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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday urged allies to impose more sanctions on Moscow should Russia not agree to an unconditional ceasefire at ongoing talks in Istanbul, Turkey. "Our number one priority is a full, unconditional, and honest ceasefire. This must happen immediately to stop the killing and create a solid basis for diplomacy," said Zelensky, addressing fellow leaders at the European Political Community summit in Tirana. If the Russian representatives in Istanbul are not to agree to a ceasefire then "the world must respond," he said. "There needs to be a strong reaction, including sanctions Russia's energy sector and...

Ukraine’s military was forced to dismiss Donald Trump’s claim that thousands of its troops are encircled in Russia’s Kursk region as “false”.Its general staff instead accused Russia of fabricating reports for “political manipulation and to exert pressure on Ukraine and its partners”, while Volodymyr Zelensky said Vladimir Putin was lying about the battlefield situation.Putin claimed on Thursday night that his forces had encircled thousands of Ukrainians in the western Kursk region, which Ukraine invaded in August, warning they would have to “surrender or die”.

MUNICH (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday Ukraine would never accept any peace deals reached behind its back or without Kyiv's involvement - an implicit message to U.S. President Donald Trump as he strives to end the war with Russia.In a speech to the Munich Security Conference, Zelenskiy also called on Europe to create its own armed forces, urging the continent's leaders to decide their own future and saying Ukraine's armed forces alone were not enough for their security."Ukraine will never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement. And the same rule should apply to all...

With president's 'peace talks' compared to Chamberlain appeasing Hitler Donald Trump's concessions on Ukraine have played into the hands of Vladimir Putin, experts have warned, at a time when intelligence chiefs say Moscow is preparing its military for a major war in Europe. US defence chief Pete Hegseth told European counterparts on Wednesday that Ukraine's dream of returning to its pre-2014 borders was an 'illusionary goal' and that Kyiv's wish for NATO membership was 'not realistic'. His statements are widely seen as a major victory for Putin and a devastating blow to Kyiv, which as a result could be forced...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Saturday that excluding his country from talks between the U.S. and Russia about the war in Ukraine would be “very dangerous” and asked for more discussions between Kyiv and Washington to develop a plan for a ceasefire. Speaking in an exclusive interview with The Associated Press, Zelenskyy said Russia does not want to engage in ceasefire talks or to discuss any kind of concessions, which the Kremlin interprets as losing at a time when its troops have the upper hand on the battlefield.

A top ally of Russian president Vladimir Putin has advised him to remove Vladimir Lenin's body from a mausoleum in Moscow in order to seal his legacy as Moscow's leader. Alexander Dugin, a far-right political philosopher, has advised the president to remove Lenin's body from the burial site in order to "make room there for the real Emperor" and make other changes to the mausoleum, according to the Telegram post by the account Kremlin Snuffbox. -snip- The Russian philosopher also reportedly advised Putin to make improvements to the mausoleum by rebuilding the structure, decorating it with military trophies accumulated during...

US President Donald Trump on Monday called for Russian President Vladimir Putin to strike a deal to end the nearly three-year war in Ukraine, specifying that Russia will be in "big trouble" if the conflict continues. "He should make a deal. I think he's destroying Russia by not making a deal," Trump said upon his return to the Oval Office. "I think Russia's going to be in big trouble." Trump expressed his willingness to meet with Putin, mentioning their prior summit during his first term. "I got along with him great. I would hope he wants to make a deal,"...

Russian energy has continued to transit unimpeded through Ukrainian territory every day until now, with the taps being firmly closed on New Year’s Day. Zero Russian gas is flowing to European customers through Ukrainian pipelines for the first time in decades today, confirmation there was to be no last-minute deal to keep the route open, sending energy prices spiking on Tuesday. The route has seen billions of cubic feet of gas delivered since the end of the Cold War, and a five-year contract between Moscow and Kyiv governing the transit of gas continued to be observed, remarkably, right to the...

Russia could launch another hypersonic ballistic missile in Ukraine in the coming days, but Washington does not consider the Oreshnik weapon a game-changer in the war, a U.S. official said on Wednesday. Russia first fired the Oreshnik missile at the Ukrainian city of Dnipro on Nov. 21, in what President Vladimir Putin cast as a response to Ukraine's first use of U.S. ATACMs ballistic missiles and British Storm Shadows to strike Russian territory with Western permission. Putin has previously said Russia may use the Oreshnik again, including to hit "decision-making centers" in Kyiv, if Ukraine keeps attacking Russia with long-range...

French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot told the BBC that Ukraine can shoot French longer-range missiles into Russia in the "logics of self-defense." The French Scalp missiles are the same as the UK's Storm Shadow missiles, which Ukraine had already used in attacks on Russia. Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova tolt state media that Barrot's comments are "not support for Ukraine, but rather a death knell for Ukraine." Barrot spoke after the United States greenlit the use of US-provided longer-range ATACMS missiles by Ukraine. Meanwhile, Ukraine shot down dozens of Russian drones targeting regions across the country. On the other...

Russian President Vladimir Putin ruffled some feathers inside his own country this weekend when he appeared to dismiss the recent Ukrainian incursion into the Kursk Oblast inside of Russia as having had "no effect" on the overall war. He insisted that the primary objective of the war had been to retake and fortify annexed lands, primarily in the eastern Donbas region, and that Ukraine's actions in Kursk had actually hastened Russia's success there. Meanwhile, Ukraine's top military commander was marched out to counter those claims, saying that the invasion of Kursk was "working" and that Russia had made no new...

Russia continues to pay a high cost in troops and equipment during its full-scale invasion, according to Kyiv, the recent figures of which outline losses of several dozen artillery systems—as well as two warplanes. Sunday's update by Ukraine's military noted how two aircraft had been among the equipment losses Russia had suffered over the previous day. This followed what Ukraine's General Staff said was a drone strike on the Morozovsk airfield, a Russian military base in the Rostov region near the Ukrainian border, which is home to Sukhoi Su-27 and Su-34 glide bombers. Kyiv said that the strikes hit warehouses...

Ukraine is on an “irreversible” path to NATO membership, the 32 members of the alliance affirmed in a joint communique released Wednesday on the second day of the summit being held in Washington. Allies had negotiated for months over what language would be published in the joint communique, but discussions on specific words — including “irreversible” — had continued in D.C. throughout the first days of the summit.

There were many reasons for the decline of Microsoft under Steve Ballmer, including, as I wrote this morning, its lack of focus and its habit of chasing trends rather than creating them. But one that’s not obvious to outsiders was the company’s employee evaluation system, known as “stack ranking.” The system—and its poisonous effects on Microsoft’s corporate culture—was best explained in an outstanding Vanity Fair feature by Kurt Eichenwald last year... So while Google was encouraging its employees to spend 20 percent of their time to work on ideas that excited them personally, Ballmer was inadvertently encouraging his to spend...