7 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

7 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

7 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

8 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 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 What could US and European security guarantees look like for Ukraine?

British prime minister Sir Keir Starmer has met with 30 international leaders to discuss the next steps for ensuring Ukraine’s security

Events

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 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 Critics feared Trump and Putin were on the same page. Now, Trump and Zelensky appear closer than ever

Zelensky said his talks with Trump had been their ‘best’ meeting yet. White House Correspondent Andrew Feinberg recaps a historic day at the White House.

Politics

2 w. ago Trump doesn’t rule out sending US troops to Ukraine as part of peacekeeping efforts: ‘We’ll be involved’

Trump said he would be discussing the matter with European leaders, including Prime Minister Sir Kier Starmer

Politics

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 Starmer would back Ukraine peace deal without a ceasefire, No 10 confirms

Sir Keir Starmer repeated his vow that Britain is prepared to put troops on the ground in Ukraine

Economics

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

2 w. ago The Guardian view on the Alaska summit: there must be no more gifts to Vladimir Putin | Editorial

As Volodymyr Zelenskyy heads to Washington amid talk of land swaps, European leaders must have his backHours after Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin departed from Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska on Friday, Moscow officials reported that two more villages in Ukraine’s east had been seized by Russian forces. It was a grimly apt postscript to a “peace summit” that allowed a pariah leader to posture on the world stage, but signally failed to achieve the outcome that its host claimed to desire.Mr Trump had suggested that he would be “unhappy” if a ceasefire were not agreed during discussions with Mr Putin. There would, he warned, be “severe consequences” if his guest proved unwilling to end the war. Predictably, no ceasefire announcement was forthcoming, and the sanctions Mr Trump has repeatedly threatened, but never imposed, have been kicked into the long grass. Instead, the US president offered a crucial concession to Mr Putin, concurring that a cessation of hostilities sh...

Politics

2 w. ago Ukrainians left disappointed at Trump rolling out red carpet for ‘tyrant’ Putin

Ukrainians have reacted with anger to the welcome received by Russian president Vladimir Putin as he arrived in Alaska for a summit with his US counterpart Donald Trump on Friday (15 Aug).

Politics

2 w. ago Putin won in Anchorage. Now Zelenskyy and Europe are in an even more perilous position | Rajan Menon

Trump’s summit failed to achieve a ceasefire, but the Russian president will be very happy with how events are unfoldingDonald Trump portrays himself as a hard-nosed dealmaker. Yet in the run-up to Friday’s summit with Vladimir Putin in Anchorage, Alaska, his claim that the Russian leader held him in high regard and was therefore serious about ending the war in Ukraine sounded naive. Putin doesn’t let sentimentality shape his political and military decisions. Nor has he disavowed his longstanding claim to four Ukrainian provinces: Donetsk and Luhansk, which together comprise Ukraine’s eastern Donbas region, and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south. Despite Russia’s overwhelming numerical advantage in troops and weaponry, Putin occupies only one province, Luhansk, almost entirely. Yet he persists.In the days before his meeting with Putin, Trump said the Russian economy “stinks” and that falling oil prices would cause Russia’s war to run aground. The war has certainly placed severe s...

Politics