Have you missed the latest events on the war in Ukraine? 20 Minutes takes stock for you every evening. Here is the gist of this Wednesday, May 13, 2026, on the 1,540th day of the conflict.
Fact of the day
It looks bad. The Kremlin on Wednesday ruled out the idea of real peace talks with kyiv as long as the Ukrainian army has not left the eastern region of Donbass, partially controlled by Moscow. “So that a truce can take place and a corridor opens towards real peace talks […]President (Ukrainian Volodymyr) Zelensky must order the Ukrainian forces to cease fire and leave the territory of Donbass,” declared the spokesperson for the Russian presidency, Dmitry Peskov.
He thus reiterated a key demand put forward by Moscow since the summer of 2024 and described as unacceptable by kyiv to put an end to the offensive launched in February 2022 by Russia against neighboring Ukraine.
“The parties will then be able to calmly take care of the talks which will be […] inevitably very difficult and will cover a large number of important details,” assured Dmitri Peskov.
These statements come after Vladimir Putin surprised last Saturday by affirming that the conflict in Ukraine was “coming to an end”. American-mediated negotiations between the two belligerents have been on hold since the outbreak of war in the Middle East at the end of February.
Today’s statement
« We clearly cannot speak of coincidence »
The lyrics are by Volodymyr Zelensky. According to the Ukrainian president, Russia launched at least “800 drones” on Ukraine this Wednesday, causing at least six deaths. Volodymyr Zelensky accuses Moscow of attacks deliberately carried out on the day of American President Donald Trump’s arrival in China.
The Ukrainian leader once again calls on his allies to “exert real pressure” on Moscow so that these attacks end. Earlier in the day, he urged his American counterpart to discuss ways to end the Russian invasion during his meeting with Chinese head of state Xi Jinping.
The number of the day
16Â %. This is the percentage increase in imports of Russian liquefied natural gas (LNG) into the European Union in the 1st quarter of 2026. In volume, these imports reach 6.9 billion m3, a record since 2022, according to a study by theInstitute for Energy Economics and Financial Analysis published Wednesday, which highlights the European continent’s dependence on Russian gas, at a time when the conflict in the Middle East is disrupting global hydrocarbon supplies.
Since the Russian invasion of Ukraine, Europe, in search of diversification, has tried to reduce its historical dependence on Russian gas transported by pipelines. But Russian gas continued to flow: Russia remains the second largest supplier of LNG to the EU, even though the European Commission approved a ban on all imports of Russian gas into the European Union by the fall of 2027, in order to deprive Moscow of resources financing its war in Ukraine.
France notably “imported more Russian LNG than any other European country in the first quarter of 2026”, with a record reached in January, according to the think tank. Spain and Belgium are also big importers.
The trend
Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina lost the support of a pivotal party in her coalition on Wednesday after forcing the resignation of her Defense Minister, held responsible for Latvia’s inability to prevent the intrusion of foreign drones into its airspace.
The center-right government coalition, in power since 2023, was hanging by a thread. The Progressives party, to which Defense Minister Andris Spruds belongs, has in fact announced that it no longer supports it.
Ukrainian drones recently fell in Estonia and Lithuania as the Ukrainian army targeted a Russian port in the Gulf of Finland, near St. Petersburg. And these are two Ukrainian drones which crossed the Russian border on May 7 to crash in Latvia, probably after their guidance system was jammed by Russian air defense.
