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.
Lithuanian border guard officers patrol along the Belarus–Lithuania border on July 10, 2023 in Dieveniskes, Lithuania. (Photo credit: Omar Marques/Getty Images)
Russian Lieutenant Ivan Korolev illegally crossed the Lithuanian border and asked the country's authorities for political asylum, the BBC reported on Aug. 11.
After entering Lithuania, Korolev managed to reach the country's capital Vilnius only to be detained by Lithuanian border guards on Aug. 10 and sent to a border checkpoint, where he managed to contact a BBC correspondent.
"On August 3, I decided to leave the Russian Federation due to the fact that I did not want to take part in the bloody war that my state unleashed," Korolev told the BBC.
"At the moment I am in the Republic of Lithuania, where I asked for political asylum."
The officer claimed that while he took part in Russia's aggression against Ukraine, he has never been deployed outside of Russia. His position as the "deputy head of the warehouse of the accounting and operational department of the field artillery warehouse" entailed supplying the troops fighting in Ukraine with ammunition, Korolev said.
The BBC noted that Korolev's claims have not been currently verified. The unit to which he is assigned is under normal circumstances stationed in the village of Teysin in Khabarovsk Krai, the news outlet added.
The artillery officer's application was taken into consideration by the Lithuanian authorities, after which he was taken to a migration center in the town of Pabrade not far from the Belarusian border.
A number of Russian officers have fled Russia to seek asylum in European countries because of the ongoing invasion of 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.
Daria Shulzhenko
