Category Archives: Russia

Ukraine accuses Moscow of ‘hollow statements about peace’ after latest attack

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Ukrainian officials say 88 injured in missile strike as US and Russian officials start talks on ceasefire deal

Ukraine has accused Moscow of making “hollow statements about peace” after 88 people were injured in a Russian missile attack as US and Russian officials began talks that Washington hopes will mark the first step toward lasting peace.

Seventeen children were among the casualties after the missile hit schools and residential buildings in the city of Sumy, Ukrainian officials said late on Monday, as Moscow appeared to be exploiting the window before any ceasefire to launch attacks on Ukraine.

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Trump’s shuttering of global media agency endangers reporters, staff say

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Employees who may have to return home risk death or imprisonment at hands of authoritarian governments

Foreign workers at US government-backed media outlets being cut by the Trump administration say they face deportation to their home countries, where some risk imprisonment or death at the hands of authoritarian governments.

Earlier this month, the Trump administration moved to defund the US Agency for Global Media (USAGM), an independent federal agency that oversees the Voice of America (VoA), the US’s largest and oldest international broadcaster, and provides grants to Radio Free Asia, Radio Free Europe and other news agencies. The agency had around 3,500 employees with an annual budget of $886m in 2024.

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US and Russia begin talks in Saudi Arabia on Ukraine ceasefire

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Uncertainty remains over how and when 30-day halt on energy strikes would take effect amid a gulf on expectations

US and Russian officials have begun talks in Saudi Arabia as Donald Trump pushes to broker a limited ceasefire that Washington hopes will mark the first step toward lasting peace in Ukraine.

Ukraine and Russia have agreed in principle to a one-month halt on strikes on energy infrastructure after Trump spoke with the countries’ leaders last week. But uncertainty remains over how and when the partial ceasefire would take effect – and whether its scope would extend beyond energy infrastructure to include other critical sites, such as hospitals, bridges, and vital utilities.

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Ukraine war live: US and Russia start ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia as Zelenskyy says Putin must give ‘real order’ to stop attacks

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Washington expresses optimism with latest round of negotiations beginning in Riyadh a day after Kyiv said it had ‘constructive’ US talks

Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) say they have destroyed four Russian military helicopters in Russian border region of Belgorod using US-made Himars missiles with cluster munitions.

The SSO said, in a post on X, that two Ka-52 strike helicopters and two Mi-8 transport helicopters were concealed in a “hidden position” used for “rapid redeployment or attacks against Ukraine”.

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Gulf in US and Russian expectations marks start of latest ceasefire talks

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As Washington signals hope for ‘real progress’, Moscow warns ‘difficult negotiations’ lie ahead

US and Ukrainian officials have met for further talks aimed at hammering out a ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine, with Washington signalling its hope for “real progress” even as Moscow warned that “difficult negotiations” lie ahead.

The gulf in expectations marked the start of the latest round of negotiations in Saudi Arabia, which was set to follow with a meeting between American officials and Russia on Monday. The US is pushing for a broad ceasefire in Russia’s war in Ukraine by 20 April, according to Bloomberg, though sources said the timeline may slip given the wide gap that exists between Kyiv and Moscow’s positions.

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Former KGB double agent Oleg Gordievsky dies in Surrey aged 86

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Soviet spy defected to Britain from Moscow under threat of exposure after supplying information to MI6 and MI5

Oleg Gordievsky, the UK’s most significant cold war double agent inside the KGB, has died at his home in Surrey aged 86.

Gordievsky, who would eventually defect to Britain from Moscow under threat of exposure, was considered a key agent operating for the UK’s intelligence services working within the Soviet Union.

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UK to accelerate military planning to support Ukraine, No 10 says

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Intensive talks to take place next week on detail and structure of any British deployments if ceasefire deal reached

The UK is to “accelerate the pace and scale” of its military planning to be ready to support Ukraine, with No 10 saying all options, including troops on the ground, are possible.

Keir Starmer’s spokesperson said thousands of troops would be needed to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire and agreement to end the war with Russia, whether by “sea, on land or in the air”.

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Russia continues strikes on Ukraine as drones hit Odesa overnight

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Amid uncertainty as to when part-ceasefire will take effect, Kremlin says it will cover only ‘energy infrastructure’

Waves of Russian drones pounded the Ukrainian port city of Odesa overnight, setting it ablaze in an attack that underscored Moscow’s intent to continue aerial assaults despite agreeing to a temporary pause in strikes on energy infrastructure.

Videos circulating on social media showed fires erupting in several parts of Odesa.

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Soviet-era dissident given ‘draconian’ jail sentence in Russia for anti-war views

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Alexander Skobov jailed for 16 years over social media post and alleged involvement in opposition group

A Soviet-era dissident has been sentenced to 16 years in prison in Russia for his anti-war views, in a case that observers say highlights how the country’s repression now exceeds even parts of the Soviet period.

Alexander Skobov, a 67-year-old lifelong dissident, was sentenced on Friday by a military court in St Petersburg over a social media post supporting Ukraine’s 2022 strike on the Crimea Bridge, as well as his alleged involvement with the foreign-based opposition group the Free Russia Forum.

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Trump’s demand that US could take over Ukraine’s reactors is not credible

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US president’s plan for American firms to run power plants is unrealistic and is opposed by Putin and Zelenskyy

As a demand, it is Donald Trump at his most confusing. The American president appears, at least according to Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, to have told Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Wednesday that “American ownership” of Ukraine’s four nuclear power plants would be their best protection in future – although the Ukrainian president said on Thursday that “the issue of property, we did not discuss”.

Of the four, the most significant, and the one that Trump has repeatedly referred to in the past week, is the vast, six-reactor Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. It is Europe’s biggest nuclear generator, located on the southern bank of the Dnipro River. Before the full-scale Russian invasion it produced about 20% of the country’s electricity but it is now on the frontline of Europe’s largest war since 1945.

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Trump and Zelenskyy share ‘frank’ but ‘very good’ call as Ukraine accepts partial ceasefire

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Ukraine’s president says his country is ready to implement pause in strikes on energy and infrastructure

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelenskyy had a “very good telephone call” on Wednesday, according to Trump, in the first conversation between the US president and his Ukrainian counterpart since their disastrous showdown in the White House three weeks ago.

Zelenskyy described the call as “positive, very substantive and frank”, and said he had signed up to a partial ceasefire that Trump agreed with Vladimir Putin a day earlier. The White House said Trump had promised to help with a Ukrainian request to source more air defence batteries for Kyiv.

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‘As real as it can get’: EU to loan €150bn for European defence from invasion

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EU launches scheme to buy more weapons in Europe as Russia remains ‘a threat for the foreseeable future’

Europe needs to be able to deter potential invaders by 2030, the EU executive has said as it launched a push to buy more weapons in the bloc and from allied countries, rather than from the US.

The UK, US and Turkey will be excluded from defence contracts funded by a €150bn (£125bn) EU loans programme, unless they sign a security and defence partnership agreement with the EU.

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So bold are Putin’s ceasefire demands, it’s hard to believe he is entirely serious

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The extraordinary demands of the Russian leader to weaken Ukraine would make a mockery of any peace deal

Donald Trump began his conversation with Vladimir Putin with a simple demand: a 30-day ceasefire on land, sea and air which Ukraine has already signed up to, as an initial measure on which to build towards a peace.

Instead, what the US president got from Putin were questions, half-offers and limited concessions – and, above all, an extraordinary demand from the Russian leader to weaken Ukraine that would make a mockery of any peace agreement.

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EU’s foreign policy chief laments US funding cuts to Radio Free Europe

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Kaja Kallas says the bloc cannot automatically fill the gap left by the US

The EU’s foreign policy chief, Kaja Kallas, expressed disappointment over US funding cuts to Radio Free Europe and said the EU could not automatically fill the gap.

The US Agency for Global Media stopped grants over the weekend to Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), which was founded during the cold war and broadcasts to 23 countries, including Belarus, Russia, Ukraine, Iran and Afghanistan.

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Trump says he and Putin will discuss land and power plants in Ukraine ceasefire talks

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Trump says negotiators have already discussed ‘dividing up certain assets’ and that he will talk to Putin on Tuesday

Donald Trump is to speak to Vladimir Putin on Tuesday after the Russian president last week responded to a US-brokered plan for an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine with a series of sweeping conditions he said would need to be met.

The Kremlin confirmed on Monday that the two leaders were due to speak on Tuesday by phone, after Trump’s statement that he planned to discuss with Putin ending the war in Ukraine. The US president also said that negotiators had already talked about “dividing up certain assets”, including power stations.

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Trump administration pulls US out of body investigating Ukraine invasion

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Russia and allies were target of International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine

The Trump administration is withdrawing from an international body formed to investigate responsibility for the invasion of Ukraine in the latest sign that the White House is adopting a posture favouring Vladimir Putin.

The Department of Justice said it was pulling out of the International Centre for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine (ICPA) two years after the Biden administration joined it with a commitment to hold Putin, Russia’s president, to account for the 2022 invasion and subsequent crimes committed by Russian forces.

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Macron says Russia’s permission not needed to deploy troops in Ukraine

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French president says France, UK and others could each deploy ‘a few thousand troops’ to key locations to show Ukraine ‘long-term support’

Emmanuel Macron has said France, the UK, and other nations providing security guarantees for Ukraine after any eventual ceasefire would not be aiming to deploy a “mass” of soldiers, but instead could send contingents of several thousand troops to key locations in Ukraine without needing Russia’s permission.

The French president told regional French newspapers, including Le Parisien and La Dépêche de Midi, that “several European countries, and indeed non-European ones” had “expressed their willingness” to join a possible deployment to Ukraine to secure a future peace agreement with Russia.

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PM says ‘small’ Australian contribution to Ukraine peacekeeping force could follow ceasefire

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Coalition opposes putting ‘boots on the ground’ in Ukraine saying peacekeeping is Europe’s responsibility

Anthony Albanese says Australia may send a “small contribution” of peacekeepers to Ukraine if asked, but it was premature to discuss the details before Russia agrees to a ceasefire agreement.

The prime minister joined a phone hook-up overnight that was chaired by the UK’s Keir Starmer and included the leaders of Canada, New Zealand and Europe, a collection referred to as the “Coalition of the Willing”. It also included the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

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Romania bans second far-right hopeful from presidential election rerun

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Diana Șoșoacă’s exclusion follows expulsion of front-runner Călin Georgescu from race amid rising tension around poll

Romania’s electoral commission on Saturday excluded a second far-right hopeful, Diana Șoșoacă, from May’s presidential election, amid rising tension in the run-up to the May rerun of the poll.

Earlier in March, the electoral bureau barred Călin Georgescu, an independent who was polling at about 40% before the rerun election.

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The big question on Ukraine: is Trump ready to push Putin into peace? | Shaun Walker

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Russian leader’s antagonism to Zelenskyy and lack of interest in a ceasefire leaves colossal task for US

On paper, everyone is in agreement: Donald Trump says he wants a ­ceasefire; Kyiv’s ­negotiating team has already agreed to a 30-day ceasefire ­proposal at marathon talks with the Americans in Jeddah; and Vladimir Putin says he accepts the idea, albeit with a few “nuances”.

But Putin’s so-called nuances are bigger than mere wrinkles, and at the end of an intense week of diplomacy around Russia’s war in Ukraine, a ceasefire – never mind a sustainable peace – still looks to be something of a distant prospect.

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