Performing their song "Bird of Pray," Ukrainian band Ziferblat passed the Eurovision semi-finals on May 13, qualifying Ukraine for Saturday's grand final.
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.
Mikhail Fridman attends the plenary session of the Congress of Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP) on the sidelines of Russian Business Week in Moscow in March 2017. (Photo by Mikhail Svetlov/Getty Images)
The U.S. Treasury Department sanctioned on Aug. 11 four key figures associated with the Russian financial conglomerate Alfa Group, namely Mikhail Fridman, Petr Aven, German Khan, and Alexey Kuzmichev.
"Wealthy Russian elites should disabuse themselves of the notion that they can operate business as usual while the Kremlin wages war against the Ukrainian people," said Deputy Treasury Secretary Wally Adeyemo.
"Our international coalition will continue to hold accountable those enabling the unjustified and unprovoked invasion of Ukraine."
The four men in question serve on the supervisory board of the Alfa Group, which is one of the main financial and investment conglomerates in Russia. Among its subsidiaries is the largest commercial bank in the country Alfa-Bank.
The assets and properties of the sanctioned individuals in the U.S. are now blocked and any financial transactions with them are prohibited.
As the Treasury Department noted, the businessmen are already on the sanctions lists of Australia, Canada, the EU, New Zealand, and the U.K.
The latest sanctions package further includes the Russian Association of Employers and the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs (RSPP), an organization involved in the country's technology sector.
According to the statement, the RSPP "has also been involved in activities related to Russia's responses to sanctions imposed on Putin's regime since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine."
Russian Israeli businessman Mikhail Fridman, born in Ukraine's Lviv, was arrested in the U.K. in December 2022. He was released on bail on suspicion of fraud-related offenses.
Investigative reporters discovered in May that his company Alpha Insurance Firm insures the vehicles of Russian forces fighting in Ukraine.
The company is also reported to provide services to Russian President Vladimir Putin's Main Office of Special Programs, which guards him. Another company Fridman co-owns, X5 Retail Group, also cooperates with the Russian military through the group's grocery chains.
Ukraine decided in late July to nationalize Sense Bank, a rebranded Ukrainian branch of Fridman's Alfa-Bank. According to analysts from StateWatch, the oligarch continues to hold assets in several Ukrainian companies, including the mobile operator Kyivstar, and bottled water producers Morshinska and Myrhorodska.
The New York Times published an investigation on July 27 revealing that both Fridman and Aven enjoy a luxurious life in the U.K. thanks to numerous sanction exemptions.
Anna Myroniuk
