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.
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg holds a press conference at NATO headquarters on Feb. 14, 2024 in Brussels, Belgium. (Omar Havana / Getty Images)
NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said on Feb. 14 that he expected 18 of the 31 NATO members to meet the goal of spending at least 2% of their GDP on defense in 2024, an increase of seven countries from the previous year.
NATO allies reached an agreement following Russia's illegal annexation of Crimea in 2014 to halt the reduction in defense spending implemented after the Cold War, and aim to allocate at least 2% of their respective GDPs to defense by 2024.
The need to increase defense spending was reignited after the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. In a first since the end of the Cold War, Germany is expected to reach the 2% goal, a spokesperson for Germany's Defense Ministry said on Feb. 14.
Speaking at a press conference in Brussels ahead of a meeting of NATO defense ministers, Stoltenberg said that European countries in NATO would invest a combined total of $380 billion in defense spending in 2024.
Stoltenberg's comments came days after former U.S. President Donald Trump said he would encourage Russia to do "whatever the hell they want" to NATO member countries failing to meet the defense spending goal if he were again elected president.
Trump's suggestion was widely condemned on both sides of the Atlantic.
"We should not leave (any) room of miscalculation or misunderstanding in Moscow about our readiness, our commitment and our resolve to protect all allies," Stoltenberg said at the press conference on Feb. 12.
"The reason to do so is not to provoke a conflict but to prevent a conflict as NATO has done successfully for the 65 years," he added.
Nate Ostiller is a former News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. He works on special projects as a researcher and writer for The Red Line Podcast, covering Eastern Europe and Eurasia, and focused primarily on digital misinformation, memory politics, and ethnic conflict. Nate has a Master’s degree in Russian and Eurasian Studies from the University of Glasgow, and spent two years studying abroad at Kyiv-Mohyla Academy in Ukraine. Originally from the USA, he is currently based in Tbilisi, Georgia.
Olena Goncharova
