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 man with a looking at flags commemorating fallen Ukrainian soldiers and foreign volunteers in Kyiv, Ukraine. Photo published on Aug. 29, 2024. (President Volodymyr Zelensky/X)
The "planned, cynical Russian war crime" during the battle of Ilovaisk in 2014 "will never (be allowed) to go unpunished," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on the day of commemoration of fallen Ukrainian defenders on Aug. 29.
Russian forces and their proxies massacred over 360 Ukrainian soldiers as they were retreating through an agreed-upon corridor from the besieged city of Ilovaisk in Donetsk Oblast in August 2014. More than 400 Ukrainian troops were wounded, and around 300 were captured.
"On August 14, during these very days, the Russian occupier(s) committed one of the... vilest crimes of this war—killing hundreds of our warriors near Ilovaisk," Zelensky said on social media.
"It was a planned, cynical Russian war crime that Ukraine will never forget and will never allow to go unpunished."
The battle of Ilovaisk was followed by the signing of the first Minsk Agreement between Ukraine, Russia, and OSCE in September 2014. This initial attempt to stop the fighting failed, preceding the Russian victories at the Donetsk International Airport and Debaltseve and the signing of the second Minsk Agreement in February 2015.
Hostilities in Donbas had never fully ceased and escalated again after the outbreak of the full-scale war. Ilovaisk remains under Russian occupation to this day.
Ukrainian media reported in March 2023 that Russian commander Dmitrii Lisitskii, who led a unit that carried out the massacre, was killed in battle during the all-out war.
Since 2019, Ukraine has been commemorating Aug. 29 as the Day of Remembrance of the Defenders of Ukraine in honor of those who fell while fighting for the country.
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.
Anastasiia Lapatina
