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Ukraine fears that the Kremlin will try to convince President Trump at U.S.-Russian talks in Alaska that Ukraine, not Russia, is the obstacle to peace.With President Trump and President Vladimir V. Putin preparing to meet in Alaska on Friday, ending the Russian leader’s years of diplomatic isolation with the West, Ukraine’s sidelined leaders warned that the Kremlin would try to “deceive America” as Mr. Trump pushed to end the war.Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelensky, is determined to demonstrate that his country is not the obstacle to peace by emphasizing Kyiv’s willingness to accept an unconditional cease-fire, an idea that Russia has...

A Russian navy tugboat, the Kapitan Ushakov, sank on August 9, 2025, at a shipyard in St. Petersburg. It was expected to be delivered to the Northern fleet. The Project 23470 began listing to starboard on August 8. The sinking of the ship occurred at a time when it was in the final stages of outfitting and about to be completed at the Baltic shipyard in St. Petersburg. The shipyard team made efforts throughout the night to stabilise the vessel, but failed ultimately. By the morning of August 9, the tugboat flipped and capsized on the seabed near the dock....

U.S. President Donald Trump is joining European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for an emergency virtual summit on Wednesday organized by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz. -snip- The virtual summit will focus on pressure options against Russia, questions about Ukrainian territories seized by Russia, security guarantees for Kyiv and the sequencing of potential peace talks, a German government spokesperson told POLITICO. Merz and other European leaders demand that Putin first agrees to a ceasefire before any peace talks or land swaps between Moscow and Kyiv can take place. They have also made clear that any potential land swaps must be...

Not for the first time, European capitals are gripped with apprehension that Russian President Vladimir Putin will surgically divide the transatlantic alliance as well as get everything he wants in Ukraine.Ahead of the suddenly announced summit in Alaska on Friday between Putin and US President Donald Trump, one European diplomat, who declined to be named as they were not authorized to speak on the record, told CNN: “We are at risk of being a footnote in history.”In part, European fears are down to just how little is known about what the Kremlin has proposed in order to halt the fighting...

Washington is “done with the funding” of Ukraine’s war against Russia, JD Vance, the US vice-president, has said, as Europe scrambles to build a united defence before in-person negotiations between Presidents Trump and Putin.Speaking in an interview after an emergency summit with European and Ukrainian officials, co-hosted by David Lammy at Chevening, the foreign secretary’s mansion in Kent, Vance said Americans were fed up with paying towards the cost of the war.“What we said to the Europeans is simply, first of all, this is in your neck of the woods. This is in your back door,” he told Fox News....

One of President Trump’s core objectives heading into negotiations with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin will be to prevent a third invasion of Ukraine, according to Sen. Lindsey Graham. “I am here to tell you that President Trump will end this war in a way to prevent a third invasion and not to entice China to take Taiwan,” Graham (R-SC), who went golfing with Trump on Saturday, told NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “We’re not out to humiliate Putin, we’re out to get a deal to make sure there’s no third invasion.” -snip- “Militarily, we need to keep Ukraine strong, keep flowing...

Vice President JD Vance said Sunday that it would be up to President Donald Trump to bring Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky together to broker a peace deal to end the war in Ukraine. White House officials have suggested they are open to a trilateral meeting, but Vance did not suggest a time or date when he spoke to Fox News’s “Sunday Morning Futures.” He did say, however, that the White House is “trying to figure out, frankly, scheduling and things like that, around when these three leaders could sit down and discuss an end to...

Since President Trump retook office, many Ukrainians have worried a peace accord would be struck without them.For nearly three years of the war in Ukraine, Washington’s rallying cry in backing a fight against a Russian invasion was “no negotiations about Ukraine without Ukraine.” But when President Trump meets President Vladimir V. Putin of Russia in Alaska on Friday, the Ukrainians will not be there, barring any last-minute invitation. And Kyiv’s swift rejection of Mr. Trump’s declaration that he is already negotiating with Russia over what he vaguely called “land swaps,” with no mention of security guarantees or arms for Ukraine,...

SummaryUkraine fears Trump-Putin summit will seek to dictate terms European leaders rally in support of Kyiv Zelenskiy says there is no path to peace without Ukraine Russia's Medvedev blasts European interference Aug 10 (Reuters) - Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy won diplomatic backing from Europe and the NATO alliance on Sunday ahead of a Russia-U.S. summit this week where Kyiv fears Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump may try to dictate terms for ending the 3-1/2-year war.Trump, who for weeks had been threatening new sanctions against Russia for failing to halt the war, announced instead on Friday that he would meet Putin...

Vladimir Putin's father gouged out his mother's eye with a pitchfork, it was revealed. The violent attack came when his mother Maria was just 17 and as a result of the incident in which she lost her eye, Vladimir senior was ordered to marry her. The attack was 'in a fit of rage' according to independent news outlet Proekt. The bizarre story has emerged as a new book - The Tsar in Person. How Vladimir Putin Fooled Us All - details the Kremlin despot's life, and was highlighted by Proekt. Putin's father arrived with male friends when Maria - known...

LONDON — Most Ukrainians now favor ending the war with Russia through negotiations, as support for fighting until victory has dropped sharply since the early days of the conflict. Although their hopes for joining NATO and the European Union have faded and approval of U.S. leadership has plummeted, Ukrainians still see the EU, U.K. and U.S. as key to ending the war. Yet, most doubt that will happen anytime soon. More than three years into the war, Ukrainians’ support for continuing to fight until victory has hit a new low. In Gallup’s most recent poll of Ukraine — conducted in...

Brazilian President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva spoke with Russia's President Vladimir Putin on Saturday for about 40 minutes, the Brazilian presidential palace said, adding that Putin shared information about his discussions with the United States and "recent peace efforts between Russia and Ukraine." -snip- Lula has been in a public spat with Trump since the U.S. imposed a 50% tariff on the imports of Brazilian goods, which Trump linked to an alleged "witch hunt" against his ally and Brazil's former right-wing President Jair Bolsonaro. U.S. imports of some Brazilian products, such as orange juice and aircraft, received a lower...

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...