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 United Kingdom is to provide Ukraine with a 1.7 billion pounds loan to help Ukraine build up its maritime power. (Ukraine's navy)
Ukraine's parliament, the Verkhovna Rada, has ratified a deal to get a loan worth $2.3 billion (1.7 billion pounds) from the United Kingdom and procure warships and key naval infrastructure.
The bill was supported by 236 lawmakers in the final voting on Jan. 27.
The deal particularly envisages financing a British investment project to provide Ukraine with two minesweeping vessels, as well as to ensure their maintenance and transferring. Earlier, the Royal Navy declared providing Ukraine with two decommissioned Sandown-class ships, HMS Blyth and HMS Ramsey, with the first vessels expected to be handed over in 2022.
The 10-year loan also finances the production of eight new gunboats, two of them being manufactured in Britain and the rest in Ukraine.
Besides, the agreement envisages a joint production of a frigate for Ukraine, as well as the support in installing new naval infrastructure.
It remains unclear whether the U.K. wants to manufacture a brand new Ukrainian frigate on its soil. According to numerous sources, it may invest in the production of half-constructed corvette Volodymyr Velykiy, a project that hasn't been completed in more than a decade due to poor financing.
The funding comes primarily from the U.K. Export Finance program, as well as various bank loans, according to Ukraine's military.
Illia Ponomarenko was a defense and security reporter at the Kyiv Independent in 2021-2023. He has reported about the war in eastern Ukraine since the conflict’s earliest days. He covers national security issues, as well as military technologies, production, and defense reforms in Ukraine. Besides, he gets deployed to the war zone of Donbas with Ukrainian combat formations. He has also had deployments to Palestine and the Democratic Republic of the Congo as an embedded reporter with UN peacekeeping forces. Illia won the Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellowship and was selected to work as USA Today's guest reporter at the U.S. Department of Defense.
