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Sending Ukraine offensive weapons could push Russian President Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, retired Adm. James Stavridis, the former NATO supreme allied commander, said on Monday. Speaking ahead of the announcement of the U.S.-NATO weapons deal for Ukraine, Stavridis said he was hoping the deal would “move beyond strictly defensive weapons, such as the Patriot missiles, which are the air defense systems that the Ukrainians desperately need.” “What I would like to see is a provision for the United States to send more harpoon missiles to go after the Black Sea fleet, more HIMARS, surface-to-surface weapons that can reach...

US President Donald Trump has said he will have "a major statement" on Russia on Monday, without going into detail. Trump made the remark in a phone interview with NBC News on Thursday, referring to the situation in Ukraine. The president said, "I'm disappointed in Russia, but we'll see what happens over the next couple of weeks." Trump has recently been stepping up his criticism of Russia. He has suggested he would consider additional sanctions against Moscow. Russia's presidential spokesperson, Dmitry Peskov, said on Friday that Moscow is waiting for the statement to understand what exactly President Trump means.

In the battle for Ukraine, the front line is increasingly at a standstill. The reason: rapid innovations in drone technology. From just a few commercial and homemade drones, which the Ukrainians used at the start of the war to locate invading Russian columns, unmanned vehicles now dominate the battlefield. Each side has hundreds of them constantly in the air across the 750-mile front line. Drones can lay mines, deliver everything from ammunition to medication and even evacuate wounded or dead soldiers. Crucially, drones spot any movement along the front line and are dispatched to strike enemy troops and vehicles. ‘Wedding...

Russia has sent a stark and chilling warning to Donald Trump, as the US Congress prepares to vote on a new batch of sanctions against Moscow. -snip- Vladimir Solovyov - a Kremlin apparatchik - warned Trump that Russia could become America's "most terrifying enemy" in a rant on his TV talkshow. "Maybe Trump simply can't grasp that Russia doesn't care about the national interests of other countries if they contradict those of our own state?" he fumed. Warming to his subject, the Putin stooge continued: "The time when someone like Yeltsin, who randomly emerged from the dust of history, managed...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the coastal city of Wonsan on Saturday, where he described the two nations' relations as "an invincible fighting brotherhood", Russia's foreign ministry said. The ministry quoted Lavrov as saying that the visit represented the continuation of "strategic dialogue" between the two sides inaugurated by Russian President Vladimir Putin's visit to North Korea last year. In a message passed on by Lavrov, Putin said that he hoped for more direct contacts in future, TASS news agency reported. Lavrov, the ministry said, also thanked North Korea for the troops...

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...

VLADIMIR Putin's brutal war machine was dealt another blow today as Moscow confirmed the death of another top Russian military chief. Russian authorities have confirmed the death of Colonel Sergei Ilyin, commander of Russia's notorious 155th Marine Brigade. Telegram news channel Astra reported the Colonel's death on Friday, citing a now-deleted post from officials, the Moscow Times has reported. Ilyin had died "during the special military operation" according to a post attributed to the Urmarsky district administration. "Special military operation" is the euphemism used by Kremlin authorities when referring to the Russian invasion of Ukraine. It follows speculation that the...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived on Friday in the coastal city of Wonsan, North Korea, according to RIA Novosti. The visit comes ahead of the second round of the strategic dialogue between Moscow and Pyongyang, with Lavrov scheduled to meet his North Korean counterpart, Choe Son Hui, to discuss bilateral ties. Earlier this week, Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova announced the meeting would take place, adding that the first round of the dialogue took place in Moscow in January 2024.

A 1-year-old boy was “mercilessly and deliberately” executed in a Russian drone attack in southern Ukraine — where terrified residents say they feel they are being hunted in a sick game of “human safari,”officials said. The boy, identified as Dmytryk, was playing at his grandmother’s yard in Pravdyne on Wednesday when the drone came crashing in, causing shrapnel to pierce his heart and kill the toddler who celebrated his first birthday just two months ago. “Our little boy was here, in the playpen, walking around,” his distraught grandmother, Halyna, 64, told local Ukrainian outlet Podrobnosti.

U.S. Special Envoy for Ukraine Keith Kellogg will travel to Kyiv on July 14 for a week-long visit, he confirmed during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Rome. The visit comes at a critical time, as confusion surrounds the Trump administration's stance on future military aid to Ukraine. Kellogg’s trip follows reports that President Donald Trump may authorize his first new weapons package for Ukraine since taking office, potentially using NATO funding. Until now, the administration has allowed only shipments approved under former President Joe Biden, News.Az reports, citing foreign media. The situation remains tense after the Pentagon unexpectedly paused deliveries...

Vladimir Putin's only aircraft carrier - the hulking Admiral Kuznetsov - is poised to be scrapped after seven failed years of repairs, say reports. Work on the jinxed ship, the largest in the Russian navy, has now been suspended despite the efforts to get it back in the water. News outlet Izvestia cites sources saying the vessel is likely destined for the scrapheap. Putin's 'Ship of Shame' is languishing in dock in grim Arctic port Murmansk, and has played no role in the war against Ukraine. Its crew were quietly sent to fight in the war instead. The 58,000-ton rust...

THE Kremlin has been accused of covering up the death of a sacked Russian minister after signs of torture were allegedly found on his body just 24 hours before his apparent suicide. Roman Starovoit, who was Vladimir Putin's transport minister for less than a year, was dismissed from his post on July 7 - just hours before he was found dead. Telegram channels with links to the Russian security forces reported Starovoit's cause of death as suicide - claiming the minister was found dead with gunshot wounds. However, an independent Russian media outlet now reports that he had been beaten...

Everyone agrees: it's getting worse. The people of Kyiv have, like the citizens of other Ukrainian cities, been through a lot. After three and a half years of fluctuating fortunes, they are tough and extremely resilient. But in recent months, they have been experiencing something new: vast, coordinated waves of attacks from the air, involving hundreds of drones and missiles, often concentrated on a single city. Last night, it was Kyiv. And the week before too. In between, it was Lutsk in the far west. Three years ago, Iranian-supplied Shahed drones were a relative novelty. I remember hearing my first,...

President Donald Trump for the first time since returning to office will send weapons to Kyiv under a presidential power frequently used by his predecessor, two sources familiar with the decision said on Thursday, a move suggesting new interest by the president in defending Ukraine. More than three years after Russia's invasion of its neighbor, Trump's team will identify arms from U.S. stockpiles to send to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority, the sources said, with one saying they could be worth around $300 million. Trump on Tuesday said the U.S. would send more weapons to Ukraine to help the...

Russian state media has launched a barrage of criticism against U.S. President Donald Trump after he accused Russia's Vladimir Putin of saying "a lot of bulls***" about the war in Ukraine, the exiled news outlet Agentstvo reported Wednesday. -snip- Prominent pro-Kremlin television host Vladimir Solovyov on Tuesday chastised Trump on his flagship talk show for addressing Putin in what he described as a disrespectful tone. “Trump has started to speak rudely,” Solovyov said. “It seems to us that he’s undergoing a ‘Bidenization.’ His belief that he’s the only person able to speak with Putin has made him transform into another...

Speaking on the State TV channel Russia-1, pro-government host Vladimir Solovyov warned that Russia could destroy both US coasts using nuclear-powered Poseidon torpedoes—underwater weapons designed to trigger a “radioactive tsunami.” During the broadcast, Solovyov directly addressed US President Donald Trump: “Will Trump understand that two Poseidons, launched from different sides, could wipe out the US and create a radioactive disaster? That would be the end—nothing will save them.” “No protective element will help them,” Solovyov declared, referring to US missile defense systems. Framing the hypothetical strike as a response to “Western aggression,” he suggested that Washington underestimates Russia’s capabilities and...

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said he expressed the United States' frustration that more progress has not been made on ending the war in Ukraine in a meeting on Thursday with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov. "It was a frank conversation. It was an important one," Rubio said his 50-minute talks with the Russian foreign minister on the sidelines of the ASEAN foreign ministers' meeting in Malaysia. He said he expressed to Lavrov what U.S. President Donald Trump has said publicly, "that there's not been more flexibility on the Russian side to bring about an end to this conflict." The envoys'...

A Russian combat drone—Russia’s answer to the US MQ-9 Reaper—crashed in Kazan on July 8 after reportedly being disabled by electronic warfare. The crash was caused by a disruption to its satellite navigation system, according to Russia’s Ural Civil Aviation Plant, which now oversees the drone’s development, Russian media, citing the company, reported on July 9. “During the flight, the UAV’s satellite navigation was disrupted by unidentified electronic warfare equipment. The drone switched to inertial navigation and attempted a second landing pass. The landing was conducted in inertial mode, and a non-standard situation occurred,” the company’s press office stated. The...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday he had held a "substantive" conversation with U.S. President Donald Trump's Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, in Rome shortly after Trump pledged to send more defensive weapons to Kyiv. "We discussed weapons supplies and strengthening air defense. Given the increase in Russian attacks, this remains one of our top priorities," Zelenskiy wrote on the X social media platform. "We also covered the purchase of American weapons, joint defense manufacturing, and localization efforts in Ukraine," he added. Both men were in Italy ahead of a conference on July 10-11 dedicated to Ukraine's recovery and long-term...

THE girlfriend of Vladimir Putin's transport official who was found dead ahead of a fraud inquiry could be banned from his funeral. Roman Starovoit, 53, was sacked by Vlad on Monday after he couldn't stop Ukraine causing mayhem to Russia's aviation industry - and was found dead hours later. He was found beside his Tesla with a bullet wound to his head as the mystery behind his "suicide" deepens. Now it has emerged that his long-term girlfriend, 25-year-old Polina Korneeva, might be barred from attending his funeral. Polina was brought to the scene by law enforcement to identify the corpse...