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Vladimir Putin will not show up for peace talks because his 25-year stranglehold on Russia ends if he yields, experts say. Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has agreed to an offer of direct talks aimed at achieving peace, but Moscow said it would refuse to honour a ceasefire before and during any meeting. The showdown was tentatively set for Istanbul with US President Donald Trump saying he would show up, but the meeting has yet to be confirmed. The apparent foot-dragging by the Kremlin was seen as a deliberate ploy to continue a bloody war with its neighbour that has rumbled...

Lieutenant General Keith Kellogg was also scathing about Russia's military record in Ukraine. -snip- He also issued a blunt assessment of Russia’s military record in Ukraine, arguing that Mr Putin’s forces had failed to achieve any decisive victories. Mr Kellogg said: “Russia's not winning this war. Russia has not made any major advances in the last year and a half. "They haven't taken the city of Kyiv, the capital, they haven't pushed to the west of the Dnipro river (which is the major river obstacle), they haven't taken Odesa. “They've lost hundreds of thousands of soldiers and they haven't really...

SICK Putin has returned the disfigured body of a tortured Ukrainian journalist - after Russian pawns removed her brain and eyes. Award-winning reporter Viktoria Roschyna, 27, was brutally beaten to a pulp in occupied Ukraine where she was being held as a prisoner of war. Vile Vlad's troops sent a body bag to Ukraine, marking the corpse as an "unidentified male". But DNA testing confirmed the emaciated body - with her head shaved and a neck bone broken - was Roshchyna's. Ukrainian authorities confirmed there were "numerous signs of torture and cruel treatment". Investigators also found burn marks on her...

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...

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...

Russia's economy is facing further turmoil as the price of its flagship Urals crude oil plummets to its lowest value since early 2023. On Friday, Russian Urals oil prices fell to about £43 per barrel ($53), with projections suggesting they could dip to £40 ($50) if the downward trend in global oil prices continues. -snip- The oil price crisis comes just as Russia faces rising domestic inflation, with everyday goods, such as food and fuel, becoming increasingly expensive. Ordinary Russians feel the impact, with the cost of basic goods, including bread, milk, and potatoes, rising dramatically. The country now finds...

A Russian negotiator has warned that peace talks with the US on the war in Ukraine could drag into 2026. Grigory Karasin, who led talks with the US in Saudi Arabia on March 24, said on Friday that there may be no decisive results from talks with the US. “It would have been naive to expect any breakthroughs,” Karasin said to Russian state TV Channel Rossiya 24. -snip- It comes after Russia effectively rejected a 30-day pause in the fighting proposed by the US. It also asked for sanctions against food and fertiliser to be lifted - along with the...

VLADIMIR Putin is clinging to power as rumours swirl that he’s dying from a cocktail of illnesses, with Volodymyr Zelensky saying it's a fact that he will die soon. The Ukrainian President made the blunt prediction during a speech in Paris, standing alongside French leader Emmanuel Macron as he urged the West to “stay strong” and not ease pressure on Russia. Zelensky said: “He [Putin] will die soon, and that’s a fact, and it will come to an end.” The bold claim adds fuel to long-swirling speculation that the 72-year-old tyrant's grip on power may be slipping – not just...

Whispers have continued this week surrounding the supposed health concerns of Vladimir Putin, with Volodymyr Zelensky declaring the tyrant "will die soon". During a meeting with Emmanuel Macron, President of France, Ukrainian leader Zelensky urged the US to "stay strong" following a turbulent Black Sea ceasefire, boldly asserting: "He [Putin] will die soon, and that's a fact, and it will come to an end." -snip- Just last week, it was reported that Putin had experienced "a mini stroke" after he was seen shaking "uncontrollably" during a meeting with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. Expressing concerns for Putin's well-being, former Kremlin speechwriter...

A pro-war Russian TV star has been killed on the front line just hours after sharing a social media post mocking Ukraine. Anna Prokofyeva, 35, died in the Demidovka border area of Belgorod, Russia, where Volodomyr Zelensky's forces have been making incursions. Her death was reported by other Kremlin-backed war correspondents and later by the state-run TV station Channel One, where she worked. Just a day before, she said she was "somewhere on the border with country 404", a reference to a common web page error - suggesting she believed Ukraine was a country that does not exist. Multiple other...

VLADIMIR Putin's soldiers have reportedly been left with never-before-seen lung poisoning after crawling through a 10-mile gas pipeline to attack Ukraine. Russian troops were sent on the bizarre mission earlier this month through a disused pipe near Sudzha, in Russia’s Kursk region – with the goal of sneaking behind enemy lines. But not only were many of the soldiers slaughtered by Ukrainian forces, survivors are now said to be suffering from chemical pneumonitis - an acute lung inflammation caused by inhaling toxic substances. Doctors have revealed the condition appears to have worsened over time - with scans showing lungs "resembling...

Russia's under-pressure economy and Vladimir Putin have been dealt a devastating blow after state-controlled gas giant Gazprom recorded a huge net loss of $12.89B (£9.9bn) in 2024. The company's financial woes were compounded by plummeting share prices in its subsidiary Gazpro Neft and an increased income tax rate of 25%. This greatly raised tax liabilities for the company, leading to billions of pounds lost and follows a historic 2023 where Gazprom revealed a net loss for the first time in 25 years, recording a historic deficit of 629 billion rubles ($7.6 billion). The huge financial blow has had a knock...

US President Trump has threatened Putin with "large-scale" sanctions and tariffs as he demands Russia to "get to the table right now before it's too late". It comes as Zelensky proposed an aerial truce with Moscow after the "massive" overnight missile blitz on Ukraine's energy grid. Trump has issued his strongest condemnation yet of Putin's actions and threatened to impose sanctions and tariffs on Russia following a devastating overnight blast in Ukraine. In the latest unpredictable move from the Republican, he said on Truth Social: "Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely 'pounding' Ukraine on the battlefield right now,...

Vladimir Putin is facing a fierce backlash from some of his most war-hungry supporters after publicly cosying up to Donald Trump. Russian warmongers are furious over Putin’s plan to seek US investment for rare earth metals and aluminium, with accusations he is giving away precious Russian assets. -snip- Staunch Russian war-backer Maksim Kalashnikov is outraged about Putin’s seeming lack of success in the war, as it plots the supply of rare metals to the West. ‘On the third anniversary of the war, they explained to us what victory would look like,” he said. ‘We get what we occupied – a...

PRESIDENT Donald Trump has denied claims that he will visit Vladimir Putin in Moscow for the May 9 victory day parade. -snip- Trump has rubbished a report he will fly to Russia for Victory Day celebrations on May 9. It comes after French outlet Le Point claimed, citing Russian sources, that the Republican would be in attendance, marking the first visit by a US president since mad Vlad launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But President Trump was quick to squash the claim, responding "no, I'm not" upon being asked if he was to attend. He also...

On February 9, the players, coaches and owners of either the Philadelphia Eagles or Kansas City Chiefs will win a coveted Super Bowl ring. The rings, which are understood to cost between $30,000 (£24,000) and $50,000 (£40,000), are widely considered to be one of the most iconic and beautiful awards in sport today. Few people are more familiar with the gleaming pieces of jewellery than New England Patriots owner Robert Kraft, who watched his iconic side win six Super Bowls. Yet, the multi-billionaire only has five rings, as Russian president Vladimir Putin has the other one. Kraft, 83, visited Russia...

Ukraine is reported to have wiped out the entire command of Russia's 35th Brigade in a deadly missile strike. The attack was carried out using HIMARS missiles on the brigade's headquarters in the eastern town of Selydove. The town was captured by the Russians in October last year and lies just 11 miles northwest of the strategically important city of Pokrovsk. The attack was filmed by Ukrainian drones hovering close to the building, housing the headquarters. In a video posted to social media, a huge ball of flames rises from a building after the impact of the missiles. Thick black...

Russia has got so desperate it has had to go back to one of the most old-fashioned ways to carry bullets and guns during a war. The Soviet army had to start using donkeys and horses to carry ammunition in Ukraine – something that hasn’t been done for over a century. Military blogger Kirill Fedorov wrote on his Telegram channel that Putin and his soldiers have started to send the animals to the front line. He said that an official government transport list says these animals include horses, camels and deer. He wrote: ‘The fighters were given a donkey to...

ONE of Mad Vlad's war criminal deputy governors has been blown up by a landmine. Sergey Efremov, 51, has become the highest ranking Russian official to be killed in the conflict. -snip- The 51-year-old reportedly died after his military vehicle was blown up after hitting a mine in the Kursk region of Western Russia. Efremov, and another pro-Putin politician, died after attempting to help wounded Russian soldiers.

The Kremlin has accused President Trump of attempting to erode Russia and China’s nuclear potential with his plan for an Iron Dome missile defence system. The programme was “yet another confirmation of the US focus on turning space into a scene of armed confrontation and deployment of weapons”, Maria Zakharova, the chief spokeswoman of the Russian foreign ministry, said. Trump issued an executive order on Monday mandating a process to develop an “Iron Dome for America”, a reference to the aerial defence shield used by Israel. Zakharova said that this implied “a sharp intensification of the US national missile defence...