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.
Photo for illustrative purposes. A banner bearing the letter Z, a tactical insignia of Russian troops in Ukraine, on a building in Tula Oblast in March 2023. (Photo by Natalia Kolesnikova/AFP via Getty Images)
Editor's Note: The story was updated with information about an attack on an oil depot in Russia's Kaluga Oblast, reported by Ukraine's General Staff.
Ukrainian forces attacked oil depots in Russia's Tula and Kaluga oblasts overnight on Jan. 18, according to the General Staff and the Kyiv Independent's source in Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR).
The attack came amid an uptick in Ukraine’s drone attacks on Russia, as Kyiv aims at damaging Russia's oil industry, which is crucial for sustaining Moscow's war effort, as well as its military hardware.
The drones operated by Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) hit the oil depot in Tula Oblast at least 10 times in this attack, a HUR source claimed.
Tula Oblast, located south of Moscow, has regularly come under attack by Ukrainian drones.
Tula Oblast Governor Dmitry Milyaev said that a fuel storage tank caught fire at "one of the enterprises in the region." No casualties were reported.
Videosposted on social media and shared by residents appear to show a large fire at an oil depot in the town of Uzlovaya in the region.
Ukrainian soldiers also hit an oil depot in the Russian town of Lyudinovo in Kaluga Oblast overnight, causing a fire, Ukraine's General Staff reported.
Lyudinovo lies around 200 kilometers (124 miles) north of the Ukrainian border.
The oil depot is owned by Kaluganefteprodukt, a subsidiary of Russia's state-controlled oil company Rosneft, according to the statement.
"(This is) a logistics center that supplies units of the Russian armed forces directly involved in the war against Ukraine," the military said.
The Kyiv Independent could not verify these claims.
Kateryna Denisova works as a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a news editor at the NV media outlet for four years, covering mainly Ukrainian and international politics. Kateryna holds a bachelor’s degree in journalism from Taras Shevchenko University of Kyiv. She also was a fellow at journalism schools in the Czech Republic and Germany.
Kateryna Denisova
