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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...

Vladimir Putin has said "no one is excluding Ukraine" from talks, adding there was no need for a "hysterical" reaction to yesterday's talks between US and Russian officials. Putin said: "We are not imposing anything on anyone. We are ready, I have already said this a hundred times - if they want, please let these negotiations take place and we will be ready to return to the table." His comments follow a meeting between US and Russian officials in Saudi Arabia yesterday on ending the war in Ukraine, with Ukraine and European governments not invited to the talks. The Russian...

Vladimir Putin has said that normal diplomatic ties have been restored between Russia and the United States. "The constant expulsion of diplomats from Washington and Moscow does not lead to anything good," Putin said according to RIA Novosti, Russian state-owned media. Putin expressed interest in meeting with U.S. President Donald Trump but stressed that any such talks must be carefully planned to ensure a productive outcome.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday said his troops had crossed into Ukraine's northeastern Sumy region -- a first ground attack there since 2022 -- but Kyiv swiftly denied the claim. "I was told an hour ago that at night fighters of the 810th brigade crossed the border of the Russian Federation and Ukraine, and entered the territory of the enemy," Putin said in televised remarks.

Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump could meet this month, although the first face-to-face encounter between a Russian and a US leader since 2021 could take longer to prepare, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. -snip- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said that the meeting in Riyadh was focused mostly on Russian-US bilateral ties but that it was also a “very, very important step” toward reaching a settlement on the Ukraine war, nearing the end of its third year. “But this is the first step… Naturally, it’s impossible to fix everything in one day or a week. There is...

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Just caught some local Miami media saying Trump "falsely" accused Ukraine for starting the conflict with Russia. Don't know what comments they're talking about, but there was no context given...just a Democrat party talking point. Is this what the national news is doing too? Just happened on Tuesday night.

Donald Trump has signed an executive order that could make him the most powerful president in history by using an obscure Constitutional theory to enact his vision of presidential authority. The new order seeks to 'reign in independent agencies' by seizing various departments that normally act in accordance with Congress and bring them under control of the executive branch in the White House. The order also states that the president and attorney general will interpret the law, leaving Trump free from Congressional and judicial oversight. Observers suggest that Trump is using unitary executive theory which grants the president a wide...

Russia railed against Sir Keir Starmer's plans for a peace-keeping force involving British troops in Ukraine, saying it would be a 'step towards escalation'. Moscow issued the chilling warning after the Prime Minister revealed he was 'ready and willing' to deploy forces to help police any ceasefire deal. The development came after the first talks aimed at ending the war got under way yesterday between the US and Russia in Saudi Arabia. Michael Waltz, Donald Trump's National Security Adviser, appeared to back Sir Keir's plan, saying his pledge to look at sending UK troops was 'a good thing'. But within...

The presidential election in Ukraine was to be held in March 2024 but was cancelled due to martial lawNEW YORK, February 19. /TASS/. US President Donald Trump has pointed out that Kiev must hold a presidential election if it wants to sit down at the negotiating table to settle the Ukraine conflict and highlighted Vladimir Zelensky’s lack of popularity. "We have a situation where we haven't had elections in Ukraine, where we have martial law, essentially martial law in Ukraine, where the leader in Ukraine, I mean, I hate to say it, but he's down at 4% approval rating. And...

"That's not a Russia thing. That's something coming from me."

“Mark my words maga, you abandon Ukraine and you will make the Afghanistan withdrawal, and the failure to act in 2014, look like brilliant strategy,” Kinzinger said on X. “Trump will be seen as the worst president in history for foreign policy. A weak weak scared boy [sic].” Kinzinger has long held extremely hawkish views on Ukraine, introducing a joint resolution in 2022 to allow U.S. soldiers to enter Ukraine. He also insists the U.S. continue backing Ukraine in order to “exhaust” the Russians.

MOSCOW (Reuters) - The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it was Ukraine's sovereign right to decide whether it wanted to join the European Union and that Moscow did not intend to dictate to Kyiv how it should approach the question.Asked if Ukraine could one day join the European Union, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "This is the sovereign right of any country.""We are talking about integration and economic integration processes. And here, of course, no one can dictate anything to any country, and we are not going to do that," Peskov said.Peskov added, though, that Russia's position was different when...

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Tuesday that the United States is working toward a "fair" and "sustainable" solution to end Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine, but that both Moscow and Kyiv would have to make concessions to achieve peace. -snip- Rubio said he was "convinced" that Moscow was willing to engage in a "serious process" to end the war, which Russia started with a full-scale invasion of its neighbor three years ago next week. Lavrov had a similar upbeat view of the talks, saying, “We weren’t just listening to each other, but we heard each other. I have...

Along Ukraine's frontline, the war rages on. But global attention spanned thousands of miles away today, as representatives from Russia and the US met in Saudi Arabia to discuss an end to the conflict. Uninvited to those talks, and in Turkey instead, was Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky. He made it known he won't accept a deal made about Ukraine without Ukraine's involvement, and that he wouldn't recognise parts of Ukraine occupied by Russia. Speaking after the meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov called the talks "useful", but said any type of peacekeeping forces in Ukraine would be "completely unacceptable". Marco...

The top diplomats from Russia and the U.S. met Tuesday in Saudi Arabia to discuss improving ties and negotiating an end to the war in Ukraine — talks that represented a rapid and major change in American foreign policy under President Donald Trump. No Ukrainian officials were present at the meeting, which comes as the beleaguered country is slowly but steadily losing ground against more numerous Russian troops in a grinding war that began nearly three years ago. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his country will not accept any outcome from this week's talks if Kyiv does not take part. European...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov has said his country won't accept peacekeeping forces from Nato countries in Ukraine under any peace deal, following high-level talks with the US in Saudi Arabia. "Any appearance by armed forces under some other flag does not change anything. It is of course completely unacceptable," he said. Russia and the US said they had agreed to appoint teams to start negotiating the end of the war. "Today is the first step of a long and difficult journey, but an important one", US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said following the meeting. Ukraine was not invited...

In Marco Rubio’s view, such a partnership would "be good for the world" and also buttress relations between Russia and the US long termWASHINGTON, February 18. /TASS/. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio believes that if everything works as planned with the Ukraine settlement, Washington and Moscow could have a beautiful economic partnership on their hands. He made the corresponding statement at a press conference following Russian-American talks in Riyadh. According to Rubio, the parties have agreed among other things to begin "to engage in identifying the extraordinary opportunities that exist should this conflict [in Ukraine] come to an acceptable...