoring. His name was reportedly listed with an asterisk, indicating that a criminal case was initiated against him under "terrorist" charges. Tyutrin, Chirikova, and Gudkov had been listed prior to Kasporov's addition.
Russian courts often use charges of "extremism" to crack down on political opposition figures in the country.
Rachel Amran is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked on the Europe and Central Asia team of Human Rights Watch investigating war crimes in Ukraine. Rachel holds a master's degree in Russian, Eastern European, and Eurasian Regional Studies from Columbia University.
Andreas Umland
