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Ukraine’s most heavily fortified region has become the center-point for peace talks to end the war with Russian leader Vladimir Putin reportedly demanding that Kyiv cede the entire territory to Moscow. But the Donestk oblast — which is smaller than Massachusetts and home to about 4 million people — has been at the center of some of the most brutal fighting of the war, and the Kremlin has not been able to take the entire region after more than three and a half years. A source familiar with Friday’s meeting between Putin and President Trump described negotiations over the fate...

US President Donald Trump called Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to address his obstruction of Ukraine's EU membership, Bloomberg reported Tuesday. The conversation emerged from Monday's White House discussions between Trump, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders. European officials requested that Trump leverage his relationship with Orban to convince him to abandon his opposition to Ukraine's EU bid, the news outlet reported, citing those familiar with the matter. Orban maintains opposition During the call, Hungary expressed a willingness to host future negotiations between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Zelenskyy. Trump said there would be a meeting between Putin and...

Russian reporters are whining about having to sleep on cots and being served old tuna for breakfast while covering the Trump-Putin summit in Alaska — but their own country may actually be to blame. The Kremlin journalists griped that they’ve had to rough it on portable beds with no sheets set up at the Alaska Airlines Center sports arena in Anchorage, where they were hardly able to make phone calls. They — gasp — even had to get by without bottled water. “After being assigned for [Thursday] night to what appeared to be a disaster evacuation zone, Russian journalists were...

-snip- “The Russian demand that Ukraine give up parts of the Donbas would be, just to illustrate the scale, comparable to asking the United States to give up Florida,” German Chancellor Friedrich Merz told reporters after the White House meeting. During the closed-door meeting, Finnish President Alexander Stubb called the eastern Ukrainian cities of Kramatorsk and Slovyansk “a bastion against the Huns,” a description that appeared to impress Trump, according to the officials. Zelensky didn’t reject land swaps out of hand during the discussions with Trump, but he said it would be difficult to move populations and override Ukraine’s constitutional...

United States President Donald Trump interrupted the meeting with European leaders to call his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin, Bild reported on Monday. Trump is currently hosting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, British Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, French leader Emmanuel Macron, Italian head of government Giorgia Meloni, North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO) Secretary-General Mark Rutte, European Commission chair Ursula von der Leyen, and Finnish head of state Alexander Stubb at the White House to update them on his summit with Putin in Alaska. Their talks will reportedly resume after Trump's call. Previously, it was said that he...

-snip- 12 p.m. European leaders are expected to be at the White House by noon EDT at the South Portico, with television crew and photographers allowed to document the arrival. 1 p.m. – 1:15 p.m. Zelensky and Trump are set to greet each other an hour after the European leaders arrive, and will shortly after go into a meeting with each other in the Oval Office. Vice President Vance is also expected to attend this meeting. The last time the three met in February, there were fireworks. 2:15 p.m. – 2:30 p.m. Trump will greet other European leaders in the...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Monday that Ukraine is prepared to work productively in order to end the war between Kiev and Moscow. "When peace is discussed for one country in Europe, it means peace for all of Europe. We are ready to continue working with maximum effort to end the war and to ensure reliable security. These are the key issues," Zelensky wrote on his X account after an encounter with United States Special Envoy to Ukraine Keith Kellogg in Washington earlier today, and ahead of the multilateral meeting with US President Donald Trump and European leaders in...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is meeting the U.S. special envoy on Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, in Washington ahead of high-stakes talks on peace with President Donald Trump later on Monday, Ukrinform news agency reported.

A summit between United States President Donald Trump, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky could take place this week in Europe, Sky News reported on Monday. Diplomats from the US allegedly asked their European colleagues to be ready to organize the meeting, although the exact location is currently unclear. According to the report, Trump and Zelensky favor holding the event in Rome, while Putin prefers Geneva. Other cities, including Budapest and Helsinki, are also allegedly under consideration. Previous reports suggested the summit could take place on Friday, August 22.

President Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky will hold a meeting together on Monday afternoon before they are joined by European officials traveling to Washington for key talks on the future of the Russia-Ukraine war. Two sources told NewsNation’s Libbey Dean and Kevin Bohn that Trump and Zelensky will hold the initial meeting, which will also be attended by Vice President Vance. That will be a rerun of the participants from an Oval Office meeting in February that went badly off the rails as Vance and Trump criticized Zelensky over his handling of the war, and for not being more...

VOLODYMYR Zelensky has said he is "counting on America" as Donald Trump prepares to greet Vladimir Putin on the runway after he lands in Alaska. The embattled Ukrainian president said he hopes the peace summit between the two leaders leads to a trilateral meeting to get Ukraine involved in the peacemaking process. It comes after Trump blasted Vladimir Putin for continuing to attack Ukraine and said his urge to kill "might be in his genes". -snip- Trump says tyrant Putin’s need to kill ‘might be in his genes’ but onslaught ‘hurts his He said: "In [Putin's] mind, it helps him...

Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth and Gen. Dan Caine, the chairman of the joint chiefs of staff, will attend President Trump’s summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, according to two senior Defense Department officials. Hegseth isn't joining with Trump on Air Force One, instead flying separately, the officials said. Caine has already arrived in Alaska, a third DOD official said.

The White House revealed on Friday the team that will accompany US President Donald Trump to the Alaska summit on Friday. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent, Commerce Secretary Howard Luntick, Special Envoy Steve Witkoff and Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) Director John Ratcliffe are among the top US officials who will join Trump for his highly anticipated meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin and his delegation. Additionally, White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, Chief of Staff Susie Wiles and Deputy White House Chief of Staff Dan Scavino, among others, are expected to travel with the US president...

In a not-so-subtle act of trolling, Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, arrived in Alaska on the eve of the US–Russia summit wearing a sweatshirt emblazoned with “CCCP”, the Russian initials for the USSR. Once seen in western capitals as a pragmatic and skilled diplomat, the 75-year-old has in recent years mirrored the Kremlin’s radicalised politics, adopting an increasingly combative tone and resorting to trolling and mockery. Lavrov’s choice of attire nods to the Kremlin’s long-running narrative: Putin has repeatedly claimed that Russians and Ukrainians are “one people”, denying Ukraine’s legitimacy and territorial integrity while promoting a broader notion of unity...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov appeared to be wearing a sweater with the letters “CCCP” — Russian for USSR — upon his arrival in Alaska. Lavrov will be part of the Kremlin’s delegation when Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump meet later on Friday in a hotly anticipated summit to discuss the war in Ukraine. Lavrov’s white sweatshirt was carefully hidden under a black gilet with only the middle letters “CC” clearly showing in a video posted on X. The current Russian regime has repeatedly exploited USSR nostalgia to pursue its political and imperial goals, according to...

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, as he arrived in Alaska on Friday, said Moscow has “a clear, understandable position” and arguments to support it at the forthcoming meeting between President Vladimir Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump. -snip- Lavrov arrived in the US state for a meeting with an American delegation wearing a sweatshirt with "USSR" written on it.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov arrived at a hotel in Anchorage, Alaska wearing a sweater, supposedly with the words "СССР"—the Russian version of “USSR”—on it. The respective footage was posted on the Telegram account Izvestia. The video shows the Russian FM getting out of a car. He is wearing a white sweater and a jacket, on the chest of which the word "СССР" appears to be written. Reporters asked Lavrov if he had been to Alaska before, and the minister responded in the affirmative. Earlier, the Russian FM had called for not making any predictions about the Alaska summit between...

Donald Trump has said Vladimir Putin is “not going to mess around with me” on the eve of his critical meeting with the Russian leader in Alaska. The two leaders are set to meet in person at a US military base on Friday for talks aimed at negotiating a potential ceasefire in Ukraine. The leaders are scheduled to begin discussions at 11.30am local time in Anchorage (8:30pm BST).

Face-to-face talks between President Trump and Vladimir Putin on Friday will give the Russian president a chance to pitch his conditions for peace, chief among them for Ukraine to hand over swaths of its territory. Putin has long coveted the south and east of Ukraine, which his army has failed to fully occupy. Trump has said he would seek to negotiate a swap that would return some of the territory Russia occupies back to Ukraine, without offering further detail. The Kremlin has declared five occupied regions to be part of Russia—Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhzhia, Kherson and Crimea. Of those, Russia fully...

United States President Donald Trump mentioned on Thursday that he thinks Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky "will make peace." "We will see if they can get along. And if they can, it will be great ... I thought the easiest [war to solve] would be this one, [but] it's actually the most difficult," he commented during a press conference. He reiterated that the potential second meeting will outweigh the importance of the one taking place tomorrow in Alaska. Trump revealed that this meeting could potentially involve both Putin and Zelensky, himself, as well as potentially some...