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.
Russian personnel wield guns in Sevastopol's Nakhimova Square in Russian-occupied Crimea on March 19, 2023. Photo for illustrative purposes only. (Vladimir Aleksandrov/Anadolu Agency via Getty Images)
Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed on Dec. 11 that it had uncovered a "network of Ukrainian intelligence services" in Crimea and had detained 18 "Ukrainian agents" on the occupied peninsula over the past year.
Although the Kyiv Independent cannot verify the FSB's claims, Ukrainian intelligence has reported on active anti-Russian resistance in Crimea, which has been under Moscow's occupation since 2014.
The activities of the alleged network were coordinated by Ukraine's military intelligence agency (HUR) and the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) under the guidance of "Western handlers," the FSB claimed.
The FSB alleged that "agents and accomplices of Ukrainian intelligence services" were tasked to carry out sabotage activities, and planned attacks against high-profile representatives of Russian occupation authorities, such as the Russia-installed Crimea head, Sergey Aksyonov.
Other supposed targets were said to include Crimea's Kremlin-controlled parliament chair, Vladimir Konstantinov, the Russia-installed head of Yalta, Yanina Pavlenko, a pro-Russian military blogger Alexander Talipov, and pro-Russian politician Oleg Tsaryov.
Tsaryov was reportedly shot and injured in late October. Ukrainian media wrote that the SBU was responsible for the shooting, citing sources in the security service.
The FSB also claimed that two attempts on Aksyonov's life had been made this year, one in May and another in July.
The detainees were accused of involvement in five sabotage operations against railway lines in the Simferopol, Kirovske, and Feodosia districts, bombings of gas pipelines in Simferopol and the village of Koreiz, and car bombings against Russian occupation authorities in Zaporizhzhia Oblast.
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.
Oleg Sukhov
