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President Trump's diplomatic envoy Steve Witkoff traveled to Russia and is expected to meet President Vladimir Putin on Friday, according to a source familiar with the trip and FlightRadar data. -snip- If no ceasefire is reached by the end of the month, Trump could move forward with additional sanctions on Russia either through executive power or by asking Congress to pass new sanctions legislation, a source familiar with the issue told Axios. "We will know soon enough, in a matter of weeks, not months, whether Russia is serious about peace or not. I hope they are," Secretary of State Marco...

Donald Trump is losing patience with Vladimir Putin’s stalling tactics over the Ukraine ceasefire, the Finnish president, Alexander Stubb, said after spending nine hours with the US president – including winning a golf competition with him at his Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida on Saturday. Stubb, who also spent two days with the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, last week in Helsinki suggested in a Guardian interview a plan for a deadline of 20 April, by which time Putin should be required to comply with a full ceasefire. Stubb pointed out that a third golf partner on Saturday, the Republican senator Lindsey...

The U.S. is hoping a “broad ceasefire" between Russia and Ukraine can be struck in the coming weeks before Easter, Bloomberg wrote on Sunday. Separate negotiations between the U.S. and Russia and Ukraine have taken place over the last few weeks with hopes to pause the fighting for 30-days. Sources familiar with the planning told Bloomberg the White House is aiming “for a truce agreement by April 20.” The date is seen as significant because this year both Western and Orthodox churches mark Easter on the same day. -snip- Russia ‘undermines peace efforts’ In recent days, Russia increased strikes on...

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin will likely speak this week as part of Trump's push to reach a 30-day ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, White House envoy Steve Witkoff said. -snip- In an interview with CNN's Jake Tapper, Witkoff described his four-hour meeting with Putin as "positive" and added the discussion was "solutions-based". He claimed Putin accepts "Trump's philosophy" of ending the war with Ukraine. "The two sides are a lot closer today than they were a few weeks ago. We narrowed the differences," Witkoff said. Behind the scenes: Witkoff said Trump is personally involved in the diplomatic...

FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- Thousands of U.S. Marines poised on the fringes of this besieged city relaxed their stranglehold Tuesday, allowing residents to return to their homes, ambulances to pick up the scores of injured and dead and vehicles to distribute humanitarian aid. In exchange for the loosening of the military cordon, city leaders say they will redouble their efforts to persuade insurgents to surrender their weapons ---- and themselves. The aim: a peaceful solution to a standoff that is now in its third week. "If they are sincere, and we're seeing them turning in weapons and identifying bad guys, then...

  Cease-Fire Agreement Reached In Fallujah; 13 U.S. troops Killed In Iraq By Gerry J. GilmoreAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 19, 2004 – U.S., coalition and Iraqi officials have agreed "to implement a full and unbroken cease-fire" in the city of Fallujah, chief Coalition Provisional Authority spokesman Dan Senor said today in Baghdad. The agreement, Senor told reporters at a press briefing, was reached over a series of meetings over the past several days. The cease-fire agreement, he noted, features several points: Coalition forces will allow "unfettered" access to Fallujah General Hospital for treatment of sick and injured....

<p>BAGHDAD — U.S. military commanders, frustrated by a weeklong truce and talks aimed at ending hostilities in Fallujah, say the pause in offensive operations is giving insurgents a chance to reorganize and rearm, military officers say.</p> <p>"There is a sense of frustration across the board," said a high-ranking military officer who asked not to be identified. If fighting starts again, Marines say they fear they will face a stronger enemy. "You fight them now or you fight them later," the officer said.</p>

 Clean socks a boon to infantry in FallujahSubmitted by: 1st Marine DivisionStory Identification Number: 200441645438Story by Sgt. Jose E. Guillen FALLUJAH, Iraq (April 14, 2004) -- The gruff bark from the platoon sergeant was music to the ears of the infantrymen of Company E, 2nd Battalion, 1st Marine Regiment. "Your dog-gone packs are here, now lets get a working party going," said Gunnery Sgt. James E. Dinwoodie, platoon sergeant for Weapons Platoon, Company E. After days of gunfire, sweat and grime, there's something to be said for the luxury of changing into clean socks, shirts and skivvies. Simple pleasures...

THE guns finally fell silent over Fallujah yesterday, leaving the men of the US Army’s psychological warfare team with one overriding concern: where was “Fallujah Frank”? The “psy-ops” soldiers spend their days blasting the guerrillas with heavy metal music and taunting the gunmen into exposing themselves to American snipers. But three days ago they suddenly heard an echo. An Iraqi was driving around with a loudspeaker inside the besieged city haranguing rebels in their own stronghold. Fallujah Frank had made his dangerous debut. “There’s a Fallujah citizen — we call him Fallujah Frank — who’s addressing the Mujahidin or whoever’s...

Military Force May Be Next Option In Fallujah, Myers Says By Sgt. 1st Class Doug Sample, USAAmerican Forces Press Service WASHINGTON, April 16, 2004 -- Further military action may be necessary in the city of Fallujah, where despite a cease-fire and strained negotiations, insurgents still are shooting at Marines, the chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff said during an April 15 news conference in Baghdad. Air Force Gen. Richard B. Myers, in Baghdad to meet with coalition military commanders, told reporters that although discussions in Fallujah are ongoing, "I think we have to be prepared and prepare ourselves...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - U.S. warplanes and helicopters firing heavy machine guns, rockets and cannons hammered insurgents Wednesday in the besieged city of Fallujah, and the commander of U.S. Marines here warned that a fragile truce was near collapse. With officials reporting four more Marines killed, the death toll of 87 U.S. troops in April made it the deadliest month since the military set foot in Iraq (news - web sites). The truce in Fallujah was severely shaken by fighting Tuesday and Wednesday morning — although Marines underlined their halt to offensive operations, called Friday, was still in effect. "I don't...

Iraqi Shi`ite cleric Moqtada Al-Sadr drops conditions for talks with U.S., according to his spokesman

FALLUJAH, Iraq ---- Marines holed up in this hostile city make a crack about Fallujah these days: "For a cease-fire," they say, "there sure are a lot of people shooting at us." Over the weekend, Marines were told to stand down from offensive operations while political leaders from Baghdad and tribal leaders from Al Anbar province try to talk insurgents out of confronting U.S. troops and turning Fallujah into a battlefield. But while they wait out an unofficial cease-fire this week, the fighting continues under various guises. On Monday, two Marines were killed and at least nine were wounded when...

Shiite Cleric Pulls Back Iraqi Militias Tuesday April 13, 2004 2:31 AM By LEE KEATH Associated Press Writer BAGHDAD, Iraq (AP) - As a tenuous cease-fire held in the Sunni city of Fallujah, a radical Shiite cleric was on the retreat Monday, pulling his militiamen out of parts of the holy city of Najaf in hopes of averting a U.S. assault. Still, a U.S. commander said the American mission remained to ``kill or capture'' the cleric, Muqtada al-Sadr. With quiet on both fronts, the scale of Iraq's worst fighting since the fall of Saddam Hussein became clearer: The military reported...

FALLUJAH, Iraq - Gunfire was largely silenced Monday in the second day of a truce in Fallujah, where doctors said 600 Iraqis, including many civilians, were killed in the past week's Marine siege of Sunni insurgents. In the south, the military suggested it is open to a negotiated solution in its showdown with a radical Shiite cleric. But additional U.S. forces have been maneuvering into place, and the military has warned it will launch an all-out assault on Fallujah if talks there between pro-U.S. Iraqi politicians and city officials — which were continuing Monday — fall through. President Bush (news...

Iraq Shiite parties have been holding negoiations with al Sadr-representatives to try and find a peaceful way to end the standoff.'Al-Sayad al-Sadr issued instructions for his followers to leave the sites of police and the government,' said lawyer Murtada al Janabi, on of al Sadr representative in the talks.Over the weekend, a negioator for the Shiite Islamic Dawa Party presented al Sadr's side with a letter of conditions from the Americans for ending the crisis. The demands include dissolution of the al-Mahdi Army, withdraw from all government facilites and respect for law, according to the Dawa representative, Hameed al-Maliki.Al Janabi...

Fallujah, Iraq-AP -- Hundreds of residents of Fallujah, Iraq, are again streaming from the city, as a tenuous cease-fire between coalition forces and insurgents remains in place. An Associated Press reporter notes the streets are largely deserted, except for those who are fleeing for the perceived safety of the outskirts of the city. Meanwhile, skirmishing goes on. In one incident today, U-S Marines shot and killed two insurgents who were trying to set up a machine gun on a street. Then, an ambulance pulled up and a man jumped out, trying to collect the weapons of the deceased rather than...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. authorities are hoping insurgents hold to a cease-fire in the volatile town of Falluja, but recent violence is not expected to delay the handover of the country's governance to Iraqis at the end of June, U.S. administrator Paul Bremer said on Sunday. "We haven't imposed any terms at the moment, we're just trying to get a cease-fire in place and we have asked the insurgents to stop attacking the Marines," Bremer said on ABC's "This Week." "What we are trying to do is simply get the forces to stop firing, have the insurgents stop firing on...

FALLUJAH, Iraq (AFP) - The US sergeant yelled, threw his helmet and punched the walls after two of his marines were shot and badly wounded by a sniper during the middle of a break in fighting in the rebel Iraqi bastion of Fallujah. He heaved and dry vomited, paced, then sat silently, filled with rage, knowing the sniper had violated a ceasefire brokered between the US-led Coalition Provisional Authority, Iraq's interim Governing Council and Fallujah city elders. The pain and gut-wrenching agony of watching fellow marines fall in action has taken its toll over a back-breaking week of street-to-street fighting...

A third round of negotiations aimed at ending the fighting in the besieged city of Fallujah will be held Sunday, a US commander said. Arab TV stations reported that Sunni militants have agreed to a US offer of a cease-fire. Earlier, insurgents who kidnapped a US civilian Friday threatened to kill and mutilate him if Marines did not withdraw from Fallujah by 6 a.m. Sunday. The deadline passed with no word on his fate. Some media sources reported that the three Japanese hostages were released Sunday morning. Tokyo has not confirmed the reports. Two security agents for the German Embassy...