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The European Commission has published a "roadmap" outlining its plans to end Europe's reliance on Russian energy in the coming years. Under the plans, imports of all Russian gas and liquefied natural gas to European Union member states will be banned by the end of 2027. "No more will we permit Russia to weaponise energy against us... No more will we indirectly help fill up the [Kremlin's] war chests," European Commissioner for Energy Dan Jorgensen said in a news conference in Strasbourg on Tuesday. In response to the plans, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told the Reuters news agency on Tuesday...

Europe is once again talking about forming its own defense alliance. The idea of a European army—discussed on and off since the early days of the Cold War—was revived in February by Volodymyr Zelensky. The Ukrainian president claims that Donald Trump’s retraction of military support for Ukraine and ambivalence towards the EU shows that the bloc urgently needs its own military unit. Zelensky has reignited a debate that has failed to generate consensus within Europe, despite its long history.Spain’s Socialist prime minister, Pedro Sánchez, is the latest EU leader to echo Zelensky—and according to a YouGov poll conducted in 2022,...

... Germany's military, the Bundeswehr, recently got the all-clear for a massive increase in investment after parliament voted to exempt defence spending from strict rules on debt. The country's top general has told the BBC the cash boost is urgently needed because he believes Russian aggression won't stop at Ukraine. "We are threatened by Russia. We are threatened by Putin. We have to do whatever is needed to deter that," Gen Carsten Breuer says. He warns that Nato should be braced for a possible attack in as little as four years. "It's not about how much time I need, it's...

Ukraine Guilty of Human Rights Violations in Trade Union Massacre, Top European Court Finds March 25, 2025 Euromaidan in Kiev, 19 February 2014. Labor Unions’ House on fire. The European Court of Human Rights has found the Ukrainian government guilty of committing human rights violations during the May 2, 2014 Odessa massacre, in which dozens of Russian-speaking demonstrators were forced into the city’s Trade Unions House and burned alive by ultranationalist thugs. Citing the “relevant authorities’ failure to do everything that could reasonably be expected of them to prevent the violence in Odessa,” the court ruled unanimously that Ukraine violated...

Throughout Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, repeated and escalating warnings of the potential for a wider war have only raised fears in the Baltic states that they could be next in the crosshairs of the Kremlin. Talk about a potential Russian invasion is "very common at parties, gatherings, lunch breaks, water cooler talk," Gabija Stasiukyne, a 32-year-old living in Vilnius, told the Kyiv Independent. "It’s everywhere. The conversation inevitably turns in the direction of — what are you going to do?" Lithuania's government is also taking the threat seriously — the country reinstated conscription in 2015, and Vilnius in January...

With a staccato burst, a horn sounded in the control room of the H.M.S. Vanguard, sending the crew of the nuclear-armed Royal Navy submarine to battle stations. The voice of the commanding officer crackled over the intercom. “Set condition 1SQ,” he said, ordering its battery of ballistic missiles to be readied for launch. It was just a drill, conducted last Monday for a visiting V.I.P., Prime Minister Keir Starmer... Back on a tugboat, taking us to shore in the Firth of Clyde, Mr. Starmer sat alone, staring out a window at the gathering clouds. It has been a defining, if...

QUESTION: Did your sources tell you that Putin would reject the complete cease-fire? You seem always to be spot on. FK ANSWER: In all honesty, you shouldn’t even need sources for that. The Europeans have been undermining Trump at every turn. Putin would be a fool to accept a complete caesar-fire because Zelensky is an untrustworthy guy taking orders from NATO and the Neocons against Trump. They told him to agree to a cease-fire to buy again time to reply and buy time for Europe to build up its military. Putin would be a fool not to see through this...

Berlin (dpa) - Russia intends to test Western unity, especially with regard to NATO's collective defence clause, according to Bruno Kahl, the head of Germany's BND intelligence service. In an interview with Deutsche Welle broadcaster, he said Russia was considering testing the reliability of NATO's Article 5, which states that an attack on one ally must be treated as an attack on all. .... "It is also possible that a concrete threat or blackmail attempt from Russia against Europeans could occur earlier than previously calculated," Kahl said.

Ukraine’s opposition leaders have confirmed they have held discussions with members of Donald Trump’s entourage, but denied on Thursday they were part of a reported White House plot to remove Volodymyr Zelenskyy from power. The former president Petro Poroshenko said he had held talks with US representatives but added that he opposed Trump’s demands for wartime elections. Poroshenko, who lost to Zelenskyy in the 2019 presidential vote, said a poll should only be held once martial law ends. Yulia Tymoshenko, Ukraine’s former prime minister, said she also opposes elections while fighting continues. She said her team was “talking with all...

The French president also warned that Europe must be prepared for the US “not to be at our side” going forward. FRENCH PRESIDENT EMMANUEL Macron has said that peace “cannot be achieved by abandoning Ukraine” as he warned of the “real threat” to Europe from Russia. Addressing the nation over the current global uncertainty in the wake of the radical change in US policy on Ukraine under Donald Trump, Macron also said that Europe has to be ready for the US “not to be at our side” going forward. It comes amid the breakdown in relations between Trump and Ukrainian...

European Commission president Ursula Von Der Leyen has laid out plans to “rearm Europe” as she voiced that the continent has now entered “an era of rearmament”. Speaking on Tuesday, Von Der Leyen highlighted that the EU defense plans set out could mobilize around €800 billion for defense. “We are in an era of rearmament. Europe is ready to massively boost its defense spending. Both to respond to the short term urgency to support Ukraine, but also the long-term need for more responsibility for our own European security,” she said in her speech. […] Under the plans, the EU will...

President Donald Trump is putting a pause on all military aid to Ukraine and issuing an ultimatum to President Volodymyr Zelensky after their Oval Office meeting blew up on Friday. The president had planned to meet with his senior advisors on Monday, according to the New York Times, where he will consider the future of Ukraine aid, even as European countries are discussing how to increase their support for Ukraine. A White House official said Trump is focused on reaching a peace deal to end the more than three-year war sparked by Russia's all-out invasion of Ukraine, and wants Zelensky...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump has paused military aid to Ukraine following his clash with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy last week, a White House official, deepening the fissure that has opened between the two one-time allies."President Trump has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution," said the official on Monday, speaking on the condition of anonymity.The White House had no immediate comment on the scope and amount of aid...

The NATO split is deepening as Donald Trump accuses the UK-led 'coalition of the willing' of being weak for relying on an American backstop for peace. As bombs and drones rained down on Ukraine yesterday, Emmanuel Macron proposed a 30-day end to the fighting – but without any security guarantees for Kyiv. Britain and other allies gave the plan the cold shoulder, as the UK supports the Ukrainian position which is that any end to the war must be secured by an agreement which Russia will be too scared to break. European leaders were hoping a common policy on Ukraine...

A British Army officer turned MP has warned NATO’s Article 5 is “effectively dead” and says Europe needs to form its own alliance without the US. Lib Dem MP Mike Martin, who sits on the Defence Committee, says the Government needs to reconsider its faith in Article 5 - the cornerstone of NATO security. The Afghanistan veteran says Europe must develop its own collective alliance, dubbed EATO, led by Britain or France as the continent’s two sole nuclear powers. He told the Express: “What I would like to see is a serious assessment as to whether they [the Government] think...

Did you know that the European Union has sent more money to Russia in payment for petroleum products than they have provided aid to Ukraine. You read that right: the EU is funding both sides of the war. ... EU imports of Russian fossil fuels in the third year of the invasion surpassed the EUR 18.7 bn of financial aid they sent to Ukraine in 2024 ... All the virtue signaling from European leaders about standing with Ukraine is completely belied by this. They all continue to trade with Russia and import oil, gas, and coal. If they were really...

Donald J. Trump @realDonaldTrump Europe has spent more money buying Russian Oil and Gas than they have spent on defending Ukraine —BY FAR! Mar 03, 2025

European leaders are confronting their worst-case scenario: maybe they really are going to be dealing with a bellicose Russia alone.When the United States lined up alongside Russia and North Korea earlier this week to oppose a UN motion condemning Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, some European officials knew that the transatlantic relationship was in deep trouble. Then they watched in horror as Donald Trump gave Volodymyr Zelenskiy a public dressing down in the Oval Office and something broke.

It was a delicate balancing act for the man once considered Europe’s “Trump whisperer”. Emmanuel Macron, the French president, was seated in the Oval Office gently trying to factcheck Donald Trump in real time as the US president pushed a narrative that Ukraine had taken advantage of US support during its defense against Russia’s full-scale invasion. Now, said Trump, it is time to get paid back. “This war cost all of us a lot of money,” said Macron as a scowling Trump looked on. “And this is the responsibility of Russia because the aggressor is Russia.” Trump broke in. “Just...

… First, Europe should announce its willingness to quit NATO. A Europe that is forced to spend 5 percent on defense is a Europe that doesn’t need the United States. Five percent of the combined EU/U.K. GDP in 2024 amounts to $1.1 trillion, comparable to U.S. defense spending of $824 billion in 2024 (In 2024, the EU and U.K. combined spent around $410 billion on defense.). Eventually, Europe need not quit. But only a credible threat to leave would wake up Trump (and VP J.D. Vance and Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth) and force him to treat Europe with respect. By...