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.
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.
An elderly resident is evacuated from the flooded area by policemen on a stretcher in Kherson on June 7, 2023. (Francis Farrell/The Kyiv Independent)
The main part of the evacuation efforts in flood-affected Kherson Oblast has finished, Ukrinfrom reportedcitingthe spokesperson of the State Emergency Service, Oleksandr Khorunzhyi, on June 20.
People have begun gradually returning to their homes, Khorunzhyi added.
The collapse of the Kakhovka dam on June 6 triggered a large-scale humanitarian and environmental disaster, including massive floods in Kherson Oblast. Ukraine's military said that Russian forces destroyed the dam to hinder Ukraine's counteroffensive.
In the past few days, the water has been receding from the flooded areas. As of June 20, four settlements and 818 houses remain flooded on the Ukrainian-controlled western bank of the Dnipro River, and 17 settlements on the Russia-occupied eastern bank.
Some 3,773 people and 284 animals have been evacuated from the affected areas by June 19. At least 17 people have died in the floods.
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
