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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that a halt on energy strikes in the war with Russia could be established quickly, but warned Ukraine would respond in kind if Moscow violated the terms of the limited ceasefire. After speaking to U.S. President Donald Trump on Wednesday for the first time since their disastrous Oval Office talks, Zelenskiy said Kyiv would draw up a list of facilities that could be subject to a partial ceasefire brokered by Washington. That list could include not only energy, but also rail and port infrastructure, he said, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin...

President Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin announced a series of steps to work toward an eventual ceasefire in Ukraine following a two-hour call Tuesday. Putin continued to signal, however, that he has major reservations about the unconditional ceasefire Trump has proposed, according to the Kremlin. -snip- The Kremlin said Russia was prepared to halt attacks on Ukrainian energy infrastructure for 30 days, and the White House statement signaled Ukraine will also be expected to comply. Kyiv has conducted drone strikes in recent days on Russian fuel facilities, while Russia has made repeated attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure a key...

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko reportedly said that the Kremlin wants an "ironclad" guarantee that Ukraine will be prohibited from joining the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO), as the Trump administration works to broker a deal to end the fighting. "We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement," Grushko was quoted by the Russian newspaper Izvestia as saying, according to Reuters. "Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance."

The conversation between US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin scheduled for Tuesday is indeed being prepared, Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said at a briefing in response to a TASS question, APA reports. "Yes, this is indeed the case," he emphasized. "Such a conversation is being prepared for Tuesday," the spokesman added.

The Trump administration is placing more restrictions on Russia's oil, gas and banking sectors by further restricting Russian access to U.S. payment systems, according to four people familiar with the plans. The Treasury Department on Wednesday let lapse a 60-day exemption put in place by the Biden administration in January that allowed specific energy transactions involving sanctioned Russian banks to continue. By letting the waiver lapse, the banks may no longer access U.S. payment systems to conduct major energy transactions. The Russian financial institutions that had been exempt from sanctions included Vnesheconombank, Bank Financial Corporation Otkritie, Sovcombank, Sberbank, VTB Bank,...

Donald Trump has issued his most explicit threat to Vladimir Putin so far, telling the Russian President he can do "very bad things" to Russia financially if he does not accept a US-brokered ceasefire. Mr Trump told reporters in Washington: "There are things that wouldn't be pleasant in a financial sense. I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don't want to do it that because I want to get peace."

(Reuters) - Ukrainian troops appeared on the point of losing their hard-won foothold inside Russia's Kursk region on Wednesday as Moscow claimed further advances there and military bloggers on both sides said Kyiv's forces were withdrawing.Ukraine sprang one of the biggest shocks of the war on August 6 last year by storming across the border and grabbing a chunk of land inside Russia, boosting citizens' morale and gaining a potential bargaining chip. But after clinging for more than seven months to a gradually shrinking area, Ukraine has seen its position worsen sharply in the past week.Russia's defence ministry on Wednesday...

With America’s drone technology a disappointment on the battlefield, defense startups have joined forces with Ukrainian manufacturers to build better, war-proven aircraft for the U.S. military. U.S. startups have spent billions of venture-capital dollars in hopes of developing the small drones that the Pentagon says it needs for future conflicts, but many have produced only expensive aircraft that don’t fly very well. Ukrainian drone makers, meanwhile, have mastered mass-producing drones despite limited resources and are looking for new customers and capital. Now, the two sides are coming together, and the unlikely pairing is getting attention from the Defense Department. Southern...

Contacts between Russia and the United States are now quite intensive, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova was quoted as saying by the RIA news agency. Zakharova was commenting on media reports that Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff plans to visit Moscow this week to meet President Vladimir Putin.

Fox News is wall to wall with dead-eyed politicians telling you that Iran is a dangerous “sponsor of terror.” Softening up the base for a war. But what exactly does that phrase mean, and how does it apply to the United States? Here’s one measure: over the past twenty years, how many Americans have been killed by Iran on American soil? Try to find that number, and then compare it to the number of Americans killed by drug ODs. Or suicide. Or illegal aliens. Or carjackings, diabetes and the Covid vax. Still think Iran is the greatest threat? How about...

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,...

U.S. satellite mapping company Maxar Technologies has blocked Ukraine's access to its imagery, according to a report by Ukrainian defense outlet Militarnyi. The publication quotes unnamed users of Maxar's commercial service as saying that the company provided them with an official explanation that the restriction was made "in response to an administrative request." Maxar's reported move could be a consequence of U.S. President Donald Trump’s recent decision to stop supplying American military intelligence data to Ukraine. It could be seen as evidence that the ban affects not only state institutions, but also U.S. companies and commercial services providing satellite data...

Kremlin Spokesman Dmitry Peskov stated that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s religious beliefs do not alter the current status of the United States as an unfriendly country toward Russia. His remarks came after Rubio appeared on television with an ash-marked cross on his forehead, symbolizing the start of Lent. Speaking to reporters, Peskov emphasized that Washington is not a friendly partner to Moscow at this time. However, he noted that efforts are ongoing to restore and revive bilateral relations. Despite this, he asserted that the broader political reality remains unchanged. When asked about Rubio’s public religious expression, Peskov clarified...

Turkey, with the second largest army in NATO after the United States, could contribute to a potential peacekeeping mission in Ukraine, a Turkish defence ministry source said on Wednesday. "The issue of contributing to a mission will be considered if deemed necessary for establishing regional stability and peace, and will be assessed mutually with all relevant parties," the source told reporters in Ankara. -snip- Turkish media reported last week that President Tayyip Erdogan had discussed a possible deployment with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov during separate meetings in Ankara last month. Turkey has maintained cordial...

Vladimir Putin 'regrets' triggering a full-scale war costing hundreds of thousands of lives, his closest international ally has claimed. Belarus dictator Alexander Lukashenko said: 'We haven't talked about it, but I know him well. 'Putin didn't expect it would turn into such a war.' The close Putin crony told interviewer Mario Nawfal on X: 'When he saw a huge number of people dying, Putin instantly agreed to the negotiations to stop the conflict.' This was earlier in the war, in 2022, and, Lukashenko claimed, Putin was ready to negotiate 'on NATO, on demilitarisation, on denazification', as he described it, 'on...

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that pausing US military aid to Ukraine would be the best contribution to the cause of peace, but cautioned that Russia needed to clarify the details of the move by US President Donald Trump. -snip- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was cautious on reports of a pause in US aid and said the details needed to be seen. “If this is true, then this is a decision that can really encourage the Kyiv regime to (come to) the peace process,” Peskov said. “It is obvious that the United States has been the main supplier of this...

Russia said on Tuesday that any normalisation of relations with the US would require the lifting of sanctions against Moscow. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was responding to a question about a Reuters report that said the US is drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief as President Donald Trump seeks to restore ties with Moscow and stop the war in Ukraine. "It is probably too early to say anything. We have not heard any official statements, but in any case, our attitude towards sanctions is well known, we consider them illegal," Peskov said. "And, of course, if...

The Kremlin said in remarks published on Tuesday that the next round of Russia-U.S. talks on ending the war in Ukraine is unlikely to happen before the embassies of both countries resume normal operations. "Unlikely," Dmitry Peskov, the press secretary of President Vladimir Putin, told RIA state news agency in response to a question whether the negotiations could start before the two countries' embassies fully reopen. Operations have been curtailed since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022. -snip- Last week, Russia said it was sending a new ambassador to Washington, the latest sign of a thaw between the two countries, but...

A fire erupted at one of Russia's largest oil refineries in the city of Ufa in Bashkortostan, approximately 900 miles from the Ukrainian border, following a reported drone attack. -snip- Videos circulating on social media showed a huge fire engulf the Bashneft-owned refinery, which is situated about 932 miles east of the Ukrainian border, and processes up to 168,000 barrels per day, according to Reuters. The Bashkortostan Ministry of Emergency Situations said the fire erupted "in the area of the incinerator." "There is no threat to residents of nearby areas. A laboratory is operating on site to monitor the air...

Russia is demanding control of cities in Ukraine that its forces don't currently occupy as part of a deal with President Donald Trump to potentially bring an end to the war, the Institute for the Study of War (ISW) has said. -snip- Trump has suggested that both Russia and Ukraine must make concessions in the war. Kyiv has rejected any idea of ceding territory to Moscow, while Putin has demanded that Ukraine give up its aspirations of joining the NATO military alliance, and cede its Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions. The ISW think tank, based in Washington D.C., noted...