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The United States will reduce funding allocated for military assistance to Ukraine in its upcoming defense budget, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth said in a congressional hearing on June 10. "It is a reduction in this budget," Hegseth told lawmakers in the U.S. House of Representatives. "This administration takes a very different view of that conflict. We believe that a negotiated peaceful settlement is in the best interest of both parties and our nation's interests, especially with all the competing interests around the globe." The Pentagon has not yet released the full documentation regarding its 2026 budget. According to Hegseth,...

The Ukraine war won't end until NATO withdraws troops from the Baltics, a top Russian official has warned. Sergei Ryabkov, Russia's deputy foreign minister responsible for U.S. relations, nonproliferation and arms control, made the remarks in an interview with state-run news agency Tass.

What needs to happen is simple, but, at least for now, looks pretty suspect if you ask me. Russia would need to get so exhausted from the war that its lines collapse. After losing 1 million casualties, thousands of tanks and artillery pieces, and billions of dollars in bombers and drones, Moscow would one day see its war effort collapse in a mix of exhaustion, anger about the overall direction of the conflict, and a society that had had enough. This would allow Ukraine to reclaim the initiative and retake large swaths of territory. But from here, things get even...

Ukraine's military launched another attack on a Russian airbase, thousands of miles from the frontlines. The attack took place overnight and targeted Savasleyka airfield in the Nizhny Novgorod region. The airbase is home to a number of fighter jets, including the MiG-31 K, which can fire lethal Kinzhal ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s army said the attack had wiped out a MiG-31 K and a SU-30/34 aircraft, which are regularly used to launch aerial bombardments on the country. The airbase is home to a number of fighter jets, including the MiG-31 K, which can fire lethal Kinzhal ballistic missiles. Ukraine’s army said...

Dmitry Novikov, first deputy chairman of the State Duma Committee on International Affairs, made the comments to Russian state news outlet TASS. "I think that Musk has a completely different game, [so] he will not need any political asylum, although if he did, Russia, of course, could provide it," Novikov said, in remarks translated from Russian. Musk and Trump, who had been political allies over desired cuts to federal spending, have publicly clashed recently with the feud escalating on June 5 in a series of exchanges across social media and in comments to reporters.

A senior official who dismantled the US government’s Russian disinformation unit is married to a Russian woman with links to the Kremlin, The Telegraph can reveal. Darren Beattie has provoked alarm within the State Department since being appointed in February for his ardent pro-Russian views. He has been noted for his focus on destroying the agency tasked with tackling Kremlin propaganda. Mr Beattie, the acting under-secretary for public diplomacy and public affairs, is married to a woman whose uncle has taken several roles in Russian politics and once received a personal “thank you” message from Vladimir Putin.

ATTENTION!So, it appears Zelenskyy gave the go ahead to attack parked Russian nuclear capable bombers without informing @realDonaldTrump (if true that our President was not consulted nor informed, this isn’t simply a breach of protocol. It’s a geopolitical insult and a warning sign. If Ukraine is willing to conduct strikes with strategic consequences without notifying the White House, we are no longer allies with coordination issues—we are co-belligerents flying blind).Also given Senator “warmonger” Lindsey Graham’s and Senator “Da Nang Dick” Blumenthal’s recent visit, this attack could appear as though it was sanctioned. I pray the Russians have better intelligence than...

FOUR Russian airfields housing Putin's nuke bombers have reportedly been blitzed in an extraordinary drone strike - wiping out at least 40 aircraft. Ukrainian drones - reportedly launched from lorries inside Russia - targeted airbases in Belaya, Diaghilevo, Olenya and Ivanovo as part of a daring operation codenamed "Spiderweb".

(AFP) — Chancellor Friedrich Merz said Monday that Germany along with Ukraine’s other key Western backers had lifted range restrictions on weapons they send to Kyiv to fight against Russia. Merz, who took office early this month, also vowed that “we will do everything in our power to continue supporting Ukraine, including militarily”, in close coordination with other supporters. “There are no longer any range restrictions on weapons delivered to Ukraine — neither by the British nor by the French nor by us nor by the Americans,” he said. “This means that Ukraine can now defend itself, for example, by...

Russian state TV aired a video of Vladimir Putin warning Donald Trump to stop trying to dictate the terms of a ceasefire with Ukraine. Putin stressed that he plans to finish what he started three years ago and warned that Trump should not push him into a US blueprint for stopping the war.

The U.S. economy contracted in the first quarter, raising the question: Are we in a recession? Economic growth, as measured by the Gross Domestic Product, has to be negative for more than one quarter for a recession, according to the National Bureau of Economic Research, the nonprofit research group that officially calls recessions. According to the NBER: "A recession involves a significant decline in economic activity that is spread across the economy and lasts more than a few months." The NBER has not yet declared a recession. The current downturn also hasn't met an unofficial definition of recession, which is...

Russia insists on the international recognition of its hold over Crimea, as well as the entirety of Ukraine's Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson oblasts, as a condition for peace negotiations, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview with Brazilian news outlet O Globo published on April 28. This demand, reinforced last week by Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, underscores how Russia continues to push its maximalist demands despite the U.S. efforts to broker a peace deal. Russia illegally declared the four Ukrainian oblasts as annexed in 2022 following widely condemned sham referenda, but it does not fully control the...

KYIV -- Rescue teams recovered two more bodies from the rubble of apartment buildings destroyed in a massive Russian missile-and-drone attack, prompting US President Donald Trump to issue a rare rebuke of Russian leader Vladimir Putin. The April 24 overnight barrage -- the largest in months -- came just hours after the White House gave what amounted to an ultimatum about a US proposal to end the 38-month-old Russian invasion.

KYIV, Ukraine—Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky pushed back on a U.S. proposal to recognize Russia’s control of Crimea as part of a cease-fire agreement, throwing into doubt President Trump’s efforts to bring a quick end to the war. “Ukraine will not legally recognize the occupation of Crimea,” Zelensky said at a press conference here on Tuesday. “There’s nothing to talk about here. This is against our constitution.” Zelensky’s dismissal upends Trump’s latest gambit to halt the war in Ukraine—now in its fourth year—and casts new uncertainty on the future of the relationship between Kyiv and Washington, which Trump has made conditional...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, April 20, said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a surprise but brief Easter truce. The 30-hour truce starting Saturday evening would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict. But on Sunday, Zelensky accused Russia of having maintained its attacks on the front line after the truce started at 4 pm Paris time Saturday. "Across various frontline directions, there have already been 59 cases of Russian shelling and five assaults by Russian units," Zelensky said on social...

"Russian President Vladimir Putin has ordered the conscription of 160,000 men into the army, state media reported, marking the largest draft initiative in years, even as ceasefire talks with Ukraine continue under U.S. mediation. The timing and scale of the draft raise doubts about Russia's commitment to diplomacy. Ukraine has accused the Kremlin of using negotiations to delay while reinforcing its position on the battlefield, particularly in the Sumy, Kharkiv and Zaporizhzhia regions. On Sunday, U.S. President Donald Trump said he would issue secondary tariffs on Russian oil if he believed Moscow was standing in the way of a peace...

Russian President Vladimir Putin threatened to “finish off” Ukrainian troops on Friday — after the warmonger ordered strikes on a Ukrainian energy facility in a bold violation of the US-backed partial cease-fire. Russian forces this week attacked a Ukrainian energy facility in Kherson, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky warned, accusing Putin of breaching the precarious deal halting military action in the Black Sea and pausing long-range attacks on energy infrastructure. Putin, who had said that Moscow would end its strikes on Ukrainian energy targets, called on his troops to continue pushing forward into Ukraine and even step up their attacks.

Ukraine reports strikes just hours after Russian leader agreed to suspend attacks on Ukrainian infrastructure in a call with US president. Vladimir Putin rejected Donald Trump’s proposal for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine after a “frank” phone call on Tuesday between the two presidents. Instead, the Russian leader agreed to a 30-day pause in attacks on energy plants and infrastructure and to hold further talks on stopping hostilities in the Black Sea.

"When Nate heard his cousin, U.S. Vice President JD Vance, attack Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the White House’s Oval Office, he flew into a rage. In his camper van, lost on the roads of the American West that he has been crisscrossing since he came back from Ukraine in January 2025, Nate was disappointed. He felt let down by his younger cousin — JD is a few years younger than Nate, who is 47 — whose integrity he had always defended. “JD is a good guy, intelligent,” Nate says. “When he criticized aid to Ukraine, I told myself that...

Agreement between the Ministry of Defense of Ukraine and German company Diehl Defence paves the way for large industrial projects Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announced the signing of a memorandum of understanding with the German company Diehl Defence, which produces IRIS-T systems and is "an important part of Ukraine's air defense shield." According to the minister, the signed agreement paves the way for large industrial projects that will strengthen the capabilities of Ukrainian air defense. In addition, the memorandum provides for a threefold increase in the supply of missiles and air defense systems, Umerov noted. IRIS-T is a medium-range...