Free Republic

The momentum for peace negotiations is much faster than even the most hopeful among us was expecting, and it seems like every day another historical milestone is achieved. Today, it arises that the Saudi Foreign Ministry publicly welcomed the telephone conversation between US President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, and announced that it is ready to host a meeting between Trump and Putin on its territory. Trump expects to meet Putin in Saudi Arabia ‘in the not-too-distant future’, but later clarified he will not be meeting Putin next week in Saudi Arabia, despite online speculation. No specific date...

uring an interview aired on Friday’s broadcast of Newsmax TV’s “The Record,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said that he thinks Russia at least has to return to the territorial lines prior to the full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and Ukraine must be a part of any negotiations in order for them to accept a deal.After host Greta Van Susteren said that she doesn’t see Russia wanting to back off to the 2022 lines or 2014 lines and asked how the war ended, Zelensky responded that he thinks President Donald Trump can bring about an end to the war and...

BRUSSELS (AP) — Increasingly alarmed that U.S. security priorities lie elsewhere, a group of European countries has been quietly working on a plan to send troops into Ukraine to help enforce any future peace settlement with Russia. Britain and France are at the forefront of the effort, though details remain scarce. The countries involved in the discussions are reluctant to tip their hand and give Russian President Vladimir Putin an edge should he agree to negotiate an end to the war he launched three years ago. What is clear is that Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy needs a guarantee that his...

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for the creation of an "army of Europe" to guard against Russia as he suggested the US may no longer come to the continent's aid. Speaking at the Munich Security Conference, he also said that Ukraine would "never accept deals made behind our backs without our involvement" after US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to start peace talks. In a speech on Friday, in which he attacked European democracies, US Vice President JD Vance warned that Europe needed to "step up in a big way" on defence. Zelensky said: "I...

Russia is rejoicing after President Trump ripped up three years of US policy on the war in Ukraine. Lindsey Hilsum reports

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov commented on the Wall Street Journal article by saying Vance's threats represented new elements of the US position that need to be clarified during future talksWASHINGTON, February 14. /TASS/. US Vice President JD Vance accused the Wall Street Journal of distorting his comments about the possibility of sending US troops to Ukraine. "The fact that the WSJ twisted my words in the way they did for this story is absurd, but not surprising considering they have spent years pushing for more American sons and daughters in uniform to be unnecessarily deployed overseas," he said on X....

The Kremlin is assembling a high-level negotiating team to engage in direct talks with the United States to end the war in Ukraine, sources with knowledge of the issue have told CNN. Members of the Kremlin team have not been publicly announced, but CNN has learned it will include top-level political, intelligence and economic figures, including the Russian official who played a key behind-the-scenes role in a recent US prisoner release deal. Kirill Dmitriev, a close Putin adviser, will focus on restoring economic ties between the US and Russia as the two sides attempt to forge a Russia-Ukraine peace agreement,...

Good morning from JD Vance! Nothing like waking up on a Friday to see your vice president delivering a smackdown to the holier-than-thou Eurotrash who are working overtime to turn their continent into a totalitarian state. 👇 JUST IN: Vice President JD Vance rips European leaders to their faces at the Munich security conference, calls them out for criminalizing free speech.🔥🔥Vance specifically called out the United Kingdom for being the worst of them all.“I wish I could say that this was a… pic.twitter.com/1bj9TKxP4q— Collin Rugg (@CollinRugg) February 14, 2025I look at Brussels, where EU commissars warn citizens that they intend...

Donald Trump's peace plan for the Ukraine/Russia conflict is coming under fire from some entertaining quarters. There is, of course, the domestic whining from the likes of John Bolton, who said “I think we know exactly what's gonna happen. President Trump has effectively surrendered to Putin before the negotiations have even begun.” I asked Grok what Bolton's solution to the conflict and it said this: No Negotiations with Russia: At various times, Bolton has argued against negotiating with Russia from a position of anything less than strength. He believes that as long as the conflict can be won militarily, talks...

According to JD Vance, the Trump administration is very concerned about the state of European securityMUNICH, February 14. /TASS/. The United States believes that the biggest threat to Europe’s security is coming neither from Russia nor from China, but is inside Europe, US Vice President JD Vance said at the Munich Security Conference. "The Trump administration is very concerned about the state of European security, and we hope that we can reach a rational agreement between Russia and Ukraine," he said, adding that Europe should dramatically increase its defense spending in the coming years. "The threat that worries me the...

President Trump is looking forward to a fundamentally productive negotiation with Russia’s Putin and Ukraine’s Zelensky, Vice President JD Vance has said, in comments mischaracterised by the Wall Street Journal as a threat of war.U.S. Vice President JD Vance is speaking at the Munich Security Conference — taking place just one day after what is said to have been a terror attack in the city — and meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky today. Speaking to the Wall Street Journal before these engagements, Vance communicated President Donald Trump’s determination to make a peace deal in Ukraine and the incentives on...

Vice President JD Vance urged European leaders on Friday to fight back against censorship, declaring that their contempt for and even criminalization of free speech was posing the biggest threat on the continent — more even than Russian aggression. “The threat that I worry the most about vis-à-vis Europe is not Russia, it’s not China, it’s not any other external actor,” Vance said in an address at the Munich Security Conference. “What I worry about is the threat from within, the retreat of Europe from some of its most fundamental values, values shared with the United States of America.” Vance...

The Kremlin on Friday called for clarification on recent remarks by US Vice President JD Vance regarding the possible deployment of American troops to Ukraine and new anti-Russian sanctions, saying these statements introduce “new elements” in Washington’s position. Speaking at a press briefing in Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia expects further explanation during upcoming contacts with US officials. "We have not heard such formulations before, they have not been expressed previously," Peskov said. "Naturally, during the very contacts we discussed, we hope to receive further clarification." In an interview with the US media, Vance said the option of...

The Foreign Ministry of Saudi Arabia confirmed on Friday it is interested in hosting a summit between President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in the near future after Trump floated the possibility. President Trump held a phone conversation with Putin on Wednesday in which the two agreed to meet in person on at least one occasion, followed by a phone conversation with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Both talks focused on plans to end the ongoing Russian invasion of Ukraine, which began during former President Joe Biden’s term after Biden lifted Trump-era sanctions on a proposed pipeline connecting...

Washington could impose tougher sanctions on Moscow and send U.S. troops to Ukraine if Russian President Vladimir Putin fails to negotiate a Ukraine peace deal in good faith, U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance told the Wall Street Journal in an interview published Friday. “There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage,” Vance was quoted as saying. “I think there is a deal that is going to come out of this that’s going to shock a lot of people.”

Realpolitik, politics based on practical objectives rather than on ideals. The word does not mean “real” in the English sense but rather connotes “things”—hence a politics of adaptation to things as they are. Realpolitik thus suggests a pragmatic, no-nonsense view and a disregard for ethical considerations. In diplomacy it is often associated with relentless, though realistic, pursuit of the national interest. Détente, French for “relaxation,” is “a process of managing relations with a potentially hostile country in order to preserve peace while maintaining our vital interests,” Henry Kissinger, then U.S. secretary of state, told a Congressional committee in 1974. But...

Vice President JD Vance said Thursday that the U.S. would hit Moscow with sanctions and potentially military action if Russian President Vladimir Putin won’t agree to a peace deal with Ukraine that guarantees Kyiv’s long-term independence. Vance said the option of sending U.S. troops to Ukraine if Moscow failed to negotiate in good faith remained “on the table,” striking a far tougher tone than did Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who on Wednesday suggested the U.S. wouldn’t commit forces. “There are economic tools of leverage, there are of course military tools of leverage” the U.S. could use against Putin, Vance said....

when "things have calmed down" to "cut our military budget in half"

KYIV (Reuters) - President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Thursday Ukraine would not accept any bilateral agreement on its fate reached by Moscow and Washington without Kyiv's involvement, and called for Europe to have a seat at the table in negotiations to end the war.The Ukrainian leader made the comments at a nuclear plant on his way to the Munich Security Conference, a day after U.S. President Donald Trump spoke to Russian leader Vladimir Putin Zelenskiy and announced the start of negotiations."We, as an independent country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us," Zelenskiy told reporters.The Putin...

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - U.S. President Donald Trump on Thursday said he would love to have Russia return to the Group of Seven nations, saying it was a mistake for Moscow to be expelled.Russia had been a member of the G7 club of industrialized democracies, then known as the G8, until Moscow was excluded following its annexation of Ukraine's Crimea region in 2014."I'd love to have them back. I think it was a mistake to throw them out. Look, it's not a question of liking Russia or not liking Russia. It was the G8," Trump said at the White House when...