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.
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.
The Kharkiv city center on Feb. 21, 2022, three days before the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion. (Sergey Bobok/AFP via Getty Images)
Russian troops attacked the city of Kharkiv on June 26 with a FAB-500 bomb equipped with a gliding kit for the first time since the beginning of the full-scale war, said Oleksandr Filchakov, head of the regional prosecutor's office.
At least four people were injured and two more suffered from shock, Kharkiv Oblast Governor Oleh Syniehubov reported.
Moscow's troops launched the bomb on the Kyivskyi district of Kharkiv from above the village of Maysky in Russia's Belgorod Oblast, Filchakov said.
The FAB-500 is a Soviet-designed 500-kilogram (1,100 lb) general purpose air-dropped bomb with a high-explosive warhead.
These cheap and plentiful bombs are equipped with gliding kits, improving their precision, but more importantly, allowing them to be dropped from much further away, outside the reach of Ukrainian front-line air defense systems.
Russian forces have used glide bombs at an increasing intensity in attacks on border and front-line settlements, including in Kharkiv and Donetsk oblasts.
The strike on Kharkiv damaged houses, a higher education institution and the State Emergency Service premise, according to the prosecutors.
Moscow has intensified attacks against Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, as well as Kharkiv Oblast, with the use of missiles, glide bombs, and drones, destroying energy infrastructure and killing civilians.
A Russian attack on a residential building and an enterprise in Kharkiv on June 22 killed three people and injured over 50, according to the local authorities.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Dinara Khalilova
