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).
A supporter of former US President and Republican presidential candidate Donald Trump holds up a US national flag during a campaign rally in the South Bronx in New York City, United States on May 23, 2024. (Jim Watson / AFP via Getty Images)
Top intelligence officials revealed on July 29 that the Kremlin is using unsuspecting Americans and commercial public relations firms in Russia to spread disinformation about the U.S. presidential race.
The warning follows a turbulent period in U.S. politics, prompting Russia, Iran, and China to adjust their propaganda strategies. Despite these changes, intelligence officials emphasize that these nations remain committed to flooding the internet with false and inflammatory claims about American democracy to erode confidence in the election.
"The American public should be aware that content they encounter online — particularly on social media — could be foreign propaganda, even if it seems to originate from fellow Americans or within the United States," said an official from the Office of the Director of National Intelligence, who spoke to the Associated Press anonymously under the office's guidelines.
Authorities say that Russia remains the most significant threat in terms of election disinformation, while there are signs that Iran is increasing its activities and China is taking a cautious approach regarding the 2024 election.
During the briefing with reporters, officials noted that groups associated with the Kremlin are increasingly employing marketing and communications firms within Russia to produce digital propaganda while concealing their involvement. In March, two such firms were targeted by new U.S. sanctions for creating fake websites and social media profiles to disseminate Kremlin disinformation.
This disinformation targets various subjects, including candidates, voting processes, and contentious issues already under debate in the U.S., such as immigration, crime, or the war in Gaza.
Officials monitoring foreign disinformation report that they have issued twice as many warnings to political candidates, government leaders, election offices, and other targets of foreign groups during the 2024 election cycle compared to the 2022 cycle.
While officials did not disclose the number of warnings issued or the identities of the recipients, they noted that the significant increase indicates both a heightened interest in the presidential race by America's adversaries and improved government efforts to identify and alert against such threats.
Olena Goncharova is the Head of North America desk at The Kyiv Independent, where she has previously worked as a development manager and Canadian correspondent. She first joined the Kyiv Post, Ukraine's oldest English-language newspaper, as a staff writer in January 2012 and became the newspaper’s Canadian correspondent in June 2018. She is based in Edmonton, Alberta. Olena has a master’s degree in publishing and editing from the Institute of Journalism in Taras Shevchenko National University in Kyiv. Olena was a 2016 Alfred Friendly Press Partners fellow who worked for the Pittsburgh Post-Gazette for six months. The program is administered by the University of Missouri School of Journalism in Columbia.
Martin Fornusek
