5 d. ago Putin says he and Trump came to ‘understanding’ about how to end Ukraine war at Alaska summit

Putin addresses leaders gathered in China for the SCO summit

Politics

8 d. ago At least 23 dead in overnight Kyiv attack as UK and EU summon Russian envoys

Missile strikes on Ukrainian capital hit EU and British Council offices in deadliest assault in monthsThe UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after overnight missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 23 people and damaged the city’s British Council and EU offices, in the deadliest aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Four children were among those killed after a residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. Continue reading...

Events

8 d. ago The Guardian view on Russia’s strike on Kyiv: Putin is testing Trump’s will and Europe’s resolve | Editorial

The Kremlin sent a clear message with its lethal overnight raid on the Ukrainian capital. Will the US heed it?Wednesday night brought a grim return to Russia’s form: one of the heaviest air raids on Kyiv since the full-scale invasion began. Moscow eased off its strikes on major cities in the run-up to the Alaska summit, and it held off its attack on the Ukrainian capital until Keith Kellogg, the US special envoy, had finished his visit there. But within hours of his departure, at least 18 people, including several children, were dead in an attack on a residential block, and the European Union mission had been severely damaged.Donald Trump periodically suggests that he is drawing a line for Vladimir Putin. Yet each time he appears to set a limit, the Russian president breezes through it. The Kyiv attack shows that it is Mr Putin who is testing the US president. Mr Trump threatened “severe consequences” if Moscow did not immediately agree to a ceasefire – but in Anchora...

Politics

9 d. ago UK and EU summon Russian envoys after Kyiv offices damaged in strikes

Overnight attacks kill 18 and severely damage buildings including those housing EU delegation and British CouncilUK politics live – latest updatesThe UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after overnight missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 18 people and damaged the city’s British Council and EU offices in the most deadly aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Four children are among the 17 reported dead after a residential building was struck in the middle of the night within the eastern Darnytskyi district, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago At least 21 dead in overnight Kyiv attack as UK and EU summon Russian envoys

Missile strikes on Ukrainian capital hit EU and British Council offices in deadliest assault in monthsThe UK and European Union have summoned their Russian envoys after overnight missile strikes on Kyiv killed at least 21 people and damaged the city’s British Council and EU offices, in the deadliest aerial assault on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Four children were among those killed after a residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night within the eastern Darnytskyi district, according to Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko. Continue reading...

Events

9 d. ago ‘Massive’ Russian missile and drone attack on Kyiv kills at least 14 people

Zelenskyy says Moscow ‘chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table’ after assault affecting more than 20 locations• Europe live – latest updatesRussian airstrikes have killed at least 14 people in a succession of attacks on Kyiv and wounded dozens in the most deadly night raid on the Ukrainian capital since the Alaska summit between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.Twelve people were reported killed when a five-storey residential building in the eastern Darnytskyi district was struck in the middle of the night, Ukraine’s interior minister, Ihor Klymenko, said. Continue reading...

Events

2 w. ago Trump again mulls Russia sanctions as Ukraine peace remains elusive one week after Alaska summit

Russia’s foreign minister says no meeting planned between Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian president Volodymyr ZelenskyyDonald Trump renewed a threat to impose sanctions on Russia if there was no progress toward a peaceful settlement in Ukraine, as Moscow said there remained “no meeting planned” between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.“I’m going to make a decision as to what we do and it’s going to be a very important decision, and that’s whether or not it’s massive sanctions or massive tariffs or both, or we do nothing and say it’s your fight,” Trump said, showing apparent frustration at Moscow a week after his meeting with Putin in Alaska. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Trump needs to understand what the war in Ukraine is really about | Kenneth Roth

It’s not about Nato or the Soviet Union. It’s about democracyIt may be difficult for a real-estate mogul like Donald Trump to recognize, but Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine is not about slices of war-torn land in eastern Ukraine. It is about Ukraine’s democracy. Putin fears that the Russian people will see that democracy as an enticing alternative to his stultifying autocratic rule. Trump is unlikely to secure a peace deal unless he acts on that reality and changes the cost-benefit analysis behind Putin’s continuing war.Much of the public analysis of the Alaska summit between Trump and Putin, and the Washington collection of European leaders protecting the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, from the temperamental Trump, has been replete with red-herring issues. For example, Putin did not invade Ukraine because of feared Nato expansion. The unanimous consent of all Nato members required to admit Ukraine is nowhere on the horizon, especially since article 5 of the Nato tre...

Politics

2 w. ago Vladimir Putin launches hypersonic attack in worst raid since Alaska summit

Russia hit Ukraine with one of its heaviest missile and drone of the war so far, forcing NATO to scramble fighter jets just days after Vladimir Putin travelled to meet Donald Trump in Alaska

Politics

2 w. ago There is no ‘Trump Doctrine’ in foreign policy. Just chaos | Sidney Blumenthal

The recent summit meeting in Alaska between Trump and Putin was nothing short of a theater of the absurdAll the elaborate efforts of the European allies to prevent Donald Trump from prostrating himself before Vladimir Putin came to naught at their summit meeting in Alaska. Flattering, coddling and petting the big baby appeared to have been in vain. Before the 15 August summit, the Europeans persuaded Trump to impose new sanctions if Putin would not agree to a ceasefire, which would serve as a prerequisite for any negotiations. But Trump willfully tossed policy like a stuffed animal out of the window of “the Beast,” the presidential car as he eagerly invited Putin to join him for a triumphant chariot ride.The Europeans scrambled once again, trying to get the addled Trump back on the page he was on before the summit. Ukraine’s president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, sped to Washington to confer with Trump to try to pick up the pieces. At their last encounter, Trump jibed: “You don’t have any ...

Events

2 w. ago Sinister reason Vladimir Putin walked with one arm by his side when meeting Trump

The Russian leader was in Alaska to attend a peace talks summit with the US President, though discussions failed to provide any concrete results.

Politics

2 w. ago Four key takeaways from Trump’s White House summit on Ukraine

The US president has hosted European leaders at short notice amid intense political efforts to end the war in Ukraine. Here are four key points to what was achievedUkraine war: live updatesFull report: Trump arranging Zelenskyy-Putin meeting as European leaders push for US security guaranteesDonald Trump has hosted leaders from across Europe as part of a flurry of diplomacy to find a path to peace in Ukraine. Coming just days after a disappointing summit with Russian president Vladimir Putin in Alaska, the pressure was on to make headway in a years-long conflict that the US president once said he could solve in 24 hours.Below are some key points arising from the US president’s range of bilateral and multilateral talks with the leaders of Ukraine, Germany, Britain, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and Nato. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago Zelensky is coming to the White House with France and the UK standing behind him

After Friday’s summit in Alaska, all eyes are on Trump to see whether he breaks with Putin in any meaningful way, writes John Bowden

Events

2 w. ago Why is Donbas region becoming a defining faultline in Ukraine talks?

Putin has reportedly demanded full control of industrial region but Kyiv is set against ceding any territoryRussia-Ukraine war – latest news updatesAt last week’s Alaska summit, Vladimir Putin made full control of Donbas – Ukraine’s industrial heartland in the east – a central condition for ending the war.According to sources briefed on the talks, the Russian leader demanded that Ukrainian forces withdraw from Donetsk and Luhansk, the two regions that make up Donbas, in exchange for a freeze along the rest of the frontline. Continue reading...

Politics

2 w. ago I used to run the Foreign Office. This is my advice for today’s extraordinary White House meeting

With so much at stake for Europe, the most important thing is to choose a lead speaker. I’d go with Starmer or RutteSimon McDonald was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, 2015-2020, and is now a crossbench peerLast week’s extraordinary summit meeting in Alaska is being followed today by an even more extraordinary international conference in Washington. None of the participants knew they were going to take part two days ago. In recent decades, diplomacy has been increasingly conducted in ad hoc contact groups – but the group of seven countries (the US, Ukraine, the UK, Germany, Finland, Italy and France) and two international organisations (Nato and the EU) has never met in this way before.Officials will be preparing in the usual way, assembling briefing packs and writing talking points, aiming to please their bosses and, hopefully, allowing them to make the most effective intervention. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago I used to run the Foreign Office. This is my advice for today’s extraordinary White House meeting | Simon McDonald

With so much at stake for Europe, the most important thing is to choose a lead speaker. I’d go with Starmer or RutteSimon McDonald was permanent secretary at the Foreign Office, 2015-2020, and is now a crossbench peerLast week’s extraordinary summit meeting in Alaska is being followed today by an even more extraordinary international conference in Washington. None of the participants knew they were going to take part two days ago. In recent decades, diplomacy has been increasingly conducted in ad hoc contact groups – but the group of seven countries (the US, Ukraine, the UK, Germany, Finland, Italy and France) and two international organisations (Nato and the EU) has never met in this way before.Officials will be preparing in the usual way, assembling briefing packs and writing talking points, aiming to please their bosses and, hopefully, allowing them to make the most effective intervention. Continue reading...

Society

2 w. ago Trump’s critics say Putin ‘flattered’ Trump at the Alaska summit. Europe’s leaders aim to do the same

Trump’s meeting with Putin rolled back key red lines that Zelensky says Ukraine won’t cross. But Europe could be relying on Trump to flip-flop once again, writes John Bowden

Politics

2 w. ago Trump shares First Lady Melania’s letter to Putin as he rages over coverage of Alaska summit

Letter tells Putin ‘it is time’ to end war and appeals to Russian leader to think of children impacted by the fighting

Politics

2 w. ago Democrat Senator said Alaska summit was ‘great day’ for Russia: Putin was ‘absolved of his crimes in front of the world’

Putin came to America for a ‘photo opp’ and legitimization, and received both from Trump, says Murphy

Politics

2 w. ago Readers' letters: Vladimir Putin got everything he wanted from Alaska summit

A reader says Vladimir Putin was the clear winner in the Alaska summit on the fate of Ukraine

Politics