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The president signed an executive order to exempt Russia from most parts of a law he signed last monthPresident Trump is halting implementation of most of the sanctions that were to be imposed on Russia under a bipartisan bill he signed last month.The announcement came in an executive order on Friday night, and was part of a broader pivot by Trump toward courting Moscow as he seeks to end the war in Ukraine and keep energy prices under control ahead of the midterm elections.The law, which was championed by and named for the late Sen. Lindsey Graham (R., S.C.), targets...

President Donald Trump's agreement with Russian President Vladimir Putin to boost diesel supplies is drawing criticism from within his own party, exposing Republican divisions over the White House's latest attempt to bring down fuel prices ahead of November's midterm elections. The pushback follows Trump's announcement Friday that Putin had agreed to supply millions of tons of diesel fuel to United States and global markets. The administration subsequently authorized transactions involving Russian diesel, with the Treasury Department issuing a temporary license allowing Russian-origin diesel to reach global markets. The move drew scrutiny because Congress just weeks ago approved the Lindsey O....

This video describes the military situation in Ukraine on the 10th of October 2026 0:00 — 👋 Intro: Key events of the last 12 hours 0:13 — 💰 Deal of the year: US to buy 3M tons of russian diesel 1:24 — 📈 $4.5B revenue for russia; sanctions license until April 2027 2:29 — 🚀 Russian markets skyrocket; oil hits $129 per barrel 3:24 — ⚖️ A win-win-lose deal — and Zelensky is furious 4:16 — 🚨 Zelensky's ultimatums hours before the deal 5:21 — ⛽ Ignoring Trump 6 times: 4–5 refineries & 2 data centers hit in October 7:18...

Russian President Vladimir Putin has ruled out a ceasefire on long-range strikes with Ukraine as Moscow steps up its campaign of aerial attacks on Kyiv. “We are told: ‘Let them stop striking your refineries, and you will stop striking their ships.’ It is simply ridiculous,” Putin said on Thursday at the Valdai political forum in Moscow. The remarks followed a meeting between United States President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in New York on September 22, when Zelenskyy said Kyiv was ready to cease strikes on Russian oil refineries and other energy facilities if Moscow also stopped its...

Volodymyr Zelenskyy says the US has offered to create a "free economic zone" in the contested Donbas region of eastern Ukraine in a bid to push a peace deal over the line. The Donbas - an industrial and coal-mining area primarily made up of the Donetsk and Luhansk regions - has become one of the key sticking points in the US-proposed peace plan. The first draft of the plan, widely leaked last month, stipulated that Ukraine must withdraw from areas of the Donbas it currently controls, thought to be a minority portion, as a condition for peace. Ukraine considered that...

Opposition lawmakers and civil society activists say Ukraine’s leadership is using lawfare to intimidate opponents and silence critics. As Russia began its full-scale invasion of Ukraine nearly four years ago, Volodymyr Kudrytskyi, then head of Ukraine’s state-owned national power company Ukrenergo, was scrambling to keep the lights on.Somehow, he succeeded and continued to do so every year, earning the respect of energy executives worldwide by ensuring the country was able to withstand Russian missile and drone strikes on its power grid and avoid catastrophic blackouts — until he was abruptly forced to resign in 2024, that is.Kudrytskyi’s dismissal was...

Moscow's decision will likely be seen as inconsequential given growing condemnation of widespread human rights abuses committed in Ukraine. Russia plans to formally withdraw from Europe's convention against torture and inhuman treatment, according to a decree published this week. The resolution by Russian Prime Minister Mikhail Mishustin calls upon President Vladimir Putin to submit the withdrawal from the treaty to Russia's lower house of parliament. Moscow's move is likely to be seen as moot given widespread criticism of its worsening human rights record since its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. In 2024, UN-backed experts presented evidence that Russia...

Slowly but surely, Kiev seems to be adjusting its territorial demands to reality.In the runup to the Donald J. Trump-Vladimir Putin peace talks in Alaska on Friday 15, Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky was featured in dozens of news outlets repeating the same line, as we reported yesterday:The Washington Post: “Ukraine will reject any proposal that involves ceding territory to Russia, Zelensky says”; BBC News: “Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukraine will not give up land as Donald Trump suggests idea ahead of meeting Vladimir Putin in Alaska”; Reuters: “‘Ukrainians will not give their land to occupiers,’ President Zelenskiy said”; The Straits...

Donald Trump issued an ominous warning to Vladimir Putin after a maternity ward was struck by drones in Ukraine. The US president responded to news that drones had damaged a maternity hospital in Kharkiv, as he said: “I know. You'll be seeing things happen.” Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky confirmed that among the nine wounded in Kharkiv were women in the hospital - “mothers with newborns, women recovering from surgery.” He said: “Russia is targeting life itself – even in the very places where it begins.” It comes ahead of Trump’s “major statement” on Monday for Russia as he grows frustrated...

NATO jets were scrambled early Wednesday as Russia launched a record attack on Ukraine overnight — just hours after President Trump ripped Russian President Vladimir Putin for his “bulls–t.” Moscow fired 728 Shahed and decoy drones along with 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday. That was more than 200 over the previous record fired on Friday, July Fourth — itself just a week after the previous largest air assault. The Russian Defense Ministry said its forces took aim at enemy air bases and that “all the designated targets have been hit.” However, Ukraine claimed that...

- Russian President Vladimir Putin quipped on Friday (June 20) that in his view the whole of Ukraine was "ours" and cautioned that advancing Russian forces could take the Ukrainian city of Sumy as part of a bid to carve out a buffer zone along the border. Putin, who ordered troops into Ukraine in 2022 after eight years of fighting in eastern Ukraine, also said he was not seeking the capitulation of Ukraine or denying Ukraine's sovereignty, but that Ukraine had to be neutral. Russia currently controls about a fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea, more than 99 per cent of...

A claim by the Russian Defence Ministry that Kremlin leader Vladimir Putin was "in the epicentre of a drone attack" has turned out to be a staged performance by the Kremlin. Russian state media claimed earlier this week that when Putin visited Kursk Oblast for the first time since the hostilities began in the area, his helicopter came "under fire from Ukrainian drones". In reality, this was not a combat incident but a meticulously staged event. Four sources within the government and the Kremlin told The Moscow Times that security officials promoted this shocking and "risky" episode in the media...

United States President Donald Trump admitted on Wednesday that he "can't tell" if his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin truly wants to end his country's ongoing military campaign in Ukraine. Speaking at the White House amid the Swearing-In for the US Attorney for the District of Columbia, Jeanine Ferris Pirro, Trump said that "I'll let you know in two weeks" after more negotiations have taken place. He also complimented US Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff for "doing a phenomenal job" mediating the talks between Russia and Ukraine and for "dealing with him [Putin] very strongly." Asked about his...

You don’t get to pick a fight and then blame the person trying to peacefully resolve it. The American foreign policy establishment that brought us the war in Ukraine now claims that it is Donald Trump’s war. We’ve seen this movie before. When the war in Vietnam became unpopular and seemingly unwinnable, the “best and the brightest” of the Kennedy–Johnson administration that escalated America’s involvement in the war, and their supporters among the foreign policy establishment, called it “Nixon’s war” when the new president took office in 1969. Now, neoconservative writer Hal Brands, a member in good standing with the...

U.S. President Donald Trump's senior envoys Steve Witkoff and Keith Kellogg will travel to Istanbul for potential talks on Thursday on how to end Russia's war in Ukraine, three sources familiar with the plans said on Tuesday. However, a senior U.S. official said it was unclear whether anyone from the Russian government would show up. The White House, State Department, National Security Council and a spokesperson for Witkoff did not immediately respond to a request for comment. President Volodymyr Zelenskiy will only attend the talks this week if Russia's Vladimir Putin is also there, an aide to the Ukrainian leader...

Volodymyr Zelensky has confirmed he will personally attend landmark peace talks on Thursday with Russia in a direct ultimatum to Vladimir Putin. Writing on social media on Sunday afternoon, Ukraine's President said he "will be waiting" in Istanbul for his Russian counterpart to sit down and negotiate.

Vladimir Putin’s top security official has vanished during efforts to end the war in Ukraine, amid swirling health rumours and claims he could be caught up in a corruption probe. Sergei Shoigu, 69, is a Russian army general and currently the secretary of the powerful Russian Security Council. He served as defence minister for most of the war in Ukraine before being replaced one year ago, and is a very well-known member of Putin's entourage. Speculation is swirling in Moscow after he missed the Red Square parade on Friday amid claims his absence was health-related. But an explanation that he...

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan and Russian President Vladimir Putin held a phone call, according to Türkiye’s Presidential Communications Directorate, News.Az reports. It was noted that the parties discussed Turkiye-Russia relations, regional and global issues. Erdogan expressed his satisfaction with Putin's statement on the resumption of Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul, and stressed that Turkiye is ready to host the discussions. The Turkish President also noted that a window of opportunity for peace has opened, and that ensuring a ceasefire will create the necessary environment for peace talks.

President Donald Trump suggested imminent progress in peace talks between Russia and Ukraine in a post to Truth Social early on Sunday, saying he would "continue to work with both sides" to end Moscow's 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor. "A potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine!," Trump wrote. "Think of the hundreds of thousands of lives that will be saved as this never ending 'bloodbath' hopefully comes to an end. It will be a whole new, and much better, WORLD." "I will continue to work with both sides to make sure that it happens." Trump continued. "The USA wants...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Sunday welcomed Russia’s offer for direct peace talks, but insisted there must be a full, temporary ceasefire in place before negotiations can start. Zelenskyy, writing on X, called Russian President Vladimir Putin’s counter-offer to start talks without a ceasefire a “positive sign,” and said that “the entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time.”