Russia-Ukraine war: List of key events, day 1,176

Here is where things stand on Thursday, May 15:

Fighting

• Russia’s defence ministry said on social media that its army captured two villages – Torskoye and Novooleksandrivka – in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region on Thursday.

• A Russian missile strike targeted Ukraine’s northeastern city of Sumy, killing at least three people, Ukrainian officials said on Wednesday.

• Governor of Kherson, Oleksandr Prokudin, said that on Wednesday until early Thursday, about 35 areas, including the city of Kherson, were under Russian drone “terror” and artillery shelling that injured at least nine people.
• Russia’s defence ministry said air defence systems downed two Ukrainian drones overnight over the Rostov and Belgorod regions.

Diplomacy

• Ukraine and Russia will hold direct talks in Turkiye on Thursday for the first time since the war started in 2022. The two sides are expected to discuss a 30-day ceasefire and a possible exchange of prisoners.
• Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy arrived in Ankara to meet with Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan before possible talks with the Russian delegation.
• Russian President Vladimir Putin was not listed in Moscow’s delegation to the talks, despite the leader proposing the discussions last week.
• Deputy Foreign Minister Mikhail Galuzin, Deputy Defence Minister Alexander Fomin and Igor Kostyukov, director of Russia’s GRU military intelligence agency, are part of the Russian delegation.

• Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the delegation to discuss a peace proposal is ready for serious work with Ukraine.

• US President Donald Trump said he would attend Russia-Ukraine talks in Turkiye on Friday “if it is appropriate” after a government official said on Wednesday night that he would be travelling to the country.
• Turkish Foreign Minister Hakan Fidan said there was a new window of opportunity to achieve peace and hoped planned talks between the sides in Istanbul would open a new chapter.

• Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna said that Putin sending a low-level delegation to Turkiye for talks was “like a slap in the face”.

• US Secretary of State Marco Rubio met with his Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha on the sidelines of a NATO summit in Antalya, Turkiye.

• NATO chief Mark Rutte said he was “cautiously optimistic” for progress towards peace in Ukraine, but that it was up to Russia to take the “next steps necessary”. “[If] the Russians are willing to play ball, and not only the Ukrainians are doing this … that you could get to some breakthroughs over the next couple of weeks,” he said at the NATO summit.

• Latvian Foreign Minister Baiba Braze said they did not see any indications that Russia wants peace in Ukraine. “Weakening Russia’s military capabilities is the most direct and cheapest way… to achieve peace in Ukraine,” he told reporters in Turkiye.

• On Wednesday, the European Union approved a new sanctions package on Russia to clamp down on its “shadow” oil fleet.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz said there must not be any deal in Ukraine that is a “dictated peace” from Russia.
• France’s foreign minister warned that an “unconditional ceasefire” must precede peace talks between to avoid the same “traps” that caused negotiations to fail in 2022.