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Ukraine delivered its response to the latest US-drafted peace proposal aimed at ending the war with Russia to the Trump administration on Wednesday, US and Ukrainian officials told CNN, as the contours of a tenuous potential deal take shape and the US president continues to make clear he wants the conflict resolved quickly. Efforts to end the yearslong war have sharply accelerated in recent weeks. President Donald Trump on Wednesday suggested a solution could soon be “figured out,” telling reporters at the White House that “a lot of people say it’s closer than it’s ever been.” He said he “discussed...

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday said he was ready for elections, appearing to bow to pressure from President Donald Trump, who has been upping the pressure on Ukraine to hold a national vote during the war with Russia. While there are serious challenges to holding elections in a country at war, Zelenskyy said that he was prepared to organize them as long as he got his parliament's OK and the U.S. and other allies helped ensure security. “I am ready for elections; moreover, I am now asking — and I state this openly — for the United States to help...

Ukraine and its European partners will soon be ready to present the U.S. with "refined documents" on a peace plan to end the war with Russia, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Tuesday, following days of high-stakes shuttle diplomacy. Kyiv is under pressure from the White House to secure a quick peace but is pushing back on a U.S.-backed plan proposed last month that is widely seen as favorable to Moscow. Ukrainian officials are also seeking strong security guarantees from partners... In a statement, Zelenskyy said new components of the deal hashed out with the British, French, and German leaders in...

Dive deep into the geopolitical chessboard as defense analyst Alex Krainer unveils why Russia's peace terms hinge on Ukraine's critical 'Fortress Belt' infrastructure. This eye-opening analysis exposes the strategic military installations, fortified defense lines, and NATO-backed infrastructure that have transformed eastern Ukraine into an impenetrable barrier. Discover the hidden reasons behind Moscow's unwavering stance, the tactical significance of these fortifications, and what this means for future negotiations. Whether you're a geopolitics enthusiast, military strategy buff, or simply seeking to understand the real stakes in this conflict, this compelling breakdown reveals the untold story behind the stalemate that mainstream media won't...

After weeks of peace talks and high-level meetings, Russia and Ukraine remain far apart on an issue central to bringing the war to an end: Territory. The Kremlin has made clear that it wants to absorb all of an eastern area of Ukraine known as the Donbas. That includes a 2,500-square-mile area of the Luhansk and Donetsk regions that Russia has not been able to capture after nearly four years of fighting. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky reiterated on Monday his longstanding opposition to ceding territory to Russia. More than 200,000 Ukrainians live in the area of Donetsk that Ukraine still...

President Donald Trump's envoys have given Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy only days to respond to a proposed peace deal that would require Ukraine to accept territorial losses in exchange for unspecified U.S. security guarantees, with one person familiar with the timeline saying Trump wants an agreement "by Christmas." Zelenskyy told European leaders that he was pushed during a two-hour phone call with Trump special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president's son-in-law, to make a quick decision, reports the Financial Times on Tuesday. Officials familiar with the talks said that the Ukrainian leader told Witkoff and Kushner that he...

On Sunday, December 7, US lawmakers unveiled the final text of the defense policy bill, which includes record funding for national security as well as aid for Ukraine, according to Reuters, Fox News, and AOL.Media reports state that the bill allocates $901 billion for military spending for fiscal year 2026-$8 billion more than what President Donald Trump requested in May of this year.The legislation also assists Ukraine.“The legislation reauthorizes the Ukraine Security Assistance Initiative at $400 million per year for fiscal years 2026 and 2027,” Fox News reports.Additionally, the US Congress will require more frequent reporting on allied contributions to...

France has refused to reveal the whereabouts of €18bn in frozen Russian assets in discussions over the European Union’s future funding for Ukraine.The majority of the cash is being held by commercial banks, which Paris has argued should be protected from the €140bn “reparations loan” for Kyiv.Despite publicly backing a scheme which envisages using frozen Russian assets in Europe to guarantee a loan to Kyiv, France has emerged as a potential blocker by refusing to allow private, commercial banks from being plundered to aid Ukraine, according to reporting by The Financial Times.EU member states are caught up in fractious talks...

Ukraine will not surrender territory, President Volodymyr Zelensky declared Monday, rejecting a central Russian demand that President Donald Trump had incorporated into his latest proposal to end the Kremlin’s war. “Under our laws, under international law — and under moral law — we have no right to give anything away,” Zelensky said, after meeting with top European leaders to discuss Trump’s plan Monday. “That is what we are fighting for.” The unequivocal declaration that Ukraine will not surrender land could mark the collapse of Trump’s plan, which critics condemned as fulfilling a wish list of Russian President Vladimir Putin. Zelensky,...

Donald Trump Jr. made some not so surprising allegations against Ukraine at the Doha Forum in December. Donald Trump, Jr. recently made some noise about the ongoing Ukrainian War with Russia. Earlier this month Don Jr. unloaded on Ukrainian aid, telling fitness trainer and author, Jillian Michaels, that when he went to Monaco with his girlfriend, half of the super cars he saw on the street had Ukrainian plates. Via Chief Nerd. 🚨 Don Jr Goes Off on the Ukraine War“I was actually in Monaco earlier this summer … and every other car there was an Italian supercar, like a...

President Donald Trump, appearing on the red carpet at the Kennedy Center Honors on Sunday night, said he was "a little bit disappointed" in Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy for not yet reading the text of Washington's latest proposed peace plan for the Russia-Ukraine war. Trump said Zelenskyy's top Ukrainian officials "love it," and "Russia is fine with it," but stressed that Zelenskyy himself had not reviewed the document as of several hours before the event. "We've been speaking to President [Vladimir] Putin, and we've been speaking to Ukrainian leaders, including President Zelenskyy, and I have to say that I'm a...

Russia is gaining territory in Ukraine at one of the fastest rates since the war began, new data show, ahead of an emergency Downing Street summit. The Kremlin’s army seized 200 square miles of territory in November, up from 100 square miles the previous month, according to DeepState, a trusted Ukraine-based battlefield map. The speed of advance was approaching the fastest since the initial invasion almost four years ago, the Institute for the Study of War, a US think tank, said

Luxury mansions, duffel bags stacked full of cash, and a golden toilet. These are just some of the excesses that members of Volodymyr Zelensky's inner circle enjoyed as Russian missiles rained down on civilians, according to Ukraine's top anticorruption agencies. The scandal had old-school elements: its co-conspirators are accused of employing code names for each other such as 'Professor', 'Sugarman', 'Karlson', and 'Rocket' as they lined their pockets amid Moscow's years-long invasion. The corruption crisis sweeping Zelensky's government could not have occurred at a more pivotal moment in the country's history, as it thrashes out a peace proposal that will...

It was a clear attempt to project Russian power. Hours before meeting U.S. officials in Moscow this past week about their plan to end the war, President Vladimir V. Putin claimed that Russia’s forces had seized the strategic Ukrainian city of Pokrovsk after a monthslong fight. The reality was murkier. Slivers of the city were still contested, according to battlefield maps and the Ukrainian military. But Mr. Putin’s claim, even if premature, reflected a trend shaping his unbending approach to negotiations: Russian forces are on the march. “The Russians do have the upper hand,” said Emil Kastehelmi, a military analyst...

Vladimir Putin has told the Indian prime minister, Narendra Modi, that Russia is ready to continue “uninterrupted” shipments of oil to India, signalling a defiant stance to the US as the two leaders met in Delhi and affirmed that their ties were “resilient to external pressure”. The statement, made on Friday after the annual India-Russia summit, appeared to be directed at western countries – particularly the US – that have attempted to pressure New Delhi into scaling back its ties to Moscow. The US president, Donald Trump, in August imposed an additional 25% import tariff on India over its purchase...

Norway will allocate $7 billion dollars to Ukraine for defense needs next year. Additionally, Ukraine and Norway will launch joint defense production on Ukrainian territory, according to a post by Ukraine’s Minister of Defense, Denys Shmyhal. Shmyhal reported that during his working visit to Norway, he met with his counterpart, Tore Sandvik, and received an invitation to a meeting of the defense ministers of the Joint Expeditionary Force (JEF). Ukraine will participate in this format for the first time.

hen Vladimir Putin declared this week that Russia was ‘ready’ to fight a war in Europe, the remark barely seems to have rippled the surface of Britain’s political consciousness. It should have sent a shockwave...Yet Britain continues to behave as though danger is tidily scheduled for years in the future, safely beyond the horizon of any present responsibility. It is a comforting delusion, but a very dangerous one. Britain cannot lead Europe if it cannot defend itselfWhat Putin understands – and what Britain refuses to face – is that Europe is vulnerable in ways that matter more than tanks or...

"The US delegation just met with Vladimir Putin and his staff in Moscow and although there is no peace agreement yet, we seem to be one step closer to some form of “compromise” as the Russian TASS news agency puts it."

"You know, when I was in this office and I talked about no cards. I said: 'you have no cards.' That was the time to settle. I thought that would've been a much better time to settle. But they, in their wisdom, decided not to do that. They have a lot of things against them right now."

It has been a rough week for everyone in Kiev.Electricity is available only intermittently. Most nights there is a drone or missile strike. And the weather is gloomy and overcast.For president Volodymyr Zelensky, it has been particularly unpleasant. In the past seven days he has lost his chief of staff, the Russians claimed to have taken the strategic city of Pokrovsk, and the Americans have stepped up demands that he make humiliating territorial concessions to buy peace.On Tuesday morning, opposition MPs in Ukraine’s parliament mobbed the speaker’s chair to block Zelensky’s proposed budget and demand the government resign.The reality is...