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 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).
A screenshot from the Russia 1 segment showing explicit photos of Melania Trump (X/Julia Davis)
The Kremlin-controlled state media channel Russia 1 ran explicit photos of Melania Trump during a segment last week in the wake of her husband's U.S. election victory.
The sequence, which highlighted several pictures from her modeling career, was shown during the prime-time show "60 Minutes," hosted by propagandists Olga Skabeeva and Yevgeny Popov.
"Here is how Melania looked in the year 2000. This is the cover of the magazine GQ," Popov says.
"In one of the shots, the model is only wearing her underwear, lying on a blue carpet with the United States seal, as though the editors of the men's magazine knew something in advance about the future of their model," he added with a smirk.
Beside him, Skabeeva can be seen visibly trying to suppress laughter.
Melania Trump, originally from Slovenia, was a professional model when they first met in 1998.
It's not immediately clear why the government-controlled TV and its prime-time news program chose this particular angle. Since Russian President Vladimir Putin suppressed freedom of speech in the country in the early 2000s and placed a tight grip on all mainstream TV networks, with little has been allowed to be aired in Russia without the government's permission.
Trump won the presidential vote on Nov. 6, defeating his Democratic opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris.
The election is expected to have a profound impact on Russia's war in Ukraine, as some worry Trump might seek to cut a deal with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the cost of painful concessions by Kyiv.
Putin congratulated Trump on his victory in the U.S. presidential election, saying he was ready "to have discussions" with Trump during the Valdai forum in Sochi on Nov. 7.
But earlier this week, the Kremlin denied that a widely reported phone conversation took place between the two during which Trump reportedly warned Putin "not to escalate" the war in Ukraine.
Boldizsar is a former Reuters correspondent for Hungary, currently based in Kharkiv, reporting for the Kyiv Independent and various other outlets. He holds degrees in political science, philosophy, and development policy.
Andrea Januta
