37 m. ago Moscow must have effective veto over any measures to support Ukraine after potential peace deal, says minister – Ukraine war live

Sergei Lavrov, Russia’s foreign minister, says European proposals to deploy troops in Ukraine after a settlement would amount to ‘foreign intervention’We have just heard from the European Commission, confirming that the EU and the US have now agreed on the much-awaited “joint statement” advancing the political commitments on trade agreed by Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump in Scotland last month.The commission’s press release says the statement “lays out in detail the new US tariff regime towards the EU, with a clear maximum, all-inclusive, tariff rate of 15% for the vast majority of EU exports, including strategic sectors such as cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.” Continue reading...

Politics

96 m. ago Zelenskyy says he wants to see an agreement on security guarantees before meeting Vladimir Putin – Ukraine war live

Amid US offering minimal security a group of allies led by Britain and France are putting together a military coalitionWe have just heard from the European Commission, confirming that the EU and the US have now agreed on the much-awaited “joint statement” advancing the political commitments on trade agreed by Ursula von der Leyen and Donald Trump in Scotland last month.The commission’s press release says the statement “lays out in detail the new US tariff regime towards the EU, with a clear maximum, all-inclusive, tariff rate of 15% for the vast majority of EU exports, including strategic sectors such as cars, pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and lumber.” Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago ‘Russia is targeting us deliberately’: how attacks on maternity hospitals fuelled a birth crisis in Ukraine

Women have been left fearful of childbirth after more than 80 attacks on maternity units since the invasion, leading to the world’s lowest birth rate and the highest mortality rateIt was one of the most horrifying targets of Russia’s war on Ukraine so far. Reports showed a pregnant woman on a stretcher, her face ashen with shock, legs smeared with blood and a hand holding her bump. Behind her, the bombed-out ruins of Mariupol’s maternity hospital. More than a dozen people, including women in labour, were injured in the attack in March 2022. The woman photographed, Iryna Kalinina, later died along with her unborn baby.In the three years since then, maternity care in Ukraine has remained under constant attack, with more than 2,000 strikes on medical facilities, including 81 affecting maternal care and delivery rooms. Just last month, Diana Koshyk, seven months pregnant, was killed when a missile struck a maternity hospital in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Continue reading...

Events

2 h. ago ‘Russia is targeting us deliberately’: how attacks on maternity hospitals fuelled a birth

Women have been left fearful of childbirth after more than 80 attacks on maternity units since the invasion, leading to the world’s lowest birth rate and the highest mortality rateIt was one of the most horrifying targets of Russia’s war on Ukraine so far. Reports showed a pregnant woman on a stretcher, her face ashen with shock, legs smeared with blood and a hand holding her bump. Behind her, the bombed-out ruins of Mariupol’s maternity hospital. More than a dozen people, including women in labour, were injured in the attack in March 2022. The woman photographed, Iryna Kalinina, later died along with her unborn baby.In the three years since then, maternity care in Ukraine has remained under constant attack, with more than 2,000 strikes on medical facilities, including 81 affecting maternal care and delivery rooms. Just last month, Diana Koshyk, seven months pregnant, was killed when a missile struck a maternity hospital in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region. Continue reading...

Events

3 h. 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

3 h. ago Trump steps back from Russia and Ukraine peace talks for now, sources say

US president told top advisers trilateral meeting would take place after leaders of the two countries have met firstDonald Trump intends to leave Russia and Ukraine to organize a meeting between their leaders without directly playing a role for now, according to administration officials familiar with the situation, taking a step back from the negotiations to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.The next stage in Trump’s eyes to end the war in Ukraine remains a bilateral meeting between Vladimir Putin, the Russian president, and Volodymyr Zelenskyy, the Ukrainian president, the officials said. Continue reading...

Politics

3 h. ago US will only offer minimal security guarantees for Ukraine, says defence adviser – Ukraine war live

Elbridge Colby, US undersecretary of defence for policy, tells European allies that the bulk of responsibility will fall on Europe, say reportsIf you followed the blog yesterday, you know we looked at an incident with an allegedly Russian drone that crossed into Poland and exploded in a cornfield, some 100 km from Polish-Belarusian border.A regional prosecutor issued an update today, saying that “there is a very high probability that the object probably came from Belarus.” Continue reading...

Events

4 h. ago Vance says it’s up to Europe to provide Ukraine security guarantees with Pentagon confirming U.S. involvement will be ‘minimal’

Vice President says it will up to neighbor states to provide ‘lion’s share’ of peacekeeping support to Kyiv if peace deal with Russia can be agreed

Events

5 h. 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

6 h. ago Poland scrambles war planes as Russia unleashes hypersonic missile barrage and strikes Ukrainian city near NATO border

Russian attacks on western Ukraine killed one person and wounded multiple others, officials in the country said Thursday as diplomatic efforts to end the three-year war grind on.

Events

21 h. ago Putin's top diplomat warns of 'road to nowhere' in Ukraine security talks

Russia’s foreign minister has warned against talks about Ukraine’s security without Russia at the table

Events

23 h. ago Russia says it must be part of international talks on Ukraine’s security

Foreign minister Sergei Lavrov dismisses European diplomacy as ‘clumsy effort to sway Trump’Russia-Ukraine war – live updatesMoscow has said it must be part of any international talks on Ukraine’s security, as Russia continues to stall on Donald Trump’s push for a meeting between Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy.Russia’s foreign minister, Sergei Lavrov, said on Wednesday that Moscow must be included in any talks on Ukraine’s security guarantees, dismissing European diplomacy as “aggressive escalation” and a “clumsy effort to sway Trump”. Continue reading...

Events

23 h. ago Putin and Zelensky have only met once before – here’s what happened

With Donald Trump pushing for a meeting between the two war time leaders, we look at their last encounter

Politics

24 h. ago In numbers: Is the UK ready to put boots on the ground in Ukraine?

Keir Starmer’s commitment to deploy British peacekeepers to Ukraine has raised questions over whether the UK is ready for conflict, Alicja Hagopian writes

Politics

25 h. ago Trump is ready to ‘crush’ the Russian economy if Putin doesn’t meet with Zelensky, says Lindsey Graham

Republican insists sanctions could become necessary to punish Kremlin leader for snubbing diplomatic discussions on ending Ukraine war

Politics

27 h. ago NATO defense chiefs hold virtual meeting on Ukraine security guarantees

NATO defense chiefs are holding a virtual meeting to discuss security guarantees for Ukraine as part of efforts to end Russia's war on its neighbor

Events

28 h. ago NATO war planes scrambled for second day after latest Russian attack on Ukraine

The attack on oil and port facilities in Izmail, Odesa, was less than one mile from NATO territory.

Events

29 h. ago NATO scrambles war planes for second day following devastating attack on Ukraine

The attack on oil and port facilities in Izmail, Odesa, was less than one mile from NATO territory - and has cast major doubt on Vladimir Putin's commitment to securing peace in the region

Events

32 h. ago Trump hopes he can get into heaven and believes solving Ukraine war will get him there

US president suggested brokering peace between Russia and Ukraine would help him ‘get to heaven’

Politics

34 h. ago Trump pushes for meeting to end war as Russia continues attacks on Ukraine: Live updates

Putin and Zelensky could meet within just two weeks as European leaders hail ‘breakthrough’ in Washington

Events