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 captive named Umit allegedly agreed to serve in the Russian army in exchange for Russian citizenship and a monetary reward of 2 million rubles ($25,000).
Hundreds of trucks wait in line as an ongoing blockade by Polish farmers continues on the Dorohusk Polish-Ukrainian border crossing on Feb. 20, 2024, in Dorohusk, Poland. (Omar Marques/Getty Images)
Taras Kachka, Ukraine's deputy economy minister who takes part in talks with Poland on the border blockade and trade disputes, said on Feb. 28 that the border's closure was not mentioned during the talks.
Kachka was reacting to an earlier statement by Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk, as cited by Polish media, that Warsaw leads talks with Kyiv on the possibility of temporarily closing the border for trade of goods.
"We are also talking to the Ukrainian side about temporarily closing the border and exchanging goods. I will also talk about this tomorrow with Polish farmers," the Polish prime minister reportedly said.
Tusk commented that while he is ready to make hard decisions regarding the border, a long-term solution must be found. He also said that all steps will be taken in consultations with Ukraine to avoid unnecessary tensions.
"During all four hours of negotiations, the option of closing the border was not mentioned," Kachka, who also serves as Ukraine's trade representative, wrote on Facebook.
"As Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said quite clearly – it would be a very painful decision for our economies."
Ukraine's Infrastructure Minister Oleksandr Kubrakov also denied any talks on temporarily shutting down the border.
"No one from the Ukrainian side is conducting negotiations on closing the borders with Poland. For us, a stably functioning border is a matter of survival in a war with the Russian aggressor," Kubrakov said in a statement shared on the Infrastructure Ministry's Telegram channel.
According to Kachka, the negotiating teams were "able to find a common language and are working on a constructive solution to unblock the border while taking into account the interests of Polish and Ukrainian farmers. It is not easy, but it is possible."
The Ukrainian official said that the negotiations were led on the Polish side by Agriculture Minister Czeslaw Siekierski and Economic Development and Technology Minister Krzysztof Hetman.
The statements come amid escalating tensions between the two countries. Polish farmers have been holding protests across Poland and at the border with Ukraine in opposition to Ukrainian agricultural imports and the EU's Green Deal.
The Polish government has repeatedly said it understands the concerns of its agricultural producers and pointed out the supposed negative impacts of the EU's decision to continue a free trade regime with Ukraine, originally instituted in 2022.
According to Warsaw, the influx of cheaper Ukrainian products threatens the domestic production and livelihoods of Polish farmers, which Kyiv denies. Poland has already instituted a ban on several Ukrainian products, such as grain.
Martin Fornusek is a news editor at the Kyiv Independent. He has previously worked as a news content editor at the media company Newsmatics and is a contributor to Euromaidan Press. He was also volunteering as an editor and translator at the Czech-language version of Ukraïner. Martin studied at Masaryk University in Brno, Czechia, holding a bachelor's degree in security studies and history and a master's degree in conflict and democracy studies.
Martin Fornusek
