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.
The alleged aftermath of a drone crash in Belgorod, Russia, on June 9, 2023. (Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov/Telegram)
The Russian Defense Ministry reported on their Telegram channel that it had intercepted a drone attack overnight on Aug. 13.
Russia's air defense reportedly shot down the drone over the territory of Belgorod Oblast around 4 a.m. local time. There were no casualties or damage at the time of the publication.
While Russia blames the Ukrainian military for the strikes, Ukraine has not claimed responsibility for the attacks.
Russian state media also claimed on Aug. 12 that 20 Ukrainian drones had been shot down overnight in occupied Crimea. Fourteen drones were destroyed by air defense, according to the Russian Defense Ministry. Six others were "suppressed by means of electronic warfare."
Russia’s Belgorod Oblast borders Ukraine’s Luhansk, Sumy and Kharkiv regions. The region has seen periodic shelling and cross-border rocket attacks since spring 2022.
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.
Anastasiia Lapatina
