In an interview with French broadcaster TF1 on May 13, Macron discussed new Russia sanctions and stationing French nuclear weapons in other European countries as a deterrent against Russia.
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.
The Telegram messaging app on an App Store page on a mobile phone on Aug. 29, 2024. (Betty Laura Zapata/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
The Telegram messenger app is "harmful" and a "threat to our national security," Ukraine's military intelligence chief, Kyrylo Budanov, said in an interview published on Sept. 7.
Budanov made the comments weeks after the arrest of Russian-born Telegram CEO Pavel Durov in France.
A French court has charged Durov has with several crimes, including the management of an online platform that allows for illegal transactions, child pornography, drug trafficking, and fraud.
Speaking to Radio Khartiya, Budanov said he has "never been afraid to say" that Telegram represents a threat to Ukraine's national security.
"Telegram is harmful," Budanov said, adding that blocking Telegram would be feasible.
Budanov said that he was not in favor of blocking Telegram in the same way that Ukraine blocked Russian social media VKontakte in May 2017, but that Telegram channel owners should not be anonymous.
Channel owners should be required to register their identity "so that everyone understands that this is a channel of a citizen of the Russian Federation or a citizen of Ukraine," he said.
Telegram remains one of the most popular social media platforms among Ukrainians. A September 2023 poll by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology indicated that 44% of Ukrainians use Telegram to receive information and news.
Telegram is also widely used by Ukrainian officials and various government institutions against the advice of Ukraine's TV and radio-broadcasting body.
Pavel Durov, who has an estimated net worth of $15.5 billion, left Russia in 2014 after refusing to comply with government demands to shut down opposition communities on the Russian social media platform VK, which he subsequently sold.
Durov has claimed he is a pariah and has been effectively exiled from Russia, but has in fact visited Russia over 60 times since leaving the country, according to Kremlingram, a Ukrainian group that campaigns against the use of Telegram in Ukraine.
Elsa Court is the audience development manager at the Kyiv Independence. She previously worked as a news editor at the Kyiv Independent and was previously an intern at the Kyiv Post. She has a Master’s in Conflict Studies and Human Rights from Utrecht University. Elsa is originally from the UK.
Yaroslav Azhnyuk
