Trending
Russia will support China on Taiwan
28 December 2025
Latest
Latest
- Happy New Year 2026
- UAE says it will withdraw from Yemen, but division emerges in Yemeni presidential council
- Gordon Brown on multilateralism
- Saudi Arabia and UAE issue statements after the attack on ships in Mukalla
- Situation in South Yemen strains relations between Saudi Arabia and UAE
- John Simpson: "I've reported on 40 wars but I've never seen a year like 2025"
Region
Russia
Stories under this heading cover Russia, as well as countries in the eastern part of the European continent, such as Belarus, Ukraine, and Moldova.
Trending
Zelensky to meet Trump today in Florida for crucial Ukraine talks (Updated)
27 December 2025
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky will meet with US president, Donald Trump, in Florida on Sunday (28 December) in what many see as crucial talks on the future of Ukraine.
The time of the meeting between president Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine and US president Donald Trump, in Florida today, has been moved to 1300 hours local time.
A Ukrainian delegation arrived in the United States to participate in a meeting between the two presidents.
Yesterday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced the composition of Ukraine's negotiating team: National Security and Defense Council Secretary Rustem Umerov, Economy Minister Oleksiy Sobolev, Chief of the General Staff of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Andriy Hnatov, non-staff adviser to the head of the Presidential Office Oleksandr Bevz, and First Deputy Foreign Minister Serhiy Kyslytsya.
On Saturday, the Ukrainian president outlined five thematic areas covered in the "peace plan" negotiations and which he wants to discuss with Trump at the meeting: "We are discussing security guarantees between Ukraine and the United States. This is one document. We are also discussing security guarantees with Europe. We are discussing the military dimension. This is part of the security guarantees."
The fourth section he mentioned was a "prosperity plan, which will include many other documents," which includes discussions on raising up to $800 billion for Ukraine's reconstruction and creating a number of funds. "And fifth, what we want to discuss with the president is a plan of consistent action. That is, we want to propose, step by step, how to ensure that all the plans I've already mentioned actually work. They will, of course, discuss all of this with the Russians, and we will receive feedback," Zelenskyy stated.
Filter archive
Trending
Kherson: The end of the beginning
13 November 2022
The withdrawal of the Russian army from the city of Kherson ends the first chapter of Vladimir Putin's misadventure in Ukraine, which started on 24 February when he ordered his army to invade.
Ukrainians rightly celebrated, as the Ukrainian army returned to the city which Russia illegally annexed only a few weeks ago. Kherson was the only regional centre the Russians were able to occupy following their February invasion, which, let us not forget, initially aimed to take Kyiv and all other Ukrainian cities.
But as the Ukrainian president, and other Ukrainian officials warned, the war is far from over yet. But the Russian army is still in Ukraine, and now consolidating its positions on the left bank of the Dnipro river. The river will now serve as a natural defence barrier for the Russians in the face of Ukrainian attempts to liberate the rest of the territory under Russian occupation. And the coming winter may prove challenging for Ukraine in other ways too, given the Russian attempts to destroy key infrastructure and disrupt energy supplies.
But still Kherson can be seen as the end of the beginning. The journey for the liberation of Ukraine will take longer.
And after all Ukrainian territory is liberated, another journey will have to start: that of rebuilding Europe's security architecture on new foundations. Where Russia will stand in this is still not clear. Despite the facade of defiance and bravado, it is already evident that soul-searching has already started amongst the Russian elite about the Ukrainian adventure, and indeed about how Russia itself is governed. That, the Russian people will have to figure out by themselves, and the process is not likely to be either short, or easy.
Trending
"Today Kherson, tomorrow Sevastopol"
10 November 2022
Russia's leadership has ordered its troops to withdraw from the Ukrainian city of Kherson. It was the only regional capital Russian forces were able to capture after invading in February.
The news was welcomed cautiously in Ukraine, where the government said it will proceed carefully to avoid losses.
Some commentators however are saying that it is the first step to forcing a complete Russian withdrawal from Ukrainian territory. "Today Kherson, tomorrow Sevatopol" is what many Ukrainians hope, referring to the port city on the Crimean peninsula.
Russia's commander in Ukraine, Gen Sergei Surovikin, said on Wednesday (9 November) it was no longer possible to keep supplying the city.
The withdrawal means Russian forces will pull out entirely from the western bank of the River Dnipro. The military's top brass announced the decision on Russian state TV, with Gen Surovikin reporting on the situation on the ground in Kherson. "In these circumstances, the most sensible option is to organise the defence along a barrier line along the river Dnipro," Gen Surovikin told the meeting.
Russia's annexation of Kherson, and three other occupied regions, was announced with a lot of fanfare by president Putin at the end of September.
Trending
In Sochi, leaders affirm committment to Prague principles but leave space for a role for Russia
1 November 2022
The president of Russia, Vladimir Putin, on Monday (31 October) hosted in Sochi the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan, prime minister Nikol Pashinyan and president Ilham Aliyev.
Putin met separately with the two leaders, before hosting a two-hour trilateral meeting to discuss the current state of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations. The highly choreographed meetings in the grand settings of the Kremlin's summer residence in Sochi did not, it seems, result in the expectations that the Russian leader had of the sessions. After concluding the discussions only Putin made press comments, saying that they could not agree on many issues, but that he still felt that the meeting was "useful". The Russian president said that many elements that had been included in the draft of the statement prepared by the experts had to be deleted.
In the joint written statement eventually issued at the end of the meeting, the three leaders touched upon the current state of Armenia-Azerbaijan relations, and the role of Russia. The statement appeared to endorse most of what was included in the Prague statement of 6 October 2022 between the president of the European Council, the president of France and the leaders of Armenia and Azerbaijan. The statement appeared to give a nod to a continuing Russian military force in Nagorno-Karabakh, and spoke about dialogue between representatives of societies.
