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).
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.
The aftermath of a Russian attack on Kharkiv overnight on May 21, 2024. (Syniehubov/Telegram)
Editor's note: The information about victims was changed at 8:54 a.m. Kyiv time on May 21 after local authorities published an update, saying that seven people suffered from shock and there were no injured in an attack.
Russia struck Ukraine's second-largest city of Kharkiv with drones overnight on May 21, causing fire, Governor Oleh Syniehubov said.
A total of five people, including a 61-year-old man and two women aged 69 and 72, reportedly suffered from shock.
Drone debris damaged four houses, 25 trucks, and three cars, the governor said.
Later on in the morning, two people suffered from shock after a missile struck the transportation infrastructure in the city, according to Syniehubov.
Emergency workers have been dispatched to the sites of attacks.
Over 10,500 civilians in Kharkiv Oblast had been evacuated from their homes amid heavy fighting in the region, according to Governor Oleh Syniehubov.
Russia launched a new offensive on May 10 in northern Kharkiv Oblast. According to President Volodymyr Zelensky, Moscow's forces had managed to advance as far as 10 kilometers (6 miles) in the region but had been halted by the first line of defense.
Russia's offensive in Kharkiv Oblast in mid-May could be the first of several waves, and Russian forces may target the regional capital, Kharkiv, Zelensky said in an interview with AFP on May 17.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
The Kyiv Independent news desk
