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.
Volodymyr Zelensky, Ukraine's president, speaks at a news conference in Kyiv, Ukraine, on March 12, 2025. (Andrew Kravchenko/Bloomberg via Getty Images)
There are no ongoing preparations for elections, as all parties agree that the next vote can be held only after the lifting of martial law, Davyd Arakhamia, the parliamentary leader of President Volodymyr Zelensky’s Servant of the People party, told Suspilne on March 31.
Arakhamia's statement comes after the Economist reported that Ukraine's elections could be held in July 2025, and Zelensky allegedly called a meeting on the matter.
Arakhamia said that he did not take part in such a meeting and claimed that it "did not happen at all."
"No elections are being prepared, no preparations are underway. All parliamentary parties and groups have agreed that elections should be held six months after the lifting of martial law, " Arakhamia said. "Our position has not changed since then."
Serhii Dubovyk, deputy head of the Central Election Commission, told Suspilne that preparations for elections after the war will require the adoption of a law on the specifics of post-war elections.
According to existing legislation, parliamentary elections should be held 60 days after the end of martial law, and presidential elections 90 days after. Yet, this period will not be enough to prepare for the elections, Dubovyk added.
Ukraine's Constitution prohibits elections under martial law, which has been in place since the onset of Russia's full-scale war against Ukraine in February 2022.
Russia has widely used the claim that Zelensky is illegitimate in its propaganda to discredit the Ukrainian government. The false claim is based on the premise that Zelensky's first term in office was originally meant to end on May 20, 2024.
Russia's full-scale invasion and the subsequent declaration of martial law in Ukraine has meant elections have been impossible to hold, and his term has been extended, something constitutional lawyers say is allowed under Ukrainian law.
U.S. President Donald Trump initially echoed the Kremlin's narrative, denouncing Zelensky as a "dictator without elections." He then seemingly walked back on the statement, even voicing displeasure wth Russian President Vladimir Putin over the latter's attacks on Zelensky's credibility.
Kateryna Hodunova is a News Editor at the Kyiv Independent. She previously worked as a sports journalist in several Ukrainian outlets and was the deputy chief editor at Suspilne Sport. Kateryna covered the 2022 Olympics in Beijing and was included in the Special Mentions list at the AIPS Sport Media Awards. She holds a bachelor's degree in political journalism from Taras Shevchenko University and a master's degree in political science from the National University of Kyiv-Mohyla Academy.
Chris York
