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European powers and Ukraine responded to Vladimir Putins cease-fire plan on Saturday with a counterproposal that they say must serve as a framework so that upcoming talks between President Trump and the Russian leader can gain traction, according to two European officials familiar with the talks. -snip- The European proposal includes demands that a cease-fire must take place before any other steps are taken. It also says that territory can be exchanged only in a reciprocal manner—meaning that if Ukraine pulls out of some regions, Russia must withdraw from others. “You can’t start a process by ceding territory in the...

Public sours on Washington, loses hope for quick NATO accession 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...

Last week the nuclear rhetoric between the US and Russia made some of us feel like we were transported back to 1962. Back then, Soviet moves to place nuclear-capable missiles 90 miles off our coast in Cuba led to the greatest crisis of the Cold War. The United States and its president, John F. Kennedy, could not tolerate such weapons placed by a hostile power on its doorstep and the world only knew years later how close we were to nuclear war. Thankfully both Khrushchev and Kennedy backed down – with the Soviet leader removing the missiles from Cuba and...

This is the problem. Whitaker’s arrogance thinks that the US is so powerful that it can crush Russia without ever firing a shot and calling Putin “sick and twisted” when we started this war, and there were TWO peace deals which the WEST broke – not Russia. I have NEVER in my entire life witnessed such INCOMPETENT diplomacy. The Neocons have been instructing Trump to be strong and yield nothing to Putin, and he will fold. Peace is easy. Just HONOR the Minsk Agreement. But this is a war to destroy Russia, and Trump is a fool who is being...

Ukrainians aged 60 and older can now serve in non-combat roles thanks to new legislation. The elderly Ukrainians will need special approval and get medical clearance before enlisting. The law was passed by the Ukrainian legislature earlier this month and signed by President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday, allowing people over the age of 60 to serve in limited roles until martial law in Ukraine is lifted. While the current martial law authorization is set to lapse next month, Zelensky has requested that lawmakers extend it for an additional 90 days. Zelensky’s presidential term has already expired, and he has used...

The death toll from a large Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv overnight on Thursday has risen to at least 31 people. Five children — including a two-year-old — were among the victims of the strike which targeted several areas of the Ukrainian capital. Another 159, including 16 children, were injured, Ukraine's Interior Ministry said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy called the strike "vile" and said it "demonstrates the need for increased pressure on Moscow and additional sanctions." "In July alone, Russia used over 5,100 glide bombs against Ukraine, more than 3,800 Shaheds and nearly 260 missiles of various types...

A line of antitank ditches and barbed wire cuts through the sunflower fields all the way to the horizon here in Ukraine’s battle-scarred east, fortifications the country bets it can lay fast and far enough to halt Russia’s summer offensive. But the defensive gamble is facing increasingly long odds. Kyiv is in the midst of its most ambitious defensive construction effort to date, erecting obstacles and carving up the earth to thwart manned and unmanned assaults. While riflemen scan the sky for enemy robots, Ukraine’s own drone operators sit below them in an extensive network of subterranean dugouts. “The army...

Ukraine will need at least $120 billion for defence spending next year, Ukrainian Defence Minister Denys Shmyhal said on Tuesday. Negotiations are ongoing with NATO and EU members as Ukraine seeks $60 billion in funding from partners, he added in a statement on the Telegram messaging app.

Ukrainians have had enough of Zelensky.During the three and a half years of the war in Ukraine, the western Globalist politicians and the obedient mainstream media have painted Volodymyr Zelensky as the defender of democracy, a historical, mythological figure comparable to WW2’s Winston Churchill.Then, of course, came Donald J. Trump, calling him ‘a moderately successful comedian’, ‘the greatest salesman on earth’, and ‘a dictator, with no elections’.Now, even as Trump promised Kiev air defenses with new Patriot batteries and is threatening Russia’s Vladimir Putin with sanctions, a Spectator article shows Ukraine about to be ‘engulfed in a critical military, political...

@gc22gc Rep. MTG: The American people didn’t ask for this war. Or this debt. They don’t want to fund mass death in Ukraine. This is an unwinnable war. Over 1.5M killed or wounded. An entire generation of men wiped out. Americans want peace not murder.

Former Vice President Mike Pence praised President Donald Trump for his decision to resume military aid to Ukraine, saying “the time is now” to renew support. “I do believe the time has come for us to renew our military support for Ukraine, make it clear that we’re going to continue to provide that support, along with our European allies, until a just and lasting peace is achieved,” Pence said in an interview with CNN on Thursday. Pence has at times been a sharp critic of his onetime boss’ position on Ukraine during Trump’s second term. Trump has repeatedly reversed positions...

While Russia's overnight drone and missile attacks on Ukraine have hit record levels, on the ground its military is claiming territorial gains. Last month Russian forces seized 556 sq km (215 sq miles), its biggest land grab this year, according to the open-source DeepState monitoring website in Ukraine. That is an area four times the size of Liverpool and nearly the same size as the city of Chicago. Russia's goal is to cut off supply routes used by Ukrainian troops in the east, and create a buffer zone inside Ukraine's northern borders. But its advance remains relatively slow. At this...

Russian President Vladimir Putin revealed that he discussed his country's role in helping America win its independence during a call with President Donald Trump on July 3 in a bid to highlight the history of cooperation between their nations, according to Russian news agency Tass. -snip- But on Sunday, he revealed that he also tried to press upon Trump the historical ties between the two countries, going back to the founding of America. "We have always had, for a very long time, very good and special relations with the United States," Putin told Russian television host Pavel Zarubin. "We supported...

Pete Hegseth, the US defense secretary, unilaterally halted an agreed shipment of military aid to Ukraine due to baseless concerns that US stockpiles of weapons have run too low, it has been reported. A batch of air defense missiles and other precision munitions were due to be sent to Ukraine to aid it in its ongoing war with Russia, which launched a full-scale invasion of its neighbor in 2022. The aid was promised by the US during Joe Biden’s administration last year. But the Pentagon halted the shipment, with NBC reporting that a decision to do so was made solely...

Germany was exploring the possibility of purchasing more Patriot air defense systems from the United States for Ukraine, a government spokesman said Friday, as Russia intensifies its aerial attacks. Asked to comment on reports that the government in Berlin had reached out to Washington over a deal for new anti-missile systems, government spokesman Stefan Kornelius said he could “confirm that more intensive discussions are indeed taking place on this.” Chancellor Friedrich Merz had raised the issue in a telephone call with US President Donald Trump on Thursday, Der Spiegel magazine reported subsequently. The exchange was confirmed to AFP by Kornelius....

Mr. President, we know you understand that the primary obstacle to peace in Ukraine is Russia’s aggression. You said you were “disappointed” in the conversation with Russian dictator Vladimir Putin, and that you “don’t think he’s looking to stop.” Putin again insisted he was unwilling to commit to a ceasefire until the “root causes” of the conflict were addressed. For Vlad, the “root cause” is the existence of Ukraine. He followed your call with the largest drone and missile strike of the war, killing at least one. So why, Mr. President, is your administration punishing Ukraine? The Pentagon has halted...

President Trump expressed dismay with Russian strongman Vladimir Putin early Friday, admitting that the Kremlin tyrant has no interest in stopping his bloody war on neighboring Ukraine anytime soon. “I’m very disappointed with the conversation I had [Thursday] with President Putin because I don’t think he’s there. I’m just saying, I don’t think he’s looking to stop, and that’s too bad,” Trump told reporters after returning to Washington following a pre-Independence Day event in Iowa. “It’s [former President Joe] Biden’s war, and I got stuck in the middle of it, just like I did with immigration and a lot of...

Its inter-agency members sought to sabotage the Russian-US rapprochement. Reuters reported in mid-June that the Trump Administration had recently disbanded a secret inter-agency working group overseen by now-dismissed National Security Council members tasked with formulating strategies for coercing Russia into concessions to Ukraine. According to their three unnamed US official sources, Trump’s hitherto refusal to escalate American involvement in the conflict led to this initiative losing steam, though he could still potentially reverse gears in the future. At any rate, what’s most significant about Reuters’ report is that it confirms that a secret group of officials from the US’ permanent...

Keir Starmer has announced a fresh package of military aid for Ukraine – this time paid for using the UK’s interest haul from frozen Russian assets. The UK will send 350 advanced air defence missiles, built in Britain and adapted in record time for ground launch, using £70m of interest raised through the government’s extraordinary revenue acceleration (ERA) scheme. The move marks the first time the UK has used Russia-linked funds to directly bankroll weaponry for Kyiv. The missiles will be deployed through UK-supplied Raven systems – five more of which are en route to Ukraine, taking the total to...

President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky wants to see the war between Ukraine and Russia come to a close following their meeting at the NATO Summit. Trump was asked about the meeting during his press conference at the summit in the Hague, Netherlands. “He couldn’t have been nicer. I think he’d like to see an end to this, I do. What I took from the meeting — couldn’t have been nicer, actually — but I took from the meeting he’d like to see it end,” Trump said. “I think it’s a great time to end it....