In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on May 13, Macron discussed new Russia sanctions and stationing French nuclear weapons in other European countries as a deterrent against Russia.
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.
Russia has transferred around 50,000 soldiers from other sectors of the front to Kursk Oblast, Ukraine's Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi said on Oct. 10, more than two months after the start of Kyiv's incursion.
"We know about roughly 50,000 soldiers from other sectors who were transferred to the Kursk direction," Syrskyi said in a documentary aired on national television.
Ukraine launched the offensive into Kursk Oblast in early August, claiming to have seized up to 1,300 square kilometers (500 square miles) and 100 settlements.
The Ukrainian leadership said that one of the key goals of the operation was to divert Russian forces from Ukrainian battlefields. Syrskyi's figure is an increase from President Volodymyr Zelensky's estimation from Sept. 19, when he said that 40,000 troops had been diverted to the Kursk sector.
According to Syrskyi, the redeployment weakened Russian positions in other areas, namely in the Zaporizhzhia, Kherson, and Kramatorsk sectors.
"This, of course, made it easier for us to conduct defensive operations," he noted.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify the claims.
Even though Ukrainian forces continue to hold Russian territory in Kursk Oblast, the Russian offensive keeps grinding on in Ukraine's east. The Ukrainian military was recently forced to withdraw from Vuhledar, a town in the south of Donetsk Oblast that has withstood Russian attacks for two years.
Heavy battles are also ongoing in Chasiv Yar and Toretsk in Donetsk Oblast, and Russian troops are closing in on a key logistics hub in Pokrovsk.
In the meantime, Russia seeks to dislodge Ukrainian troops from its home turf in Kursk Oblast, attacking Ukraine's salient from the west.
While Kyiv's forces managed to halt a Russian counterattack in mid-September, the DeepState monitoring site said on Oct. 10 that Russian forces recently achieved tactical success on Ukraine's left flank. Russia has allegedly concentrated a considerable force in the area and is trying to get a foothold near the village of Novoivanovka.
Senior U.S. officials told Bloomberg that Ukrainian forces should be able to hold seized territory in Russia's Kursk Oblast for several months or longer thanks to a steady flow of supplies and Moscow's focus on eastern 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.
James Beardsworth
