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.
Smoke rising in Petrozavodsk, Karelia, Russia, during a fire at the Onega Shipbuilding and Repair Plant on April 3, 2025. (Artur Parfenchikov/Telegram)
A fire broke out at one of Russia's largest shipyards in the northwestern city of Petrozavodsk on April 3, with three people reported injured.
A gas explosion likely started the blaze at the Onega Shipbuilding and Repair Plant's new workshop, which covered an area of 1,500 square meters, the Russian media reported.
Karelia Republic head Artur Parfenchikov said the fire has been extinguished as of midday. Two of the injured victims remain hospitalized.
Petrozavodsk, the capital of Russia's Karelia Republic, lies at the western shores of Lake Onega, almost 300 kilometers (180 miles) northeast of St. Petersburg.
The shipyard specializes in the production of barges, industrial vessels, Actic-class tugboats, and passenger ships.
In another incident in April 2024, the navigation vessel Katerina Velikaya caught fire while it was under repair at the shipyard Dalzavod in Vladivostok.
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.
Francis Farrell
