Page 13 - Us Russia

European leaders hold emergency talks, fear Trump leaving age-old allies

European leaders sought to form a united front Monday at emergency talks in Paris, called after a US diplomatic blitz on Ukraine which has thrown a once-solid alliance into turmoil and left the Europeans questioning the reliability of their key transatlantic partner. Shortly before the meeting, French President Emmanuel Macron spoke with US President Donald Trump, but Macron's office would not disclose details about the 20-minute discussion. Leaders of Germany, the United Kingdom, Italy, Poland, Spain, the Netherlands, Denmark and the European Union met at the Elysee Palace for talks on Europe's security quandary. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was also there. Since last week, top US officials from the Trump administration, on their first visit to Europe, left the impression that Washington was ready to embrace the Kremlin while it cold-shouldered many of its age-old European allies. The US to leave Europe out of the negotiating table Gen Keith Kellogg, Trump's special envoy fo

Zelenskyy visits UAE as momentum grows for peace talks to end war

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with the leader of the United Arab Emirates on Monday as momentum grows for potential peace talks ending Russia's war on the country. US President Donald Trump last week suggested he would be meeting Russian President Vladimir Putin in Saudi Arabia. The UAE, home to Abu Dhabi and Dubai, has long been floated as a possible site for peace talks as well, given the large population of Russian and Ukrainian expatriates who have flooded the country since the war began, and due to the Emirates' work on prisoner exchanges in the past. Zelenskyy arrived in Abu Dhabi late Sunday after attending the Munich Security Conference in Germany. Footage released by his office showed him and his wife, Olena Zelenska, being greeted by an Emirati official and honor guard at the airport. The trip is Zelenskyy's first to the UAE since the war began. Our top priority is bringing even more of our people home from captivity, Zelenskyy's office said in messages onlin

UK offers peacekeeping troops to Ukraine as Europeans hold emergency summit

The Europeans were holding an emergency summit in Paris to discuss their role in Ukraine's future after President Trump announced it would sit down with Russia to seek an end to the 3-year-old war

Zelenskyy says Ukraine to skip US-Russia talks, rejects any imposed outcome

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said Monday his country won't take part in US-Russia talks this week on ending the war and won't accept the outcome of the talks if Ukraine doesn't take part. Speaking to journalists on a conference call from the United Arab Emirates, Zelenskyy said his government had not been invited to Tuesday's planned talks in Saudi Arabia. He said they would yield no results, given the absence of any Ukrainian officials. Zelenskyy said he would travel to Turkiye on Monday and to Saudi Arabia on Wednesday, but that his trip to the Arab nation was unrelated to planned US-Russia talks there on Tuesday.

China lauds EU ties as Trump's peace plan with Russia chills continent

In contrast, China's Foreign Minister Wang Yi used his address to say that all stakeholders in the Russia-Ukraine war should participate in any peace talks, including the European Union

Ukraine, Europe fear being sidelined as Trump pushes talks with Russia

President Donald Trump's approach to ending Russia's war against Ukraine has left European allies and Ukrainian officials worried they are being largely sidelined by the new US administration as Washington and Moscow plan direct negotiations. With the three-year war grinding on, Trump is sending Secretary of State Marco Rubio, national security advisor Mike Waltz and special envoy Steve Witkoff to Saudi Arabia for talks with Russian counterparts, according to a US official who was not authorised to publicly discuss the upcoming diplomatic efforts and spoke on condition of anonymity. The outreach comes after comments by top Trump advisors this past week, including Vice-President JD Vance, raised new concerns in Kyiv and other European capitals that the Republican administration is intent on quick resolution to the conflict with minimum input from Europe. "Decades of the old relationship between Europe and America are ending," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy in an address at t

US, Russia to hold peace talks in Saudi Arabia to end Ukraine war

The US has asked its European allies what they would need from Washington to participate in Ukraine security arrangements and to outline how they see lasting guarantees

Trump committed to ending Ukraine war, says Rubio to Russia's Lavrov

According to a statement released by the US State Department spokesperson's office, the two leaders also discussed the opportunity to potentially work together on other bilateral issues

Russia detains another US citizen on drugs charges days after prisoner swap

Russia has detained another US citizen, after customs officials found cannabis-laced marmalade in his luggage, Russian media said Friday, days after a Moscow-Washington prisoner swap that the White House called a diplomatic thaw and a step toward ending the fighting in Ukraine. Russian police said the 28-year-old American had attempted to smuggle a significant amount of drugs into the country, the Interfax agency reported, citing Russia's Federal Customs Service. The agency said the American was detained at Moscow's Vnukovo airport after flying in from Istanbul last Friday. Mash, a Russian Telegram channel with links to the security services, said the US citizen, identified only as K. Byers, faced up to seven years in prison if convicted. There was no immediate comment from the US State Department. The Washington-Moscow prisoner exchange this month saw Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States, returned to Russia after b

Trump says US, Russian officials to meet in Munich today, Ukraine invited

Not sure exactly who's going to be there from any country, but high-level people from Russia, from Ukraine and from the United States, Trump told reporters

Russian crypto expert Alexander Vinnik returns to Moscow in prisoner swap

Alexander Vinnik, a Russian cryptocurrency expert who faced Bitcoin fraud charges in the United States, returned to Russia on Thursday after being freed in a swap that saw Moscow release American Marc Fogel, Russian news agencies reported. Alexander Vinnik arrived in Moscow on a flight from Turkey, where he was flown after being released from custody in California, Russia's state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies reported, citing Russian aviation officials and his lawyer. Vinnik, who operated cryptocurrency exchange BTC-e, was arrested in 2017 in Greece at the request of the US on cryptocurrency fraud charges and was later extradited to the United States where he pleaded guilty last year to conspiracy to commit money laundering. Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for US President Donald Trump, left Russia with Fogel earlier in the week and brought him to the White House, where Trump greeted him on Tuesday. Fogel, an American history teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia

Trump wants denuclearisation talks with Russia, China to cut defence budget

President Donald Trump said Thursday that he wants to restart nuclear arms control talks with Russia and China and that eventually he hopes all three countries could agree to cut their massive defense budgets in half. Speaking to reporters in the Oval Office, Trump lamented the hundreds of billions of dollars being invested in rebuilding the nation's nuclear deterrent and said he hopes to gain commitments from the US adversaries to cut their own spending. There's no reason for us to be building brand new nuclear weapons, we already have so many, Trump said. You could destroy the world 50 times over, 100 times over. And here we are building new nuclear weapons, and they're building nuclear weapons. We're all spending a lot of money that we could be spending on other things that are actually, hopefully much more productive," Trump said. While the US and Russia hold massive stockpiles of weapons since the Cold War, Trump predicted that China would catch up in their capability to exact

Kremlin confirms Ukraine's role in peace talks, separates US-Russia strand

The two leaders spoke on Wednesday and announced their intention to meet face-to-face, shortly after Trump's defense secretary bluntly told allies that Washington did not support NATO

Kyiv, EU alarmed by prospect of 'dirty deal' after Trump-Putin call

The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine would "of course" participate in peace talks in some way

Russia frees American Fogel in what US calls step toward end of Ukraine war

Marc Fogel, an American teacher who was deemed wrongfully detained by Russia, has been released in what the White House described as a diplomatic thaw that could advance negotiations to end the war in Ukraine. Steve Witkoff, a special envoy for President Donald Trump, left Russia with Fogel, a history teacher from Pennsylvania, and they landed back in the US at Joint Base Andrews on Tuesday night, according to the White House. They were expected to head to the White House, with Fogel to be reunited with his family by the end of the day. Fogel was arrested in August 2021 and was serving a 14-year prison sentence. His family and supporters said he had been travelling with medically prescribed marijuana, and he was designated by President Joe Biden's administration as wrongfully detained in December. Michael Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, said the U.S. and Russia negotiated an exchange to ensure Fogel's release. He did not say what the U.S. side of the bargain entailed. ...

Ukraine 'may be Russian someday': Trump ahead of Vance-Zelenskyy meet

According to CNN's report, Trump, who has repeatedly questioned the US's role in supporting Ukraine, discussed his administration's efforts to end the war with Russia

US funding freeze hampers investigations into Russian war crimes in Ukraine

Two of the listed projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and one directly by the Department of State, the document showed

Oil prices rise despite concerns over US tariffs, trade war risks

Trump said on Sunday that the US is making progress with Russia to end the Ukraine war, but he declined to provide details about any communications with Russian President Vladimir Putin

Kremlin says contacts with Trump's team intensified over Ukraine, Nato

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov welcomed what he described as an acknowledgment from Trump that drawing Ukraine towards NATO was a mistake

Saudi Arabia, UAE expected venues for Trump-Putin meet: Russian sources

However, senior Russian officials have visited both Saudi Arabia and the UAE in recent weeks, according to the Russian sources, who spoke on condition of anonymity due to the sensitivity of situation