Free Republic

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the United States will have contact with Russia on Wednesday about the agreement reached with Ukraine on a 30-day ceasefire and steps toward ending the war there. There has been no official response from Moscow since U.S.-Ukraine talks wrapped up in Saudi Arabia after more than eight hours, with Kyiv agreeing to a 30-day ceasefire and the U.S. restoring military aid and intelligence sharing. "We all eagerly await the Russian response and urge them strongly to consider ending all hostilities," Rubio said during a stop in Ireland on his way back to Washington....

Ukrainian and U.S. officials held crunch talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday to find a path towards ending the war with Russia, hours after Kyiv's forces launched their largest drone attack on Moscow to date. -snip- "The meeting has begun very constructively," Andriy Yermak, Zelenskiy's chief of staff who is leading the Ukrainian delegation, wrote on Telegram. -snip- Ukraine overnight launched its biggest drone attack on Moscow yet, deploying at least 91 drones, killing at least three people, sparking fires, closing airports and forcing dozens of flights to be diverted, Russian officials said. The strike - in which 337 drones...

WASHINGTON, Feb 4 (Reuters) - President Donald Trump's overhaul of U.S. foreign assistance has led to chaos in the aid and development field, leaving hundreds of contractors in a severe financial crunch with some already having to lay off staff and others facing millions of dollars in unpaid invoices. Hours after coming into office on Jan. 20, Trump ordered a sweeping review of almost all U.S. foreign aid and tasked billionaire Elon Musk, who has falsely accused USAID of being a "criminal" organization, with scaling down the agency. Since then, dozens of USAID staff has been put on leave, hundreds...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Russia's defense minister reshuffle was a further indication of Russian President Vladimir Putin's "desperation to sustain" his invasion of Ukraine, U.S. State Department deputy spokesperson Vedant Patel said on Monday. Putin tapped a civilian economist as his surprise new defense minister on Sunday in an attempt to gird Russia for economic war by trying to better utilize the defense budget and harness greater innovation to win in Ukraine.