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.
A sign for Kursk Oblast, which borders Ukraine. (Olga Maltseva/AFP via Getty Images)
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed that Ukrainian soldiers broke into the territory of Russia's Kursk region on Aug. 6.
The statement came after Russian pro-war Telegram channels wrote that a sabotage and reconnaissance group with heavy equipment had entered the Kursk region in the morning.
Kursk region lies on the border with Ukraine's Sumy Oblast, which has been experiencing daily Russian attacks since the liberation of its parts in April 2022.
Russia's Defense Ministry claimed around 5 p.m. local time that up to 300 soldiers of Ukraine's 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade, equipped with tanks and armored vehicles, had allegedly attacked Russian units near the border settlements of Nikolaevo-Darino and Oleshnya in the Kursk region.
According to the Russian ministry, the clashes are ongoing, and "reserves of the Russian group of troops are heading to the Kursk direction."
Ukraine's 22nd Separate Mechanized Brigade has not commented on these claims, which cannot be independently verified.
Earlier in the day, Aleksey Smirnov, the governor of Russia's Kursk Oblast, claimed that Russian border guards "prevented a border breakthrough" in the Sudzhansky and Korenevsky districts.
Andrii Kovalenko, the head of an anti-disinformation department at the National Security and Defense Council, said that Russia "doesn't control the border."
"Russian military commanders lie about controlling the situation in Kursk Oblast," he wrote in the Telegram post.
In the meantime, multiple explosions were reported in the city of Sumy and the surrounding region on Aug. 6, amid intensified Russian missile and glide bomb attacks on the region throughout the day.
Russian troops attacked infrastructure near Sumy, the local authorities said. No casualties were reported.
In March, three anti-Kremlin Russian armed groups units launched incursions into Belgorod and Kursk oblasts from Ukraine, allegedly resulting in clashes with Russian forces in several settlements. The incursions were immediately followed by relentless Russian attacks on the regional capital of Sumy and the region.
Andrii Yusov, a spokesperson of Ukraine's military intelligence, confirmed to the Kyiv Independent at the time that anti-Kremlin militias' raids made Moscow "change plans" on a possible new attack in Ukraine's northern sector.
When asked by the Kyiv Independent about Russian claims on Aug. 6, the Freedom of Russia Legion, which was involved in two raids before, and the General Staff of Ukraine's Armed Forces refused to comment.
Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) and the Armed Forces of Ukraine refused to comment on the matter.
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.
Kateryna Hodunova
