3 h. ago Trump swallowing Putin’s lies is a bigger threat to Ukraine than bombs | Rafael Behr

In Alaska the Russian leader will claim to want peace, but only on his terms – and play on the president’s desperation to ‘make a deal’ quicklyWars do not have to be won. Total victories loom largest in the popular imagination because those are the stories nations always tell to sustain patriotic feeling. The fuller version of history is written in stalemates.That is worth remembering when Donald Trump meets Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Both leaders have incentives to pretend that Ukraine’s fate can be settled decisively without any Ukrainians at the negotiating table. That doesn’t make it so. Continue reading...

Politics

4 h. ago ‘It’s a robot war’: eastern Ukraine faces onslaught of Russian glide bombs, rockets and kamikaze drones

Putin has escalated strikes on Donetsk region and is likely to demand Ukraine hands it over in talks with TrumpNataliya Petrovna pointed to a crater on the edge of a football field. Around it lay bits of twisted metal. From nearby came loud banging as residents fixed plywood to their damaged five-storey apartment block. Many of its windows were broken. “The last few days have been terrible. We could hear the drones buzzing over us. The one that exploded near the school opposite was a Russian Shahed. Maybe some kind of new type,” she said.Petrovna lives in the eastern garrison city of Kramatorsk, in Donetsk province, about 15 miles from the frontline. The distance is just beyond the range of Russian first-person view (FPV) drones, at least for now. But it is easily reachable by other kinds of enemy objects. They include air-dropped glide bombs, Grad rockets and unmanned kamikaze drones – now cruising Ukraine’s skies in overwhelming numbers. Continue reading...

Events

24 h. ago ‘Zombie grannies’ acting as ‘human bombers’ for Ukraine says Putin's secret service

Russia's FSB counterintelligence service has accused a group of elderly women of being 'human bombs', after the pensioners were allegedly lured by Ukraine's secret services

Politics

48 h. ago Soldiers under bombardment in eastern Ukraine say peace still feels far away

‘We are preparing for a long war. We have no illusions that Russia will stop’

Events

61 h. ago Woman and two men killed in sea mine explosions at beaches in Ukraine 'after bombs washed into shore'

A woman and two men lost their lives when the blasts ripped through the Black Sea resort area of Zatoka at around 11.30am today.

Events

5 d. ago Putin steps up Ukrainian bombing in clearest sign yet he plans to IGNORE Trump's ceasefire deadline

Video footage shows the Kremlin's forces in a fresh strike on a bridge in Kherson, which it has failed to dislodge in six massive aerial attacks, in a hint that Putin may ignore Trump's deadline.

Events

6 d. ago Putin defies US threats in 'cruel' Ukraine bombing hours before 'peace' talks

Russian President defies US sanctions threats by bombing Ukraine just hours before a crucial face-to-face with US President Donald Trump's 'special envoy' in latest sign of contempt

Events

6 d. ago Hiroshima mayor warns world is repeating nuclear mistakes: ‘Please witness the reality’

Kazumi Matsui denounces ‘flagrant disregard’ of lessons from tragedies of history on 80th anniversary of nuclear bombing

Events

7 d. ago We’re being deafened by digital noise. Pause it and you hear the sound of democracy in crisis | Rafael Behr

Politics is struggling to cope with the pace of technological change – and that is affecting every single one of usReturning from holiday, asked where I have been, I want to say “offline”. The more precise answer is France, where the internet is available. But I tried not to use it compulsively because there isn’t much point in getting away from it all if you carry it all with you on a phone and check it every few minutes.At some point in the past decade or so, the condition of vacation came to be defined more by detachment from the digital realm than departure from home. The break begins not in a departure lounge but with the act of logging off, setting the out-of-office email auto-reply, archiving work-related WhatsApp chats, deleting social media apps. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Hiroshima anniversary: mayor says Ukraine and Middle East crises show world ignoring nuclear ‘tragedies’

On 80th anniversary of atomic bombing, Kazumi Matsui urges younger people to recognise ‘inhumane’ consequences of nuclear weapons as a deterrentThe mayor of Hiroshima has led calls for the world’s most powerful countries to abandon nuclear deterrence, at a ceremony to mark 80 years since the city was destroyed by an American atomic bomb.As residents, survivors and representatives from 120 countries gathered at the city’s peace memorial park on Wednesday morning, Kazumi Matsui warned that the conflicts in Ukraine and the Middle East had contributed to a growing acceptance of nuclear weapons. Continue reading...

Events

7 d. ago Vladimir Putin could end Russian aerial bombardment of Ukraine to avoid Trump's economic sanctions

US President Donald Trump 's peace envoy, Steve Witkoff, is expected to travel to Moscow imminently ahead of Friday's deadline for Russia to agree a ceasefire with Ukraine.

Politics

8 d. ago Putin 'moves four nuke bombers closer to Europe' after Trump sent nuclear subs to Russia as Kremlin warns against 'escalation'

The strategic aircraft are often used to bomb Ukraine and Insider UA says they have been loaded with missiles leading to a 'high probability' of an imminent major attack.

Events

9 d. ago Moment Russia bombs key Ukrainian bridge in Kherson after mass drone strike hit tourist resort Sochi

The attacks are the latest trading of blows between Russia and Ukraine as each nation looks to focus on targeting the other's infrastructure.

Events

3 w. ago NATO scrambles fighter jets after Putin launches attack with nuclear bombers

Members of the international alliance were forced to deploy fighters for the second time in three days following the explosive attack on Ukraine carried out with nuclear bombers

Events

3 w. ago Putin ‘open to peace’ despite intensifying bombardment of Ukraine

At least 57 Russian Iranian-made Shahed drones were launched at Ukraine overnight, according to officials

Politics

3 w. ago Pam Bondi, the Trump loyalist swallowed up by the Epstein affair

The US attorney-general’s stance has disappointed the president’s Maga base

Politics

3 w. ago Trump backtracks from suggestion Ukraine should ‘target Moscow’ but again tells Putin to reach peace deal soon – Europe live

US president says first deliveries of Patriot missile systems via Germany are ‘already being shipped’A joint Czech, Slovak and Ukrainian police operation arrested a Ukrainian man who was allegedly sending bomb threats against “hundreds” of Czech and Slovak schools, the forces confirmed.The arrest took place in the Dnipro region of Ukraine as a result of the forces’ joint investigation into multiple emailed bomb threats that started in September last year. Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Trump isn't a reliable ally – but Nato dollars can be more persuasive than Putin's propaganda | Rafael Behr

There is no guarantee the US president’s impatience with Russia will last, but the Kremlin may come to regret testing his patienceBefore Donald Trump was a politician he was a property tycoon. Naturally, he thought he could fix the Ukraine war with a real-estate deal. In exchange for a ceasefire, Vladimir Putin would get to keep territory he had already seized.But before Putin was a politician he was a KGB agent who mourned the collapse of the Soviet Union. His idea of a fair solution begins with Ukraine’s total submission to an imperial Russian motherland.Rafael Behr is a Guardian columnist Continue reading...

Politics

4 w. ago Ukraine hails 'Agent Melania' after Trump admits First Lady explained Putin's lies

Ukrainians have hailed Melania Trump as an unlikely 'undercover agent' after explaining Vladimir Putin's lies to the US President

Politics

4 w. ago Trump tears into Putin for being a 'problem' as he promises 'major' action amid fury at the dictator over Ukraine

President Donald Trump tore into Vladimir Putin as he pushes for a ceasefire in Ukraine, saying the Russian president 'talks nice, and then he bombs everybody.'

Politics