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US President-elect Donald Trump on Sunday said that Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelenskyy was up for a deal to bring his country’s war with Russia to an end and called upon Vladimir Putin to take a step towards negotiation. Stating that he knows Putin “well", Trump said that it is “his time to act" in ending the Russia-Ukraine war that has claimed hundreds of lives on both sides of the border. His remarks came a day after he met Zelenskyy in Paris along with French President Emmanuel Macron who hosted three-way talks at the Elysee Palace on Saturday. “Russia and Iran are...

In a lengthy social media post, Donald Trump has called for a ceasefire between Russia and Ukraine, while referencing the apparent collapse of the Bashar al-Assad regime in Syria. The president-elect made the remarks in a post on his Truth Social website early on Sunday morning, in which he argued Russia was in a "weakened state" due to the Ukraine war and said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wanted to "make a deal and stop this madness." On Saturday evening and Sunday morning, Syrian rebels streamed into their country's capital Damascus as the 24-year-old regime of President Assad reportedly collapsed. In...

U.S. President-elect Donald Trump said on Sunday that Russia's abandonment of Syrian President Bashar al-Assad led to his downfall, adding Moscow never should have protected him in the first place and then lost interest because of a war in Ukraine that never should have started. "Assad is gone. He has fled his country. His protector, Russia, Russia, Russia, led by (President) Vladimir Putin, was not interested in protecting him any longer," Trump wrote on his social media platform Truth Social. "There was no reason for Russia to be there in the first place," Trump wrote. "They lost all interest in...

Ukrainian officials are holding high-level talks with the incoming Trump administration, seeking to narrow wide differences on achieving a settlement of Kyiv’s war with Russia even before President-elect Donald Trump takes office. A top aide to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky is due to meet Wednesday with Keith Kellogg, Trump’s choice as special envoy for Russia and Ukraine, and Mike Waltz, the incoming national security adviser, according to a Trump transition official and several people familiar with the discussions. Kellogg has signaled support for the Biden administration’s efforts to rush weapons to Ukraine, saying it will give Trump leverage with Moscow...

A "breakthrough" has been made in efforts to negotiate a framework agreement for a cease-fire deal between Israel and Hamas that might end months of fighting in Gaza and lead to the release of hostages, a senior Biden administration official said Thursday. "We've had a breakthrough on a critical impasse," the official said on a media briefing call, attributing the development to a shift in Hamas' stance on a framework deal, which the official said was now "fully consistent" with the U.S.-drafted agreement passed by the United Nations Security Council last month. "Now we’re on to the implementation steps," the...

His remarks emerged yesterday amid increased pressure on the Kyiv government to enter peace talks with Russia's Vladimir Putin.....in recent weeks the counter-offensive has stalled due to frozen battlefields and stiff resistance from recently rearmed Russian troops......At the same time Western support for the conflict has appeared to fragment, with allies questioning the cost of high-tech weapons and equipment. While Mr Zelensky expressed regret about the failure of Western partners to provide enough weapons, Putin has no such concerns.... ....In the last year he has effectively militarised Russia's economy, leading to a startling sevenfold increase in tank production. Production of...

Participants at the Jeddah Peace Conference. Credit: YouTube. Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman hosted a summit of 42 nations over the weekend to draft principles for the end of Putin’s War in Ukraine. Russia was not invited to the talks, but China and the remainder of the BRICS (Brazil, Russia, India, China, South Africa) group sent delegations.The talks concluded with a statement of principles, and the group agreed to meet again in the next few weeks and that Russia would be excluded from the process. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s 10-point peace plan was the starting point for...

The Biden Administration has demanded that the Israeli government drop judicial reform from its agenda in exchange for the normalization of the Jewish State's relations with Saudi Arabia, Channel 12 News reported this evening (Tuesday). According to the report, the Saudis are demanding the resumption of peace talks with the Palestinian Authority, while the US was the party to raise the demand over the judicial reforms in exchange for mediating the normalization talks. On Sunday, it was reported that Bahrain had been mediating negotiations between Israel and Saudi Arabia on aspects of normalization, such as allowing direct flights between the...

Alex Mercouris describes the situation in BakhmutApparently there are still a couple of thousand ukies holed up in one little corner of Bakhmut in basements and hide holes of verious sorts. Mercouris claims that the order has gone out to those unfortunates that their "job" is to prevent Bakhmut falling prior to May 10; that is, their job is to prevent Russians from celebrating the capture of the place on or prior to VE day, which is a big annual celebratiion in Russia. Whoever issued that order plainly does not give a rat's ass about the lives of country 404's...

Chinese President Xi Jinping spoke by telephone on Wednesday Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiy for the first time since Russia's invasion of Ukraine last year, after months of pressure from Kyiv for such talks. Xi told Zelenskiy that China would send special representatives to Ukraine and hold talks with all parties seeking peace, Chinese state media reported. Xi, the most powerful world leader to have refrained from denouncing Russia's invasion of Ukraine, made a state visit to Russia last month. Since February, he has promoted a 12-point peace plan for Ukraine, greeted with scepticism from the West but cautiously welcomed by Kyiv.

On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China has called for a cease-fire between the two sides and for peace talks to commence as part of a 12-point plan to end the war. On the eve of the one-year anniversary of Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, China has called for a cease-fire between the two sides and for peace talks to commence as part of a 12-point plan to end the war. China’s Foreign Ministry revealed the plan on Friday, Beijing time, and also called for the end of Western sanctions on Russia, measures to ensure...

Yesterday, for the first time since the beginning of hostilities in Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin received "peace proposals." We have already talked about the fact that Putin initiated behind-the-scenes talks through proxy intermediaries in various formats, with an attempt to reach agreements on freezing hostilities in Ukraine or to find a possibility of concluding a peace agreement, of course, taking into account the interests of the Russian leadership. The "peace proposal" received yesterday comes from the intermediary country, but the channel that was used for the transfer and the persons participating in the process do not cause doubts about...

According to Polishchuk, Moscow is ready to accept intermediary services at peace talks on the terms that “Kyiv has already rejected.”Read also: Negotiations have no chance of ending Russia’s war against Ukraine, says Germany“Many countries are currently offering their mediation in negotiations between Russia and Ukraine,” Polishchuk said.“There is no shortage of intermediary services, and we’re not refusing them.”

In negotiations with the Russian Federation, Ukraine will do its utmost to end the war taking into account its national interests and to obtain reliable international guarantees to prevent such wars in the future. This was stated by Adviser to the Head of the Office of the President of Ukraine Mykhailo Podolyak in an interview for the host of the TV channel “Ukraine 24” Tygran Martyrosyan. -snip- The Adviser to the Head of the President’s Office noted that Ukraine’s goal is not a bilateral peace agreement with Russia, which will not fulfill it, but multilateral security guarantees that will prevent...

Mounting evidence of atrocities against Ukrainian civilians allegedly by Russian troops has stalled Turkey’s efforts to mediate a ceasefire and broader settlement between the two countries, a senior Turkish official has said. Ibrahim Kalin, a senior adviser to Turkey’s president Recep Tayyip Erdogan, told the Financial Times that the horrific images of dead civilians in towns such as Bucha and Borodyanka had affected Ukraine’s willingness to continue negotiations. In Ankara’s strongest condemnation yet of the killing of civilians, Kalin said: “We are all outraged by the pictures of . . . human rights violations and possible war crimes.” He added...

Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said Sunday that there hasn't been enough progress in peace talks that would lead to a meeting with Ukraine due to disputes about territories. "The draft agreement is not ready for submission to a meeting at the top," Medinsky said on Telegram. "I repeat again and again: Russia's position on Crimea and Donbas remains UNCHANGED." -snip- His statement comes after Ukrainian negotiator David Arakhamia told a local TV station on Saturday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could meet soon with draft peace agreement documents, according to Interfax-Ukraine News Agency. -snip-...

Ukraine: @arakhamia_david, Ukrainian negotiator, says Russia had indicated that draft peace treaty documents were at an advanced enough stage to allow for Zelensky-Putin talks, adds that Russia accepted Ukraine's overall position with the exception of its stance on Crimea. More from Gönül Şamilkızı @shamilkizi: Arahamiya, head of the Ukrainian negotiation team: “With the exception of the Crimea issue, Russia has supposedly accepted our other proposals. The difference of opinion continues on the Crimea issue. We offered to open negotiations for 15 years, they want us to recognize the occupation.” Arahamiya: “So far, Turkey, Italy and Germany have accepted the guarantorship...

During a press conference on March 29, Russia's chief negotiator Vladimir Medinsky announced that the first day of negotiations between Ukraine and Russia was "constructive." Medinsky stated, "as soon as the agreement is prepared," a meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy might take place. "The Russian Federation in Istanbul received a clearly formulated position from Ukraine," Medinsky said, adding that Russia will adopt "steps to de-escalate the conflict with Ukraine." He further emphasised the significance of reaching a compromise and working on the treaty fast.

Tension begins to show as the war in Ukraine goes into day thirty-three. Both the Ukrainians and Russians are beginning to come to terms with the fact that neither one is going to get exactly what they want. Both sides are now searching for what they can declare as sufficient victory to end the conflict.Exploring peace shifts to talks being hosted by President Recep Tayyip Erdoğan in Turkey. Erdoğan has been in contact with Putin even as his country supplies drones to Ukraine. So far, it’s not a very promising week. Russia continues to rule out Putin meeting with Zelenskyy,...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Friday called for “urgent” and “meaningful” peace talks with Russia that would deliver a negotiated end to the war on terms that are “fair” to Ukraine. In a video address to the nation, Zelenskyy said that, to date, 16,000 Russian servicemen had been killed in the fighting as Ukrainian forces continue to mount staunch resistance. “By restraining Russia’s actions, our defenders are leading the Russian leadership to a simple and logical idea: talk is necessary,” Zelenskyy said. “Meaningful. Urgent. Fair. For the sake of the result, not for the sake of the delay,” he added....