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Britain ​is set to enter talks to join the European Union's 78 billion ‌pound loan ($106 billion) to Ukraine, the government said on Sunday, in a further sign of deepening European defence ties under rising U.S. pressure. Prime Minister Keir Starmer is expected on Monday to tell ​a summit in Armenia's capital Yerevan of the European Political Community - a discussion ​forum set up after Russia's invasion in 2022 - that Britain wants ⁠to work with the EU to support Ukraine in getting vital military equipment, his ​office said.

Nato is “disintegrating”, Poland’s prime minister has said after the United States announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany. Donald Tusk made the dire assessment of the Western alliance on Saturday amid an escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Germany over Berlin’s criticism of the war on Iran. In a post on X on Saturday, Mr Tusk wrote: “The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend.” On Friday evening, the US department of defence...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth on Wednesday said $400 million in Ukraine support was released after Sen. Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) penned an angry op-ed criticizing the stall in funding. “The department recognizes that $400 million was allocated for European capacity building, and as of yesterday, it has been released,” Hegseth said in response to a question about the aid from Rep. Sarah Elfreth (D-Md.). Elfreth followed up to ask whether the money was released under contract. Pentagon Comptroller Jules Hurst III said the aid was “not under contract, but released to be put under contract.” When pressed by Elfreth on when...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on Monday that Ukraine may have to accept that parts of its territory could remain outside Kyiv's control in ​a future peace deal with Russia, linking such concessions to ‌the country's prospects for joining the European Union. "At some point, Ukraine will sign a ceasefire agreement; at some point, hopefully, a peace treaty with Russia. Then it may ​be that part of Ukraine's territory is no longer Ukrainian," Merz ​told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, a town in ⁠North Rhine-Westphalia, on Monday. "If President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy wants to communicate this to his ​own population...

The European Court of Justice has ruled that Hungary’s amended Child Protection Law violates EU law and discriminates against gay and transgender people. It is the first time the court has found that an EU member state breached the fundamental values set out in the EU Charter of Fundamental Rights. The law was pushed by Viktor Orbán in a referendum coinciding with a general election vote. At the time, the law faced accusations that it unfairly criminalised gay men as pedophiles. The ruling on Tuesday comes nine days after Hungary’s parliamentary elections, in which the opposition Tisza Party defeated Orbán’s...

Russian President Vladimir Putin could travel to the G20 summit in Miami in December, the Kremlin said on Friday after U.S. President ​Donald Trump suggested it would be very helpful if he did attend and that it had been a mistake to expel Russia from the G8. The United States has invited Russia to the annual meeting of Group of 20 countries that Washington is holding this year in Miami, and Moscow has accepted the invitation, a U.S. official familiar with the matter said on Friday. Putin has not attended a G20 summit since 2019 due to the COVID pandemic...

Since Ukraine’s population has shrunk dramatically, the army’s number one problem is no longer the lack of weapons, such as ballistic missiles and air defense systems, but the lack of soldiers to operate them, writes Világgazdaság. The competent authorities in Kyiv, however, must bring the army size required by Commander-in-Chief Zelensky (800,000 active soldiers), and since the number of men eligible for military service (between the ages of 18 and 60) is slowly running out, the Ukrainian leadership is now trying to fill the gaps by conscripting women. As of early 2024, approximately 5 million men are considered to be...

The Ukrainian military captured a Russian position using only ground robots and aerial drones — completely unassisted by any infantry, for the first time in the war, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky announced. No lives were lost when the robot force went into highly dangerous enemy-occupied territory and forced the soldiers there to surrender, he said in a video address to defense workers this week, without revealing additional details about the mission. “The future is already on the front line — and Ukraine is building it. These are our ground robotic systems,” Zelensky said, according to Business Insider. Over the last...

“The pro-EU Tisza party’s victory over Prime Minister Viktor Orban in the Hungarian election means that the country has essentially been taken over by the Soros network, Elon Musk has said. In a post on X on Monday, Musk lashed out at Alexander Soros — the son of billionaire George Soros and chair of the Board of Directors of the Open Society Foundations (OSF) – who celebrated Orban’s fall as “a resounding rejection of entrenched corruption and foreign interference.” Soros Organization has taken over Hungary,” the SpaceX and Tesla owner said. In a separate post, Musk responded to a post...

BRUSSELS — European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen waited less than a day after Hungary voted Viktor Orbán out of office to call for the EU to get more power over national governments to force through foreign policy decisions. Governments should be able to push through EU policies ― on issues that could include sanctions on Russia and funds for Ukraine ― by majority rather than allowing individual nations to wield a veto, she told reporters in Brussels. Under Orbán, Hungary’s prime minister for 16 years, Hungary has often blocked foreign policy decisions. “Moving to qualified majority voting in...

Péter Magyar, the Hungarian politician most likely to defeat Viktor Orbán, promises “regime change” but signals continuity on several core policies. The European Union should manage expectations and prepare for a more complex relationship than a simple post-Orbán reset. With less than two months to go before Hungary’s 12 April elections, the Tisza party led by Péter Magyar is polling ahead of Orban’s Fidesz. For the first time since 2010, a change of government appears genuinely possible. The stakes are high. A fifth consecutive term for Orbán would further entrench what the European Parliament has described as a “hybrid regime...

Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán conceded defeat Sunday in the country’s parliamentary election, calling the result "clear" and "painful" as partial vote counts showed a decisive win for opposition leader Péter Magyar.

Qatar and Ukraine have signed a defence agreement seeking joint expertise on countering threats from missiles and drones, according to Qatar’s Ministry of Defence, as Iran continues attacking its Gulf neighbours. The agreement was made on Saturday during Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s visit to Doha, following his stop in the UAE earlier in the day. Earlier on Saturday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine and the United Arab Emirates had also agreed to cooperate on defence, a day after signing a deal with Saudi Arabia during his visit to the kingdom on Thursday.

Russia is providing Iran with intelligence to help it strike American military forces in the Middle East, the Washington Post reported Friday, citing U.S. officials familiar with the matter. One official, who spoke on condition of anonymity, described the information sharing as a “pretty comprehensive effort,” though the full extent of Russia’s assistance remained unclear, the newspaper noted. The targeting information is said to have included the locations of U.S. warships and aircraft. Iran’s own ability to locate American forces has been degraded since the United States and Israel began launching devastating attacks on the country this weekend, the officials...

Russia has been sharing intelligence with Iran on the location of US forces in the Middle East in an attempt to help Tehran fight back, according to a new report. The Kremlin has passed on the locations of American warships, aircrafts and other military assets ever since “Operation Epic Fury” kicked off a week ago, three sources told the Washington Post Friday. “It does seem like it’s a pretty comprehensive effort,” one official familiar with the intel told the outlet.