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.
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.
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).
Russia's Buryatia Republic declared a state of emergency on May 13 over massive forest fires that have engulfed multiple regions in the Russian Far East.
Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko's statement came as Strong Shield 5 exercises involving military personnel from other NATO countries began in Lithuania.
"Amendments to the Budget Code are needed to implement the provisions on funding the U.S.-Ukrainian Reconstruction Investment Fund," lawmaker Roksolana Pidlasa said.
During reconnaissance in an unspecified front-line sector, Special Operations Forces' operators detected Buk-M3 and Uragan-1 on combat duty, the unit said.
The suspect quit his job at the Rivne NPP before the full-scale war began. In the spring of 2025, a GRU liaison contacted him and offered cooperation in exchange for money.
U.S. Vice President JD Vance speaks at the Rajasthan International Centre in Jaipur, India, on April 22, 2025. (Prakash Singh/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
U.S. Vice President JD Vance said on April 23 that the U.S. presented a "very explicit proposal" to Russia and Ukraine on a peace deal, repeating warnings Washington might drop its peace effort if the belligerent sides refuse.
Talking to journalists during a visit to India, Vance said that it is time for Kyiv and Moscow "to either say yes or for the United States to walk away from this process."
"We have engaged in an extraordinary amount of diplomacy and on the ground work. We really tried to understand things from the perspectives of both Ukrainians and Russians," he said. "I think that we put together a very fair proposal."
Vance added that "it's now time to take, if not the final step, one of the final steps"— with all parties agreeing to stop the fighting, freeze territorial lines "at some level close to where they are," and pursue a long-term diplomatic settlement.
The U.S. vice president also said that the two sides would have to give up some of the territory they control. Vance noted that eventual borders may not exactly follow the current front line but stressed it is currently necessary to lay down arms and "freeze" the war.
Following Vance's remarks, a spokesperson for Downing Street told AFP on April 23: "We support U.S.-led efforts to bring about a lasting end to the war. I think that is what we all want. Ultimately, it must be for Ukraine to decide its future."
The comments follow reporting that the U.S. is ready to recognize Russia's de jure control over Crimea and de facto control over occupied territories in the Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts as part of a peace deal.
Moscow occupies roughly 20% of Ukraine's sovereign territory. This includes Crimea and parts of the Donbas region occupied in 2014, and additional territories conquered after the start of the full-scale war in 2022.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has rejected the possibility of recognizing Russian hold over Crimea.
U.S. President Donald Trump has said his country will abandon the ceasefire effort in the coming days unless progress is made. Top European, Ukrainian, and U.S. diplomats were set to discuss Trump's peace plan in London on April 23, but the meeting was downgraded after U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he would not attend.
Earlier, a source close to French President Emmanuel Macron told AFP that "respect for Ukraine's territorial integrity and its European aspirations are very strong demands of the Europeans."
The source added that while French, British, and German officials were meeting with American and Ukrainian envoys in London for ceasefire talks, "the objective remains to build a common approach that the United States could present to the Russians."
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.
Kateryna Hodunova
