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.
A mass burial site was found on the outskirt of the Ukrainian city of Izium in Kharkiv Oblast, which was liberated from Russian forces in September, 2022. (Ashley Chan/SOPA Images/LightRocket via Getty Images)
The Trump administration fired a coordinator responsible for collecting data on war crimes committed by Russia during its full-scale war against Ukraine, the Washington Post (WP) reported on April 22, citing its undisclosed sources.
The news comes as the U.S. is trying to get Russia and Ukraine to sign a deal to end the all-out war while steadily scaling down its support of Kyiv.
The White House also disbanded the Justice Department's War Crimes Accountability Team, headed by a coordinator, and dismantled a program to seize assets of sanctioned Russian oligarchs, the WP reported.
The Russian war crimes coordinator position was created in accordance with a law co-authored by then-Congressman Mike Waltz, the current national security advisor to U.S. President Donald Trump.
Democratic Congressman Jason Crow, another co-author, told the Washington Post that if Trump and Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard "want to achieve lasting peace, they must be willing to hold (Russian President Vladimir) Putin accountable for the crimes he's committed in Ukraine."
In mid-March, Washington exited from the International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA).
The ICPA, which the U.S. joined in 2023, was established to collect evidence for the special tribunal for Russia that aims to bring the Russian government to justice for the crime of aggression against Ukraine, as well as to strip Putin and his associates of their immunity.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Asami Terajima
