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.
Members of the Black Tulip organization work to identify Russian soldiers whose remains were found near Bakhmut, in Donetsk Oblast, Ukraine on June 29, 2024. (Pablo Miranzo/Anadolu via Getty Images)
The Russian Emergency Ministry on Nov. 2 published an updated manual on how to dig mass graves during wartime.
The manual contains instructions and illustrations on how to dig graves up to the size of 100 corpses. Such a grave must be 20 meters long, three meters wide, and 2.3 meters high and requires 368.5 man-hours, the document says.
The textbook also specifies circumstances under which it is allowed to cremate the dead and how to minimize chemical, biological, or radiological contamination.
The first version of the manual was published in 2021, one year before Russia launched its full-scale war. It contained instructions on how to dispose of a large number of dead in case of an attack.
Russia's heavy losses in Ukraine have been connected to its "mass wave" infantry tactics, which overwhelm Ukrainian defenders at the cost of thousands of killed and wounded.
To offset the casualties without instituting a full draft, Moscow has been offering higher financial rewards for military service and enlisted migrant workers and residents of poorer regions.
Most recently, Russia's ally North Korea has dispatched around 10,000-12,000 troops in support of its war against Ukraine.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Francis Farrell
