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Vice President JD Vance on Wednesday called on Ukraine to accept an American peace proposal that closely aligns with longstanding Russian goals, including a “freeze” of territorial lines in the three-year war, acceptance of the annexation of Crimea by Russia and a prohibition on Ukraine becoming part of the NATO alliance.It was the first time a U.S. official had publicly laid out a plan to end the war that favors Russia in such stark terms.A peace plan that leaves Russian forces deep inside eastern Ukraine would be welcome news in Moscow. President Vladimir V. Putin has said for almost year...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday, April 20, said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a surprise but brief Easter truce. The 30-hour truce starting Saturday evening would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict. But on Sunday, Zelensky accused Russia of having maintained its attacks on the front line after the truce started at 4 pm Paris time Saturday. "Across various frontline directions, there have already been 59 cases of Russian shelling and five assaults by Russian units," Zelensky said on social...

MAD Vladimir Putin's top stooge has raged that European troops in Ukraine would "return in coffins" as plans are drawn up for a peacekeeping force in the war-torn country. French President Emmanuel Macron, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and US envoy Steve Witkoff began their meeting in Paris on crafting a ceasefire to finally end the bloody war. As Ukrainian officials discuss deploying troops in Volodymyr Zelensky's nation with their British, French and German counterparts, Putin's puppets have been raging over the talks. Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev made a clear warning to the West of sending...

Russian leader tells Sasha Troufanov, his mother and partner of 'need to express words of gratitude' to political heads of terror group who murdered his father during Oct. 7 attack. Russian President Vladimir Putin met Wednesday evening with freed hostage Sasha Troufanov at the Kremlin in Moscow, along with his mother, Elena Trufanova, and partner, Sapir Cohen, both of whom are also former captives. “The fact that you managed to go free is the result of the fact that Russia has stable, long-term relations with the Palestinian people, with its representatives, and with a wide variety of organizations,” Putin told...

Moscow and Washington are making serious efforts to achieve peace, but rapid progress should not be expected, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov told journalists. "Quite hard work is underway. You know that first-hand information exchanges are going on. I’m talking about the recent meeting between [Russian President Vladimir] Putin and [US Special Presidential Envoy] Mr. Witkoff in St. Petersburg," he said, adding that other channels were also in operation, News.Az reports, citing TASS. "Hard work is underway. [The development of peace initiative] is such a complicated matter that it’s hardly possible to expect immediate results," the Kremlin spokesman stressed.

The extension of anti-Russian sanctions by US President Donald Trump, which were introduced by his predecessor Joe Biden, is an automatic action and no other decisions could be expected, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, APA reports, citing TASS. "A different decision could hardly be expected, especially that these are rather automatic actions," Peskov said. Moscow and Washington are only at the start of normalizing bilateral relations and Russia therefore had no exaggerated expectations as regards US actions, the Kremlin Spokesman noted. The case in point is US Executive Order 14024 of April 15, 2021, repeatedly expanded and renewed by Joe...

WASHINGTON — Russia could be forced to end the war in Ukraine because it will run out of money to pay its troops, according to experts at the DC-based Institute for the Study of War. The country has burned through roughly half of its $106 billion liquid sovereign-wealth fund, which is used to pay troops’ salaries and new recruits bonuses, experts said. Moscow can likely only afford another 12 to 16 months of fighting at its current pace, with about 30,000 to 45,000 Russian troops killed or injured in Ukraine each month since its 2022 invasion began, ISW’s Russia team...

PUTIN has stayed deafeningly silent after Kyiv claimed that two Chinese nationals were captured fighting in Ukraine. Beijing responded to Zelensky's call for answers and vowed to investigate the alleged reports of Chinese involvement in the conflict. Russia has chosen to stay silent on the matter, sparking fresh fears that Putin has been working with China all along. Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov said: "I cannot comment on this information in any way." Zelensky demanded an official response from Beijing after claiming that Kyiv captured two Chinese nationals fighting in the Donetsk region of Ukraine. Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesman...

Pro-Israel activist and evangelical leader Laurie Cardoza-Moore called on US President Donald Trump on Tuesday to place a tariff on conservative media personality Tucker Carlson's show after he tweeted in support of Iran. “Tucker Carlson is acting like a foreign agent, doing the bidding of Iran and Qatar instead of America. It’s time for the White House to impose a Tariff on Tucker Carlson for illegally importing anti-Semitic Iranian talking points and putting America last,” Cardoza-Moore said. Cardoza-Moore, who hosts Focus On Israel on NRB TV, claimed that Carlson has used the term ‘neocons’ as a dogwhistle meaning ‘blame the...

President Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff will lead the U.S. delegation for nuclear talks with Iran on Saturday in Oman, two sources familiar with the plan tell Axios. -snip- So far, there have only been negotiations about the negotiations — which don't yet seem to be resolved. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, whom Iranian press reports say will be Iran's chief negotiator, insisted the talks would be "indirect" — with Omani mediators passing messages between the sides. Trump insisted the talks would be "direct." Two U.S. officials told Axios that is indeed the plan. Whatever the format, the stakes are clear....

The situation in the global oil market is extremely unstable, said Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov during a briefing today, APA's Moscow correspondent reports. According to him, this instability is related to the decision of the United States to impose tariffs on most countries in the world. Peskov mentioned that the Russian government is closely monitoring the situation. "This is an indicator that is very important for filling our budget. We are currently closely monitoring the situation, which is characterized by extreme instability, tension, and emotional strain. This is due to the decision of the United States to impose tariffs on...

Russia's flagship Urals crude grade has tumbled alongside all major oil benchmarks in the global market rout and is close to the $50 per barrel threshold for the first time in nearly two years. The Urals price was at around $52 per barrel at the Baltic Sea port of Primorsk on Friday, according to data from Argus Media cited by Bloomberg. The price of Urals further dropped on Monday as oil prices continued to fall, with WTI Crude, the U.S. benchmark, down to $60 per barrel, and Brent Crude prices at $64. - snip- As the price of the flagship...

Saudi Arabia has made the biggest drop in oil prices in two years — it has reduced the price of its main oil grade, Arab Light, to $2.30 per barrel for Asian customers. According to Bloomberg, this decision came just a few days after OPEC+ decided to increase oil production by 400,000 barrels per day more sharply than expected. In addition, “Trump’s tariffs” have also dealt a serious blow to world oil prices — oil prices have fallen by $10 in one day: from $75 to $65 per barrel. This is the lowest level in three years. For Russia, whose...

Russian air strikes hit the Ukrainian capital, Kyiv, on Sunday, killing one person and injuring three others, while the death toll from Friday’s devastating attack on Kryvyi Rih rose to 19, including nine children. The Kyiv victim was found near the epicentre of the strike in the Darnytskyi district, where fires broke out in multiple non-residential areas, causing severe damage to buildings and cars. In a statement on social media, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky suggested the intensifying Russian attacks showed there is still insufficient international pressure on Moscow. He said Russia has launched more than 1,460 guided aerial bombs, nearly...

Russia launched an overnight air strike on Kyiv, with the city's air defence forces trying to repel the attack, the military administration and the mayor of the Ukrainian capital said on Sunday. "Explosions in the capital. Air defences are working. Stay in shelters!" Mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.

The United States imposed sanctions on Wednesday on Russia-based people and entities working to help procure weapons and commodities — including stolen Ukrainian grain — for Yemen’s Iran-backed Houthis, the Treasury Department said.

Russian state media reported that the 17-year-old was named curator of Chechnya's internal affairs ministry on Monday, meaning he'll oversee police and local security forces. The ministry also handles counterterrorism and riot control. A state broadcast showed the teen receiving the appointment at a ceremonial meeting as uniformed officers applauded. Soon after, he was filmed performing his duties by naming a new head of Chechnya's operational search division and handing out medals to police officers. The 17-year-old was already appointed overseer of Chechnya's Russian Special Forces University last April. The university says it teaches civilians and soldiers skills such as...

Reacting to US President Donald Trump's caustic remark about Vladimir Putin that he was "pissed off" at Putin for delaying agreement with Ukraine to end the ongoing war, Moskovsky Komsomolets, a leading pro-Kremlin paper, accused Trump of not fulfilling “obligations” to stop Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy infrastructure. “All agreements on the level of President Trump are only worth a few pennies on market day. Moscow is prepared to make a deal with the US president, as ‘the leader of the free world’, and the undisputed boss of Nato and ‘the lord and master of Kyiv’. But right now the...

The Kremlin said on Monday, after U.S. President Donald Trump said he was "pissed off" with Vladimir Putin, that the United States and Russia were working on ideas around a possible peace settlement in Ukraine and on building bilateral ties. -snip- "We are continuing to work with the American side, first of all, to build our bilateral relations, which were badly damaged during the previous administration," Peskov said. "And we are also working on the implementation of some ideas related to the Ukrainian settlement. This work is underway, but so far there are no specifics that we could or should...

President Donald Trump said he was “very angry” and “pissed off” when Russian President Vladimir Putin criticized the credibility of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s leadership, adding that the comments were “not going in the right location.” Agence France-Presse reported that Putin on Friday called for a transitional government to be put in place in Ukraine, which could effectively push out Zelenskyy. “If Russia and I are unable to make a deal on stopping the bloodshed in Ukraine, and if I think it was Russia’s fault — which it might not be — but if I think it was Russia’s fault,...