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US President Donald Trump said on Tuesday (June 24) that he would “probably” meet Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of the upcoming NATO summit in The Hague. Speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One, Trump confirmed the possibility when asked about a meeting. “Yeah probably I’ll see him,” he said. When asked what he intended to say to the Ukrainian leader, Trump replied, “I’ll say ‘how you doing?’ He’s in a tough situation, should never have been there.” Zelensky team confirms meeting preparations Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, also confirmed that talks were under way to...

U.S. President Donald Trump said he rejected Russian President Vladimir Putin's offer to help with the Israel-Iran conflict during a recent call, turning the focus back to the unresolved war in Ukraine. -snip- "I'd like to see a deal with Russia," Trump said on Tuesday morning as he headed to the NATO summit in the Netherlands, Fox News reported. "As you know Vladimir called me up. He said, 'Can I help you with Iran?' I said, 'No, I don't need help with Iran. I need help with you.' "And I hope we're going to be getting a deal done with...

Under pressure from President Trump, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu significantly scaled back planned retaliation against Iran's violation of a ceasefire agreement, Israeli and U.S. officials said Tuesday. -snip- "When I say 12 hours [of ceasefire], you don't go out in the first hour and drop everything you have on them," Trump said. "I am not happy with Israel going out this morning because of one rocket that was shot [by Iran], perhaps by mistake." -snip- A White House source said Trump spoke to Netanyahu in "an exceptionally firm and direct way" about his objections to the Israeli strike. "The...

Russian President Vladimir Putin said on Monday that Russia is stepping up production of its Oreshnik intermediate-range hypersonic missile, which it launched for the first time against Ukraine last November. "Serial production of the latest Oreshnik medium-range missile system is under way," Putin told a graduating class of military cadets in televised comments. The system has "proven itself very well in combat conditions," he added. -snip- Putin has boasted that the Oreshnik is impossible to intercept and has destructive power comparable to a nuclear weapon, although some Western experts have cast doubt on those claims. In December, a U.S. official...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday took aim at the recent U.S. strikes on Iran, calling them a “completely unprovoked act of aggression.” “You are visiting Russia during a challenging period, marked by a significant escalation of tensions both in the region and surrounding your country,” Putin told Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi, according to an English transcript from the Kremlin. “Russia’s position on the current developments is well known. It has been clearly expressed by the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and is reflected in the stance we’ve taken at the United Nations Security Council, with which you are already...

Russian leader Vladimir Putin should first end the war that Russia started in Ukraine before talking about mediating in the Middle East, stated US President Donald Trump during a conversation with journalists, APA reports citing RBC Ukraine. "I spoke to Putin yesterday, he offered to help mediate. I said, do me a favor — mediate your own. Let's mediate Russia first, OK? I said, 'Vladimir, let's mediate Russia first, you can worry about this later," Trump said. According to the US President, he told Putin that he should deal with Russia first before involving himself elsewhere. "So many people have...

President Trump revealed to reporters outside the White House that he spoke with Vladimir Putin yesterday, saying the Russian leader offered to mediate the Iran-Israel conflict. Even Trump, who has been a staunch defender of Putin, admitted he couldn't play peacemaker while the Ukraine-Russia war rages. -snip- “Would have never happened if I was president,” he said before making a four-word comment to Putin directly. “Putin would have never done it and I spoke to him yesterday and I said you know, he actually offered to help mediate. I said ‘do me a favor, mediate your own. Let’s mediate Russia...

Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said in a statement read by a television presenter on Wednesday that his country will not accept US President Donald Trump's call for an unconditional surrender. In his first remarks since Friday, when he delivered a speech broadcast on state media after Israel began bombarding Iran, Khamenei said peace or war could not be imposed on the Islamic Republic. "Intelligent people who know Iran, the Iranian nation, and its history will never speak to this nation in threatening language because the Iranian nation will not surrender," he said. "The Americans should know that any...

Israel needs a 15-ton ‘bunker buster’ bomb to destroy the last untouched nuclear facility in Iran, but only the US has one. Such a powerful weapon – the largest non-nuclear bomb in the US arsenal – is needed because the target, Fordow Fuel Enrichment Plant, is built some 300 feet inside a mountain near the city of Qom, two hours south of Tehran. The heavyweight explosive is known as a GBU-57A/B Massive Ordnance Penetrator and was designed by Boeing for the United States Air Force. Its huge weight means it can only be delivered with a B-2 Spirit stealth bomber...

Iran has two known underground nuclear enrichment sites, the one Israel attacked on the first day of its assault at Natanz, and another at Fordo. Both sit south of Tehran in central Iran, but Fordo has long been the Iranian nuclear facility of most concern to international monitors and experts. Buried deep in a mountain, Fordo is where many analysts believe Iran has concealed clandestine efforts to work toward a nuclear weapons capability. There have been no reported Israeli strikes on the Fordo enrichment facility. -snip- "Fordo has always been a major concern because of its location and because of...

Sergei Shoigu, secretary of Russia’s Security Council, traveled to Pyongyang on Tuesday under the direct orders of Russian President Vladimir Putin, signaling a deepening of strategic military cooperation between North Korea and Russia. The visit, Shoigu's second in less than two weeks and third meeting with North Korean leader Kim Jong-un in just three months, comes as Moscow seeks to draw Pyongyang closer in its protracted war effort in Ukraine. Observers say the visit suggests a bid by Russia to leverage shifting global attention — particularly the West’s growing preoccupation with escalating tensions between Israel and Iran — to secure...

Half of the thousands of North Korean troops sent to help Russia's attempted invasion of Ukraine have died in action, according to British Defence Intelligence. Roughly 11,000 troops have been dispatched by Kim Jong Un to aid Vladimir Putin's war effort in Eastern Europe since 2022 as the ties between their two countries has become closer. Now it has been revealed that more than 6,000 soldiers from North Korea have lost their lives after being stationed to the frontline in the Kurk region

The Kremlin responded Monday to remarks by Israeli Prime Minister Netanyahu on possible Iranian regime change, issuing a condemnation of the "actions" that have led to escalated tensions between the two Middle Eastern nations. Netanyahu told Fox News on Sunday that regime change in Tehran "could certainly be the result" of Israel's strikes targeting Iran. The Israeli leader described the Iranian government as "very weak." Speaking at a Monday press briefing, Dmitry Peskov, Russian President Vladimir Putin's spokesperson, was asked about Netanyahu's comments. "We have certainly seen this statement, we've heard and read [it]," Peskov said. The Kremlin condemns "the...

Russian President Vladimir Putin and Turkish President Tayyip Erdogan condemned Israel’s “act of force” against Iran and called for an immediate cessation of hostilities when they spoke by phone on Monday, the Kremlin says. “Both sides expressed the most serious concern about the ongoing escalation of the Iran-Israel conflict, which has already led to a large number of casualties and is fraught with serious long-term consequences for the entire region,” a Kremlin statement says. “The leaders spoke in favor of an immediate cessation of hostilities and the settlement of contentious issues, including those related to the Iranian nuclear program, exclusively...

DUBAI—Iran has been urgently signaling that it seeks an end to hostilities and resumption of talks over its nuclear programs, sending messages to Israel and the U.S. via Arab intermediaries, Middle Eastern and European officials said. In the midst of a ferocious Israeli air campaign, Tehran has told Arab officials they would be open to return to the negotiating table as long as the U.S. doesn’t join the attack, the officials said. They also passed messages to Israel saying it is in the interest of both sides to keep the violence contained. But with Israeli warplanes able to fly freely...

Russia said on Monday that the next round of consultations between Moscow and Washington has been canceled at the initiative of the US side. A written commentary by Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said the next meeting as part of Russia-US consultations to normalize the activities of their respective diplomatic missions was canceled “at the initiative of American negotiators.” “We hope that the pause they took will not be too long,” Zakharova went on to say, without providing a reason behind the cancellation. US authorities have not immediately confirmed or commented on Zakharova’s remarks.

President Trump rejected rightwing pundit Tucker Carlson’s criticism that he is abandoning America First principles with his support for Israel amid its military campaign against Iran. Carlson, an ardent Trump ally, fumed at Israel’s preemptive strike on Iran last week, dubbing the US “complicit in the act of war” and arguing that, “politicians purporting to be America First can’t now credibly turn around and say they had nothing to do with it.” Trump said he wasn’t familiar with Carlson’s critique but contended that, as a pioneer of the modern America First movement, he’s the final arbiter of what it means...

Dramatic footage has caught the extraordinary moment the wing of a £15million Russian warplane fell off in the middle of a Ukraine attack mission. The attack jet crashed after flying in a pair over Ukraine's Donetsk region, with the pilot miraculously cheating death by ejecting before his aircraft fell to the ground. The doomed Su-25 warplane is seen on the video turning and falling out of the sky, crashing into a field. At first it appeared it had been shot down, with Ukrainian media claiming it had possibly been the victim of 'friendly fire' by an unguided missile from its...

Responding to reports that the sixth round of nuclear talks between the US and Iran will likely be postponed, a source familiar with the matter tells The Times of Israel that the timing of the meeting was never confirmed and that remains the case.

A Russian Orthodox priest has sparked controversy with his provocative claim that Russian Muslims could be mobilized to commit violence against Christians. The statement was made as Moscow's Muslim community celebrated the holy festival of Eid al-Adha on Sunday. Schema-abbot Gavriil, during his sermon, referred to the Muslims congregating on Peace Avenue in Moscow for the festivities: "The entire space is covered with people. And these are healthy men, who do not drink alcohol, who wrestle and go to gyms for training." He made an alarming assertion: "This is a whole army. And if, one fine day, a mullah orders...