Free Republic

The path to peace in Ukraine “cannot be decided without Ukraine”, European leaders have said, as US President Donald Trump prepares to meet Russian President Vladimir Putin for talks on Friday. In a joint statement, Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer, with the leaders of France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland and the European Commission, said that the current line of contact between Russia and Ukraine could only be a “starting point of negotiations”. “We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force.” The statement comes a day after Mr Trump announced that he would meet...

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is once again rejecting any consideration for President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin to discuss terms for a ceasefire without his involvement.On a Twitter storm Saturday, Zelenskyy rejected the thought of giving any Ukranian territory to Russia in exchange for peace. “The answer to the Ukrainian territorial question already is in the Constitution of Ukraine. No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to. Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier,” Zelenskyy said.President Trump announced that he would meet with Russian President Vladimir Putin on August 15, in Alaska.Zelenskyy...

As a result of the eleventh-hour trip from US Special Envoy Steve Witkoff to Moscow, a meeting between Donald J. Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin became a reality – and what’s more, both sides now firmly believe that there’s an acceptable plan being negotiated that will put an end to the war in Ukraine.What exactly this plan is the public hasn’t been told, which leaves plenty of space for the MSM to fill in the blanks with propaganda aimed at disrupting the summit and the peace progress.Besides that, there’s also the fact that – as expected – Ukraine has...

If a fire alarm had been readily available in Helsinki’s presidential palace, the first summit between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin might have ended with sirens and sprinklers.Fiona Hill, then a White House expert on Russian affairs, was so unnerved by Mr Trump’s remarks at the joint press conference that she “looked around to see if there was a fire alarm” to bring the “terrible spectacle” to a sudden close.American officials might want to check out the fire alarms of the Alaskan venue where Mr Trump and Putin will meet on Aug 15, particularly as the stakes for this summit...

Location matters, former real estate mogul US President Donald Trump said. Moments later he announced Alaska, a place sold by Russia to the United States 158 years ago for $7.2 million, would be where Russian President Vladimir Putin tries to sell his land deal of the century, getting Kyiv to hand over chunks of land he’s not yet been able to occupy.The conditions around Friday’s summit so wildly favor Moscow, it is obvious why Putin leapt at the chance, after months of fake negotiation, and it is hard to see how a deal emerges from the bilateral that does not...

Victor Davis Hanson breaks down what he calls the most sweeping political counter-revolution in modern American history—one that’s reshaping the military, the border, higher education, foreign policy, and the economy all at once. In this powerful analysis, Hanson paints a picture of a president who's not just reversing the progressive tide, but exposing it. Illegal immigration? Blocked. DEI and university corruption? Called out. Military recruitment? Rebuilt. Meanwhile, entrenched institutions are being forced to admit guilt—on antisemitism, on academic overreach, and on systemic rot. On the world stage, Trump is redefining diplomacy through strength—not surrender. Putin’s war machine and Hamas’ terror...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy dismissed Saturday the planned summit between U.S. President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin, warning that any peace deal excluding Kyiv would lead to “dead solutions.”The Trump-Putin meeting, scheduled for Friday in Alaska, is seen as a potential breakthrough in the more than three-year war.Trump had previously agreed to meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelenskyy, stoking fears Ukraine could be sidelined in efforts to stop the continent’s biggest conflict since World War II.In a statement posted to Telegram, Zelenskyy said Ukraine’s territorial integrity, enshrined...

In the last few minutes, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has given his first reaction to the announcement of a Trump-Putin meeting next week, saying Ukraine "will not give their land to occupiers". In a statement on the messaging app Telegram, Zelensky says any solutions without Ukraine will be "solutions against peace". This comes after US President Donald Trump announced a few hours ago that he will be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday 15 August to discuss the war in Ukraine. Trump signalled that Ukraine may have to cede territory in a peace deal with Russia, telling...

A Trump-Putin meeting has been floated by both sides for some time. So why might either side want it to happen now? US President Donald Trump wants to bring the force of his personality to bear on forging a deal, believing that six months of intransigence from Moscow might be overcome by meeting the Kremlin head face to face. He seems still to cling to the idea the Kremlin can be cajoled into stopping the war, despite his Russian counterpart recently suggesting the maximalist position that the Russian and Ukrainian people are one, and wherever a Russian soldier steps is...

U.S. President Donald Trump said Thursday that he would meet with Vladimir Putin even if the Russian leader will not meet with Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelenskyy, in comments that suggested Washington and Moscow could soon hold a summit.Trump's comments followed a statement from Putin earlier in the day that he hoped to meet with Trump next week, possibly in the United Arab Emirates. But the White House was still working through the details of any potential meetings, press secretary Karoline Leavitt said.When asked by a reporter if Putin would need to meet with Zelenskyy in order to secure a meeting...

Russian President Vladimir Putin presented the Trump administration this week with a sweeping proposal for a cease-fire in Ukraine, demanding major territorial concessions by Kyiv—and a push for global recognition of its claims—in exchange for a halt to the fighting, according to European and Ukrainian officials. European officials expressed serious reservations about the proposal, which would require Ukraine hand over Eastern Ukraine, a region known as the Donbas, without Russia committing to much other than to stop fighting. The offer, which Putin conveyed Wednesday to U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff in Moscow, set off a diplomatic scramble to get further...

Russia reportedly attempted to make the Azerbaijan Airlines plane crash in to the sea by refusing permission to let it land after a missile attack before jamming its navigation system. A Russian surface-to-air missile struck the flight on Christmas Day, causing the airliner to crash in Kazakhstan - a tragedy which claimed the lives of 38 people. Sources told Euronews that the missile was fired at Flight 8432 amid drone air activity above Grozny, the Chechen capital, citing a preliminary investigation. They said the pilot was blocked from landing at any Russian airports despite making emergency pleas, and was instead...

The Russian and Chinese militaries practiced destroying an "enemy" submarine during joint naval drills Wednesday, just days after President Donald Trump moved a pair of nuclear submarines toward Russia, a report said. The drills involved Il-38 planes from Russia’s Pacific Fleet and Chinese Y-8 anti-submarine aircraft, according to Reuters, and came after Trump announced last Friday that he "ordered two Nuclear Submarines to be positioned in the appropriate regions" following "highly provocative statements" made by former Russian President Dmitry Medvedev. "As a result of effective joint actions, the 'enemy' submarine was promptly detected and mock-destroyed," Russia’s defense ministry said Wednesday...

On Tuesday, US President Donald Trump announced that he was contemplating a significant increase in tariffs on Indian imports within the next 24 hours due to India's procurement of Russian oil. Trump remarked in a CNBC interview that India has not been a favourable trading partner, pointing out that while India conducts extensive trade with the US, the US does not reciprocate. He added that although the tariff was initially set at 25 per cent, he expected to increase it substantially within a day due to India's purchase of Russian oil. "India has not been a good trading partner, because...

Days after Trump unveiled a new set of steep tariffs, Russia on Monday responded to the US administration for increasing tariffs and imposing sanctions on the country, accusing the government of using “neocolonial” policy against specific countries to maintain Washington’s hegemony. Russia’s Foreign Ministry Spokeswoman Maria Zakharova, in a statement, said no tariff wars or sanctions “can halt the natural course of history”. Calling sanctions and restrictions a “regrettable reality” of today’s historical stage that affects the entire world, she said that the US is unable to come to terms with the “loss of hegemony in the emerging world order.”...

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov warned on Tuesday that it is "illegal" to issue statements threatening to force countries to stop trading with Russia. He referred to comments made by United States President Donald Trump, who said he will impose tariffs on India because it buys "massive amounts" of Russian oil and resells it for "big profits." Peskov underlined that sovereign countries have the right to choose their trade partners.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova slammed the new United States President Donald Trump's trade policy, describing it as an attempt to interfere in the internal affairs of other countries. "This US policy constitutes a direct violation of the national sovereignty of states, an attempt to interfere in their internal affairs, not to mention the fact that it generally leads to a slowdown in economic growth, damage to supply chains, and fragmentation of the global economy," the spokeswoman said in a statement. However, Zakharova noted that neither sanctions nor tariffs "can do anything with the natural course of history," stressing...

Russian Security Council Deputy Chairman Dmitry Medvedev blamed NATO's "anti-Russian" policy on Monday for Russia's formal withdrawal from its moratorium on deploying medium- and short-range missiles. "This is a new reality all our opponents will have to reckon with," Medvedev wrote on X, warning, "Expect further steps." His remarks followed a formal declaration by the Russian Foreign Ministry, confirming the end of the moratorium and suggesting more aggressive deployments may follow.

The Indian rupee may drop past 88 to the U.S. dollar to an all-time low on Tuesday after U.S. President Donald Trump threatened steeper tariffs on Indian goods, worsening fragile sentiment and stoking concerns of more foreign outflows. The 1-month non-deliverable forward indicated the rupee will open in the 88.00 to 88.04 range versus the U.S. dollar, down from 87.6550 on Monday. The rupee’s previous record low was 87.95, touched in February. Trump again threatened to substantially raise tariffs on Indian goods, citing India's continued purchases and resale of Russian oil. India’s foreign ministry responded, saying it will take all...

Vladimir Putin started it. Joe Biden didn’t stop it. But, no matter his efforts to the contrary, this is the week in which Russia’s invasion of Ukraine becomes US President Donald Trump’s war. The most powerful office in the world doesn’t always invite choices. Trump is mandated to address the biggest conflict in Europe since World War II because the United States was involved, under his predecessor, as Ukraine’s key ally and sponsor. Trump could have dropped the war entirely. But instead, he chose to impose the force of his personality, initially through the idea he could end it in...