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President Donald Trump told European leaders during a call on Wednesday that he does not intend to discuss any possible divisions of territory when he meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska this week, according to two European officials and three other people briefed on the call. Trump said on the call, which also included Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, that he is going into the meeting with Putin with the goal of securing a ceasefire in Ukraine, those sources said. Trump and European leaders agreed that a ceasefire in Ukraine has to be implemented before peace negotiations can begin,...

Speculation has swirled over whether the Trump-Putin summit will result in the map of Ukraine being forcibly – and fundamentally – altered. Russia has laid claim to vast parts of Ukraine since 2014, when President Vladimir Putin made his first move. At the time, in the space of a short few months, Moscow carried out the relatively bloodless occupation and annexation of the Crimean peninsula. But that was followed by a Russian-backed separatist movement in the eastern Donbas region – specifically the two regions, or "oblasts", known as Donetsk and Luhansk. A war simmered there for eight years. Ukraine lost...

And it’s not where Putin wants to be.Putin has decided to talk peace with Trump while he dominates the battlefield in eastern Ukraine. His troops are closing in on Donetsk’s main urban centers, whose capture would give him total control of Donbas, where he already fully occupies the province of Luhansk. But it could be looking to get the best deal possible while he is ahead.The prolonged sieges and intense urban warfare that capturing Donetsk’s cities of Kramatorsk, Kostyantynivka, and Sloviansk with a combined population of one quarter million and fortified by Ukrainian military engineers during months, risks dangerously...

Anna Conkling was recently in the town of Dobropillia in Eastern Ukraine, where the Russian military is making one of its most aggressive offensives in recent months.A significant military advance by Russia in Ukraine is forcing thousands of civilians to evacuate from towns near the frontlines. Recent reports indicate that Russian forces have surged as much as 10 miles past Ukrainian defenses in what officials characterize as one of the most aggressive offensives in recent months. This offensive appears to be strategically aimed at encircling critical cities that play a vital role in Ukrainian logistics and defense. Independent reporter Anna...

President Trump agreed with European leaders including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to red lines for the coming talks with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska and said he hoped to follow up quickly with a trilateral summit with the two warring leaders. -snip- “President Trump was very clear that the American desire was to obtain a cease-fire at this meeting in Alaska,” Macron told reporters after the meeting. -snip- While Trump’s decision last week to meet Putin on American soil worried Europeans, trans-Atlantic relations have since warmed. In a flurry of calls and meetings, senior U.S. officials—including Trump, Vance and...

... In 2022, after eight years of intermittent fighting in Ukraine’s east, Russia initiated a full-scale invasion, with the aim of reducing a rump Ukraine to a satrapy. Putin has given no indication of renouncing that ambition or of abandoning his broader goal of restoring Moscow’s sway over much of the former Soviet or tsarist empires, including the Baltic states and other nations to Russia’s west. Any “deal” between Trump and Putin (and the U.S. president, who has more recently referred to a “feel-out” meeting, is clearly downgrading expectations) will, given the Kremlin’s longer-term objectives, never be enough. The best...

The participants have also spoken in favor of firm security guarantees for UkraineLONDON, August 13. /TASS/. The European ‘Coalition of the Willing’ urged to toughen anti-Russian sanctions if the forthcoming talks between the presidents of Russia and the United States in Alaska fail to produce a ceasefire, according to a statement released by the UK Prime Minister’s Office. The participants of the recent online meeting on Ukraine "were clear that the path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine," reads the joint statement, published on behalf of the meeting’s co-chairs - UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President...

President Donald Trump threatened "very severe consequences" for Russia if President Vladimir Putin doesn’t agree to end the war in Ukraine after their meeting in Alaska on Friday. -snip- Trump later appeared to cast doubt on whether he could convince Putin to stop bombing Ukrainian civilians. "I'll tell you what. I've had that conversation with him. I've had a lot of good conversations with him then I go home and I see that a rocket hit a nursing home or a rocket hit an apartment building, and people are laying dead in the streets," Trump said. "So, I guess the...

Today the leaders from Germany, France, Britain, Italy, Poland, Finland, the E.U. and NATO will be holding a conference call with President Trump and Vice-President Vance to give instructions in advance of the Trump-Putin summit.None of the European leaders were invited to the Alaska summit, yet all of the European leaders want to tell President Trump what to do at the summit with President Vladimir Putin. Because, of course they do…EUROPE – […] The Europeans recognize that they can only do so much to influence a president who often veers off-script and likes nothing more than to declare a deal.But...

WASHINGTON, D.C. — The bloody years-long conflict between Ukraine and Russia was finally brought to an end this week, as President Donald Trump successfully negotiated a ceasefire between the countries by agreeing to give Vladimir Putin California. The deal was struck after several months of stop-and-start negotiations between the two sides mediated by Trump, with Russia finally agreeing to bring the hostilities to an end after being gifted the entire state of California as a substitute for the territory it coveted from Ukraine. "It's a great deal for every party involved," Trump told reporters when announcing the agreement. "I told...

Ukraine says it has struck a critical oil-pumping station in Russia’s Bryansk region, igniting a large fire at a hub feeding the Druzhba pipeline to Europe. The Unecha facility also links to the Baltic Pipeline System-2, which carries Russian crude to Ust-Luga, the country’s second-largest Baltic oil port.

United States President Donald Trump told his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky during their call earlier today that territorial exchanges between Russia and Ukraine will be needed to achieve a peace deal, Axios reported on Wednesday. On the other hand, the US president stressed that he cannot make final decisions on territorial issues because he's "not from the region." The alleged remark echoes similar statements previously made by Trump, stressing the importance of direct negotiations between Moscow and Kiev to achieve a lasting solution to the long-standing conflict. "Trump said it's Vladimir and Volodymyr who have to discuss territories with each...

Russia’s production of its most advanced tank, the T-90M “Breakthrough,” has fallen off dramatically in 2025, casting serious doubt on claims of a manufacturing surge. After upgrading its existing fleet of older T-90As, the main tank factory, UralVagonZavod, has struggled to produce new builds. This production crisis is compounded by reports of poor quality, including bad welds, and deep-seated company issues like lawsuits for unpaid bills, low wages, and corruption.

Stay up-to-date with The Post’s live coverage of the Trump administration as the National Guard deploys to Washington, D.C., and the president’s Alaska meeting with Putin awaits. Follow The Post’s live updates for the latest Trump and national politics news and analysis: 35 minutes ago Trump speaking with Zelensky, European allies today President Trump has confirmed in another Truth Social post Wednesday morning that he will be speaking with European heads of state and government — including Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky — ahead of his summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. "Will be speaking to European...

Russian state propaganda has sharply intensified its bellicose rhetoric toward Azerbaijan amid reports of a possible lifting of Baku’s arms supply moratorium to Ukraine. A new “special military operation” could begin in the South Caucasus, propagandist Vladimir Solovyov stated on the program “Evening with Vladimir Solovyov” on the Russia-1 channel. According to him, NATO bases could appear in the Caspian Sea region, which he called “a very big problem.” With this, he was unmistakably alluding to Azerbaijan, which is close to Türkiye, a member of the North Atlantic Alliance. “And this is so dangerous that, from a geopolitical perspective, the...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov will take part in the Russia-US summit in Alaska on August 15, Foreign Ministry Deputy Spokesman Alexey Fadeyev said at a briefing, APA reports citing TASS. "Yes, I can confirm Lavrov's participation in the event that is expected to take place in Alaska on Friday," he noted. However, the diplomat suggested redirecting the question about the summit’s agenda to the Russian presidential press service. "As we all know, relations between the two countries significantly declined, particularly under previous administrations. We expect the meeting to allow the leaders to focus on the entire range of issues,...

European Union member states are considering easing sanctions on Russia if it reaches a permanent ceasefire with Ukraine, Sky News reported on Wednesday. According to anonymous sources "close to the EU Council presidency," the sanctions would be lifted gradually and could be reimposed if Russia breaks the ceasefire. The report also cited an Italian official as saying that EU leaders will put pressure on United States President Donald Trump to involve Europe in his negotiations with Russia and push for "clear military, economic and political guarantees" for Ukraine. The source argued that Europe "must be involved in these decisions" after...

United States President Donald Trump confirmed on Wednesday that he will participate in a call with European leaders, including Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, "in a short while." The call, currently expected to start at 4 pm CET, was set up ahead of Trump's meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss the outlines of a possible agreement to end the war in Ukraine. "They are great people who want to see a deal done," Trump said, referring to European leaders. Earlier today, Zelensky arrived in Berlin to meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and take part in the call. Ahead...

2026 The ONLY way to resolve this war with Russia is to REMOVE Zelensky. He should be arrested when he sets foot in the USA. He has been wiring out $50 million per month for him and his cronies to secret accounts, I am told, in the UAE. The Ukrainian people should be allowed to vote on the fate of their own country. Ukraine should have been split along ethnic lines as was the case with Czechoslovakia and Yugoslavia. This has been a war that our NEOCONS instigated, and they do not care about the Ukrainian people, only about killing...

. . . Yet Zelenskyy’s fatal political error is negotiating for total victory as if it were already won. It isn’t. You don’t demand unconditional surrender when you lack the power to enforce it—and the wider the gap between rhetoric and reality, the sooner Ukraine risks the very outcome it claims to prevent: the loss of its statehood, on Russian terms. That delusion persists in Washington, kept alive by voices from the Biden-Blinken school of foreign policy romanticism—still peddling the fairy tale: one more tranche, one more package, one more spring. In reality, it buys Ukraine’s destruction—its soldiers bled out,...