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Russia's military says it has regained full control of the country's western Kursk region - a claim denied by Ukraine. Ukrainian forces have been in retreat in Kursk in recent months, facing 70,000 Russian troops and heavy drone attacks as part of Russia's drive to regain the territory. In its latest report on 25 April, the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW) think-tank said: "Russian forces recently advanced near the international border in Kursk Oblast [region] as part of efforts to push Ukrainian forces from their limited remaining positions in the area." The ISW also reported that "fighting...

A peace proposal by the Trump administration that includes recognizing Russian authority over Crimea shocked Ukrainian officials, who say they will not accept any formal surrender of the peninsula, even though they expect to concede the territory to the Kremlin, at least temporarily. Giving up the land that was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014 is also politically and legally impossible, according to experts. It would require a change to the Ukrainian constitution and a nationwide vote, and it could be considered treason. Lawmakers and the public are firmly opposed to the idea. “It doesn’t mean anything,” said Oleksandr Merezkho,...

Russia on Saturday publicly acknowledged for the first time that North Korean forces are fighting on its side against Ukraine. While reporting to Russian President Vladimir Putin about the situation in Kursk, southern Russia, General Valery Gerasimov praised North Korean DPRK soldiers for their efforts. Gerasimov said the troops had shown “high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism,” fulfilling combat tasks “shoulder to shoulder” with Russian servicemen. Following this admission, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said that “Russia will never forget its friends from the DPRK.”

Donald Trump has broken his silence after a meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky at Pope Francis' funeral - and turned on Vladimir Putin. In a rant on his social media platform Truth Social he accused the Russian President of stringing him along and at the same time blamed Democrat Presidents Obama and Biden for a "mess". He wrote: "I’m just trying to clean up the mess that was left to me by Obama and Biden, and what a mess it is. With all of that being said, there was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities...

President Donald Trump said Saturday that he doubts Russia’s Vladimir Putin wants to end his war in Ukraine, expressing new skepticism that a peace deal can be reached soon. Only a day earlier, Trump had said Ukraine and Russia were “ very close to a deal.” “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump said in a social media post as he flew back to the United States after attending Pope Francis’ funeral at the Vatican, where he met briefly with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Trump...

President Trump on Saturday said he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin may be stringing him along after the latest deadly strikes on Ukraine, as the U.S. seeks to bring an end to the war in Eastern Europe. “There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,” Trump posted Saturday on Truth Social. “It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!” His...

Russian President Vladimir Putin hailed on Saturday what he called the complete failure of an offensive by Ukrainian forces into Russia's Kursk region after they were expelled from the last village Moscow said they had been holding. -snip- Gerasimov also praised the North Korean officers and soldiers' contribution in Kursk, saying they had shown "high professionalism, fortitude, courage and heroism", fulfilling combat tasks "shoulder to shoulder" with Russian servicemen. North Korea sent an estimated total of 14,000 troops, including 3,000 reinforcements to replace its losses, Ukrainian officials said. Lacking armoured vehicles and drone warfare experience, they took heavy casualties but...

-snip- "Vladimir, STOP! Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!" Trump wrote on his Truth Social account on Thursday. He said in a post Friday that after a "good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine" they "are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to 'finish it off.'" "Most of the major points are agreed to. Stop the bloodshed, NOW," Trump added. Driving the news: Putin's advisers Yuri Ushakov and Kirill Dmitriev also attended the meeting. Ushakov said in a briefing with reporters that the meeting was "constructive and...

Donald Trump has said Russia and Ukraine are "very close to a deal" with "most of the major points agreed" - as he called for the two sides to meet. Shortly after arriving in Rome for Pope Francis's funeral, the US president said high-level officials should now meet to "finish [the deal] off". "A good day in talks and meetings with Russia and Ukraine," Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform. "They are very close to a deal, and the two sides should now meet, at very high levels, to 'finish it off'. "Most of the major points are...

The radicalized son of a CIA director was killed last year while allegedly fighting for Russia in Ukraine, according to a new investigation. Michael Alexander Gloss, the 21-year-old son of the CIA’s Deputy Director for Digital Innovation Julianne Gallina Gloss and a Navy veteran father, was killed on the front lines after enlisting in the Russian army, according to a lengthy investigation by independent Russian outlet Important Stories. Gloss’ obituary said his “fiercely beautiful life … was taken from us during his travels overseas” on April 4, 2024, without detailing exactly how “With his noble heart and warrior spirit Michael...

Sergey Naryshkin, the director of the Russian Foreign Intelligence Service (SVR), said he held a phone call with CIA Director John Ratcliffe and hinted at a forthcoming face-to-face meeting sometime soon. Speaking to Russian state media TASS, Naryshkin said “I had a telephone conversation with my colleague, the director of the Central Intelligence Agency [CIA]. It was a very constructive conversation. So I do not rule out the possibility of a meeting in the near future.”

April 25 (UPI) -- Russian Foreign Minster Sergey Lavrov said the Kremlin was "ready to reach a deal" to end the war with Ukraine.Lavrov told CBS News on Thursday in an interview that U.S. President Donald Trump "believes, and I think rightly so, that we are moving in the right direction," adding that Trump's optimism that progress was being made in efforts to settle the Ukraine conflict was founded in fact.

Moscow CNN — In March, Russian president Vladimir Putin gifted Donald Trump a mystery portrait of the US president. The painting was delivered by Trump envoy Steve Witkoff, who, in an interview with podcast host Tucker Carlson, described it as “a beautiful portrait” by a “leading Russian artist.” Trump, he added, was “clearly touched by it.” But the portrait itself was not publicly revealed. Now, the artist behind the Kremlin-commissioned artwork has given CNN an exclusive look at the portrait. The painting gifted to the US president shows Trump raising his fist on stage after the failed assassination attempt...

United States Special Envoy to the Middle East Steve Witkoff left the Kremlin on Friday afternoon after talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin, according to a RIA Novosti correspondent. Witkoff's motorcade was seen exiting the Kremlin around 5:19 pm local time, suggesting the meeting lasted under three hours, shorter than the four-and-a-half-hour discussion held during their previous encounter two weeks ago.

President Donald Trump has said he is "very angry" and "pissed off" with Russian President Vladimir Putin after weeks of attempting to negotiate a ceasefire in Ukraine. In an NBC News interview, he said he was angry with Putin for attacking Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky's credibility, and threatened to impose a 50% tariff on countries buying Russian oil if he did not agree to a ceasefire. "If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia's fault - which it might not be... I am going to...

An American businessman is urging President Trump to help save his $200 million canned-food empire after Russian authorities took over his company and seized its assets. Los Angeles-based Leonid Smirnov, who fled Soviet communism in the 1970s, says he’s in a race against time to save Glavprodukt — the Campbell’s of Russia — which he founded in 1999 and built into a household name in his homeland. “What’s happening with my company is a raid under a government seizure and confiscation attempt,” If it can happen to him, he said in a warning to Trump, it can happen to any...

President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” when Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership, adding that the comments were “not going in the right location.” Agence France-Presse reported that Putin on Friday called for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine, which could effectively push out Zelenskyy. “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault,...

A Russian negotiator has warned that peace talks with the US on the war in Ukraine could drag into 2026. Grigory Karasin, who led talks with the US in Saudi Arabia on March 24, said on Friday that there may be no decisive results from talks with the US. “It would have been naive to expect any breakthroughs,” Karasin said to Russian state TV Channel Rossiya 24. -snip- It comes after Russia effectively rejected a 30-day pause in the fighting proposed by the US. It also asked for sanctions against food and fertiliser to be lifted - along with the...

WASHINGTON, Feb 18 (Reuters) - When Russian President Vladimir Putin launched his invasion of Ukraine nearly three years ago, then-U.S. President Joe Biden took a firm stand in solidarity with Kyiv, forged a bulwark of European allies and set veteran advisers to the task of isolating Moscow economically and diplomatically. Washington's approach changed dramatically with Tuesday's initial meeting between U.S. and Russian negotiators. The officials met just a month after Donald Trump returned to the White House, with Ukraine and NATO partners sidelined by a relatively inexperienced team of Trump aides and Putin granted concessions even before the talks got...

US President Donald Trump called Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky “a dictator,” escalating a public war of words between the two leaders that started when Trump falsely accused Ukraine of starting the war with Russia. Trump’s accusation, posted on his social media network Truth Social, came just hours after Zelensky accused him of repeating Russian disinformation. Speaking to reporters in Kyiv, Zelensky pushed back on several unfounded claims the US president made on Tuesday, while reinforcing Ukraine’s position that a deal to end the war needed its involvement. “Unfortunately, President Trump – I have great respect for him as a leader...