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The traditional “family photo” to open the G20 foreign ministers’ meeting has been abruptly cancelled in the US after a host of nations – including Australia and the UK – refused to appear beside the Russian foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov. The US secretary of state, Marco Rubio, pulled the plug after several European officials, the UK and Australia made it known they would boycott or walk out of the snapshot that often kicks off such international gatherings. Rubio still opened the talks in Atlanta with an appeal for unity on the issues that threaten international security and trade. “We are...

Russian Permanent Representative to the OSCE Dmitry Polyansky highlighted that the alliance "continues to rely on hybrid warfare, in which a bleeding Ukraine fights on everyone’s behalf"VIENNA, October 29. /TASS/. Russia and NATO are moving closer to a direct military clash with each passing day, said Dmitry Polyansky, Russia’s permanent representative to the Organization for Security and Cooperation in Europe (OSCE). "A direct military clash between Russia and NATO has not yet occurred, although we are moving closer to that point every day," he told a regular meeting of the OSCE Permanent Council. TASS has obtained the text of his...

The U.K. is set to provide over 10 billion pounds ($13.3 billion) in support for Ukraine in 2027, British Finance Minister John Healey announced on Oct. 28. The announcement came as part of Healey's presentation of the U.K. budget for 2027, and amid growing pressure from the EU and Ukraine for Kyiv's partners to step up their financial support to Ukraine. "Russia's illegal invasion of Ukraine poses a serious threat to U.K. prosperity and security," reads a social media post from the U.K.'s finance ministry. "That's why this budget is providing over 10 billion pounds in additional support to Ukraine,"...

Wes Streeting’s remarks were made following the launch of a government campaign urging Brits to stock up with emergency supplies. British Defense Secretary Wes Streeting has said the country must be ready for war in 1,000 days, after the government advised citizens to stock up on essential supplies. Writing in the Telegraph over the weekend, Streeting warned that the UK’s enemies could be ready to launch an attack on the UK by 2030. He wrote: “Our adversaries’ willingness to harm us is not new. What has changed is their capacity. By 2030, their force strength and war economy could put...

Warning shots fired by a Russian warship sailing across the Channel on Tuesday morning were “deeply concerning and reckless”, Keir Starmer said from the G7 summit on Wednesday as he warned that the UK was dealing with proxy attacks from Russia “every single day”. The prime minister said the Ministry of Defence had assessed that the Russian vessel was drifting and fired the shots within a few hundred metres of a British pleasure yacht. He said: “We’re living in a more volatile and dangerous world than we have at any time in our lifetimes … That is true, it’s not...

Nato is “disintegrating”, Poland’s prime minister has said after the United States announced it was withdrawing 5,000 troops from Germany. Donald Tusk made the dire assessment of the Western alliance on Saturday amid an escalating war of words between Donald Trump and Germany over Berlin’s criticism of the war on Iran. In a post on X on Saturday, Mr Tusk wrote: “The greatest threat to the transatlantic community are not its external enemies, but the ongoing disintegration of our alliance. We must all do what it takes to reverse this disastrous trend.” On Friday evening, the US department of defence...

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz suggested on Monday that Ukraine may have to accept that parts of its territory could remain outside Kyiv's control in ​a future peace deal with Russia, linking such concessions to ‌the country's prospects for joining the European Union. "At some point, Ukraine will sign a ceasefire agreement; at some point, hopefully, a peace treaty with Russia. Then it may ​be that part of Ukraine's territory is no longer Ukrainian," Merz ​told students at the Carolus-Magnus-Gymnasium in Marsberg, a town in ⁠North Rhine-Westphalia, on Monday. "If President (Volodymyr) Zelenskiy wants to communicate this to his ​own population...

"This is the proportional response that Russia has the right to," the Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman stressedMOSCOW, February 24. /TASS/. A nuclear strike on targets in Ukraine, as well as in France and the United Kingdom, would be considered lawful and justified in the event that London and Paris provide Kiev with nuclear capabilities, Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev said on Max, commenting on Russia's Foreign Intelligence Service’s (SVR) reports about such plans by the two European countries. According to Medvedev, this information "radically changes the situation." "This is a direct transfer of nuclear weapons to a...

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...

Donald Trump doubled down Sunday on hard-line campaign pledges to impose trade tariffs and carry out mass deportations, while dangling the idea that the United States could withdraw from NATO. In his first formal television interview -- and just six weeks before he takes office -- Trump again signaled that US support for Ukraine will scale back, saying he will "probably" cut the aid helping Kyiv repel the Russian invasion. Trump also said he would "very quickly" look at pardons for supporters jailed for storming the US Capitol after his 2020 election defeat to Joe Biden. The interview on NBC's...

BRUSSELS, Nov 25 (Reuters) - A top NATO military official on Monday urged businesses to be prepared for a wartime scenario and adjust their production and distribution lines accordingly, in order to be less vulnerable to blackmail from countries such as Russia and China. "If we can make sure that all crucial services and goods can be delivered no matter what, then that is a key part of our deterrence," the chair of NATO's military committee, Dutch Admiral Rob Bauer, said in Brussels. Speaking at an event of the European Policy Centre think tank, he described deterrence as going far...

LIVE – Updated at 07:24 US embassy in Kyiv has received ‘specific information’ of a potential significant air attack on Wednesday and will be closed.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said on Tuesday he would not be deterred from supporting Ukraine by "irresponsible" Russian rhetoric, after Russian President Vladimir Putin lowered the threshold for a nuclear strike. "There's irresponsible rhetoric coming from Russia, and that is not going to deter our support for Ukraine," he told reporters at the G20 summit in Brazil. Putin's new nuclear doctrine lowers the threshold under which Russia might use atomic weapons to include responding to attacks that threaten its territorial integrity. The move comes as Ukraine used U.S. ATACMS missiles to strike Russian territory on Tuesday, taking advantage of...

A vital undersea cable linking new NATO member Finland to Germany has broken and disrupted communication between Helsinki and the rest of Europe, the company that runs the link said Monday.

The Wall Street Journal reported that Russia supplied targeting intelligence to Yemen's Houthi forces for attacks on Western ships in the Red Sea. Yemen’s Houthi terrorists used targeting data provided by Russia to attack Western ships in the Red Sea earlier this year, an exclusive Thursday Wall Street Journal report disclosed. According to the report, the Houthis used Russian satellite data to destabilize the region as the Israel-Hamas war expanded throughout the past year. A person familiar with the matter and two European defense officials reportedly told the WSJ this information. Furthermore, the data was passed through Islamic Revolutionary Guard...

Now Russia appears to be scouting Germany as a potential target for sabotage, intelligence officers told Bild. Sources told the newspaper that a flying object was detected flying over the industrial area in Brunsbütte, on the northern coast of Germany, last night. Drones have been flying over the area, home to a nuclear power plant, an Liquefied Natural Gas terminal and several chemical plants, since at least August 8, and have been attributed to Russian agents who are likely launching them from civilian ships in the North Sea.

Recent reports suggest that Russia is considering providing the Houthi rebels in Yemen with advanced anti-ship ballistic cruise missiles, potentially exacerbating the strategic dilemma facing Western powers as they seek to protect commercial shipping in the Red Sea and beyond.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday ruled out a cease-fire in his country's war with Russia, saying the Kremlin's forces would use the pause to rearm and regroup before overwhelming Kyiv's troops. "A pause on the Ukrainian battlefield will not mean a pause in the war," Zelenskyy said during a visit to Estonia. "A pause would play into (Russia's) hands," he said. "It might crush us afterward." Limited cease-fires have occasionally been proposed since Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022 but have never taken hold.

Swedes have been warned to brace for the possibility of war in the wake of their country's anticipated NATO membership in 2024 and the backdrop of Russia's conflict in Ukraine. Speaking at the Folk och Forsvar conference in Salen, Civil Defence Minister Carl-Oskar Bohlin stressed the urgency of enhancing Sweden's resilience, citing concerns over the sluggish modernisation of the civil defence system. Mr Bohlin urged a collective effort from all segments of society, emphasising the need for swift action. "Many have said it before me, but let me say it with the force of my office - there could be...

"Russia has never threatened Finland in modern history. We had no reason for confrontation," said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov, according to the Russian state news agency Tass. The tone intensified further after Finland announced a few days before Christmas that it was initiating a new defense agreement with the USA, granting the country access to 15 bases on Nordic soil. Both Sweden and Finland applied for NATO membership last year after Russia initiated a full-scale invasion of Ukraine, fundamentally shaking the security situation in Europe. Sweden's application is still pending approval, while Finland formally joined the defense alliance as a...