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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...

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...

United States President Donald Trump commented on Thursday that he is unsure whether he will hold a joint press conference with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Speaking on Fox News radio, Trump explained that everything depends on how their meeting goes. The US head of state detailed that if discussions go well, the two will appear together and address the press. On the other hand, should talks not go well, the joint press conference will not happen. Trump further added that if negotiations go badly, he would hold a solo press briefing and head right back to...

The Kremlin has confirmed the names of those who will attend the summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump in Alaska this Friday, August 15, among other details about the schedule. -snip- Alongside Putin will be Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Defence Minister Andrey Belousov, presidential aide Yuri Ushakov, Finance Minister Anton Siluanov, and Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev, who heads Russia's sovereign wealth fund. -snip- The summit, to be held at the Elmendorf-Richardson military base in Anchorage and centred on agreeing a settlement on Ukraine, will begin at 11:30 a.m. local time, the Kremlin said, according to...

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday praised President Donald Trump for his efforts to broker an end to Moscow's invasion of Ukraine, as preparations continued for the Friday summit between the American and Russian leaders in Alaska. The Trump administration "is making quite an energetic and sincere effort, in my opinion, to stop hostilities, to stop the crisis and to reach an agreement that is of interest to all those involved in this conflict," Putin said during a meeting of his top officials to prepare for the Alaska summit, according to a readout published by the Kremlin. The process could...

United States Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Thursday that US President Donald Trump's upcoming meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin is a "precursor" for future meetings, as Trump is willing to continue the dialogue. He added that the European Union should "put up or shut up" on Russia, accusing it of buying Russian oil refined in India and stressing that the US and the EU must coordinate on secondary sanctions on Russia.

The Kremlin confirmed that Russian leader Vladimir Putin was expected to meet with President Trump in the coming days, saying that the meeting was being planned for a location that would be named later. The Russian statement on Thursday came hours after Trump said there was a “good chance” he would meet with Putin. The idea was raised by Russia during a meeting between special envoy Steve Witkoff and the Russian leader on Wednesday. Witkoff relayed the idea to Trump. During the meeting with Witkoff, Putin provided “concrete examples” of Russia’s conditions for agreeing to peace, according to Secretary of...

The US has a better understanding of the conditions under which Russia would be prepared to end its war in Ukraine after President Donald Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff met with Russian President Vladimir Putin, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Wednesday. "For the first time perhaps since this administration began, we have some concrete examples of the kinds of things that Russia would ask for in order to end the war," Rubio said in an interview with Fox Business Network's Kudlow, adding that the key elements of any agreement would involve territory. He added that he doesn't know if...