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Russia cannot accept U.S. proposals to end the war in Ukraine in their current form because they do not address problems Moscow regards as having caused the conflict, a senior Russian diplomat said, suggesting U.S.-Russia talks on the subject had stalled. The comments by Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov suggest Moscow and Washington have so far been unable to bridge differences which President Vladimir Putin raised more than two weeks ago when he said U.S. proposals needed reworking. -snip- "We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can't accept it all in its current...

Two British diplomats expelled in a spying row. A blistering statement from Russia's foreign intelligence service calling Britain "a warmonger." And a threat from a top ally of Vladimir Putin to seize UK assets inside Russia. As the U.S. under Donald Trump seeks to reset ties with Moscow and broker peace between Russia and Ukraine, Britain has been granted the status of Russia's public enemy number one. It's a mantle it has held on and off over the past two centuries. "London today, like on the eve of both World Wars of the last century, is acting as the main...

-snip- Zelenskiy told the Associated Press news agency in an interview published on Saturday that he favoured four-way talks between the United States, Ukraine, Russia and the European Union -snip- His comments followed remarks by U.S. President Donald Trump suggesting Washington and Moscow had already been in touch about Ukraine. Trump did not provide details, and Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov was cited by the Interfax news agency on Jan. 27 as saying that direct contacts between Moscow and the Trump administration were not yet underway. Asked on Monday about Zelenskiy's thoughts on the format of future talks, Kremlin...

The Kremlin said on Monday it had yet to receive any signals from the United States about arranging a possible meeting between President Vladimir Putin and President Donald Trump, but remained ready to organise such an encounter. "So far, we have not received any signals from the Americans", Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on a conference call. "(Russia's) readiness (for a meeting) remains, and the same readiness, as far as we have heard, remains on the American side. Apparently, a certain amount of time is required (to set something up)," he said.

"Disrespectful", "insulting", and "ill-informed." Donald Trump's threats aimed at strong-arming Moscow into ending its war in Ukraine have been badly received by some politicians and nationalists in Russia who say his tactics bode ill for a deal. -snip- Influential war bloggers, read by millions of Russians and licenced by the authorities, expressed outrage. One of them, Voenkor Kotonok, said Trump's statement was "insulting, arrogant and self-satisfied." Another, war correspondent Alexander Kots, speculated that the Middle East ceasefire had given Trump a misplaced sense of omnipotence. "Russia is not the Gaza Strip. And starting a dialogue with ultimatums is not the...

A strategic partnership treaty that Russia and Iran are poised to sign will govern the two countries' relations for the next two decades, the TASS state news agency reported on Tuesday, citing Iran's ambassador to Moscow. Russian President Vladimir Putin and Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian are due to hold talks in Russia on Jan. 17 after which the Kremlin has said they will sign a long-awaited comprehensive strategic partnership pact.

President Vladimir Putin is ready to discuss Ukraine with Donald Trump but that does not mean he is willing to alter Moscow's demands, the Kremlin said on Friday. Putin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov made the remarks after being asked at his daily news briefing if Putin's readiness to talk to the Republican president-elect reflected a willingness to change those demands. "The president has never said that the goals of the special military operation are changing. On the contrary, he has repeatedly said that they remain the same," Peskov said. -snip- Putin on June 14 set out his terms for an end...

The Kremlin reacted cautiously on Wednesday after Donald Trump was elected U.S. president, saying the U.S. was still a hostile state and that only time would tell if Trump's rhetoric on ending the Ukraine war translated into reality. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Trump had made some important statements about wanting to end the Ukraine war during his campaign, but only time would tell if they led to action. "Let us not forget that we are talking about an unfriendly country, which is both directly and indirectly involved in a war against our state" (in Ukraine)," Peskov told reporters. Peskov...

President Vladimir Putin says that Russia’s war economy is well balanced to supply both guns and butter, but the price of butter itself is now soaring as surging inflation distorts parts of the economy. The price of a block of butter has risen by 25.7% since December, according to the state statistics service. Reuters reporters found shopping bills showed the price of a pack of “Brest-Litovsk” high-grade butter in Moscow has risen by 34% since the start of the year to 239.96 roubles ($2.47). “The Armageddon with butter is escalating; we wouldn’t be surprised if butter repeats last year’s situation...

Russia on Tuesday called on Israel to withdraw troops from Lebanon, warning that the attack would lead to a further escalation of violence in the Middle East. -snip- "Russia strongly condemns the attack on Lebanon and calls on the Israeli authorities to immediately cease hostilities, withdraw their troops from Lebanese territory and engage in a real search for peaceful ways to resolve the Middle East conflict," Russia's foreign ministry said in a statement. "It is obvious that such a step taken by the Israeli military and political leadership following the assassination of a number of Hezbollah leaders will lead to...

Russia’s Federal Security Service (FSB) said on Friday that Dmitry Bulgakov, a former deputy defense minister, had been arrested and charged with corruption, the Interfax news agency reported. -snip- He served as deputy defense minister until he was replaced in 2022 and is the recipient of several top military and civilian awards, including the Hero of Russia award, the country’s highest honour. -snip- Bulgakov, who was in charge of military logistics until he was dismissed in September 2022, is the latest in a string of high-profile defense ministry figures to have been charged with corruption.

President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that South Korea would be making "a big mistake" if it decides to supply arms to Ukraine and that Moscow would respond to such a move in a way that would be painful for Seoul. Putin, who was speaking at a news conference in Vietnam, was reacting to a report from Yonhap news earlier on Thursday which said South Korea would review the possibility of supplying weapons to Ukraine after Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong-un signed a mutual defence pact a day earlier. He warned Seoul against moving to supply weapons to...

Russian forces have advanced along the front line in Ukraine, battlefield maps published by a U.S. think tank show, as Ukraine warns that Moscow is preparing for a major offensive in the east. Maps released by the Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank, on Sunday, show that Russian forces have made progress in Ukraine's Luhansk and Donetsk regions, which together comprise the Donbas. The Kremlin has been pushing for the total capture of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions since Russia's initial invasion of eastern Ukraine in 2014. Newsweek has contacted the Russian Defense Ministry by...

MOSCOW/LONDON, May 24 (Reuters) - Russian President Vladimir Putin is ready to halt the war in Ukraine with a negotiated ceasefire that recognises the current battlefield lines, four Russian sources told Reuters, saying he is prepared to fight on if Kyiv and the West do not respond. Three of the sources, familiar with discussions in Putin's entourage, said the veteran Russian leader had expressed frustration to a small group of advisers about what he views as Western-backed attempts to stymie negotiations and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy's decision to rule out talks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin demoted Nikolai Patrushev, a Cold War warrior who crafted the Kremlin's national security strategy, to a job overseeing the shipbuilding industry while raising two younger lieutenants to senior Kremlin jobs. -snip- Patrushev, a former KGB officer from St Petersburg where Putin was born, was moved from the heart of the modern-day politburo, where he had worked for 16 years as secretary of the Security Council, to oversee shipbuilding as a Kremlin aide. -snip- Patrushev Senior was heavily demoted," a senior Russian source told Reuters on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of such public remarks....

A court on Tuesday sentenced a former senior officer in the National Guard to six years in a prison colony after convicting him of buying equipment unable to protect the bridge which links southern Russia to Crimea, the TASS state news agency reported. TASS said that Colonel Sergei Volkov had purchased two radar-based air defence systems for 395 million roubles ($4.5 million) which were meant to be able to bring down Ukrainian attack drones by suppressing their signal. A military court in Moscow had determined that the equipment - which was also meant to protect a gas pipeline running from...

A senior ally of President Vladimir Putin warned on Thursday that any Ukrainian attacks on missile launch sites inside Russia with arms supplied by the United States and its allies would risk a nuclear response from Moscow. Former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev, now deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said that some Ukrainian military commanders were considering hitting missile launch sites inside Russia with Western-supplied long-range missiles. He did not name the commanders or disclose more details of the alleged plan and there was no immediate reaction from Ukraine to his threat.

Russian patriotic bloggers on Friday poured scorn on President Vladimir Putin's intimation that mercenary chief Yevgeny Prigozhin's plane was blown up with hand grenades while those on board were high on cocaine and alcohol. The private Embraer jet on which Prigozhin was travelling to St Petersburg crashed north of Moscow killing all 10 people on board on Aug. 23, including Dmitry Utkin, co-founder of the mercenary Wagner group, four bodyguards and a crew of three. Putin said on Thursday fragments of hand grenades were found in the bodies of the dead and that investigators had ruled out any external impact...

President Vladimir Putin has ordered Wagner fighters to sign an oath of allegiance to the Russian state after a deadly plane crash believed to have killed Yevgeny Prigozhin, the volatile chief of the mercenary group. Putin signed the decree bringing in the change with immediate effect on Friday after the Kremlin said that Western suggestions that Prigozhin had been killed on its orders were an "absolute lie".

Russia's most senior generals have dropped out of public view after a failed mercenary mutiny aimed at toppling the top military brass, amid a drive by President Vladimir Putin to reassert his authority. Unconfirmed reports say that at least one person has been detained and is being questioned. Armed forces chief of staff General Valery Gerasimov has not appeared in public or on state TV since the aborted mutiny on Saturday when mercenary leader Yevgeny Prigozhin demanded Gerasimov be handed over. Nor has he been mentioned in a defence ministry press release since June 9. Gerasimov, 67, is the commander...