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President Vladimir Putin has warned again that Ukrainian troops must withdraw from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region or Russia will seize it, rejecting any compromise over how to end the war in Ukraine.

"Either we liberate these territories by force, or Ukrainian troops will leave these territories," he told India Today. Moscow controls around 85% of Donbas.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has ruled out ceding territory.

Putin's comments come after President Donald Trump said his negotiators discussing a US peace plan believed Russia's leader "would like to end the war" after Tuesday's talks in Moscow.

Trump's envoy Steve Witkoff, who was in Moscow, is due to meet Ukraine's team in Florida.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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MOSCOW, Nov 30 (Reuters) - Kazakhstan told Ukraine on Sunday to stop attacking the Black Sea terminal of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium, which handles more than 1% of global oil, after a major drone attack halted exports and seriously damaged loading infrastructure.
The CPC, which includes Russian, Kazakh and U.S. shareholders, said it had halted operations after a mooring at its Russian terminal on the Black Sea was significantly damaged by a Ukrainian naval drone attack.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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KYIV, Nov 29 (Reuters) - Ukrainian naval drones hit two sanctioned tankers in the Black Sea as they headed to a Russian port to load up with oil destined for foreign markets, an official said on Saturday, as Kyiv tries to pile pressure on Russia's vast oil industry.
The two oil tankers, identified as the Kairos and Virat, were empty and sailing to Novorossiysk, a major Russian Black Sea oil terminal, the official at the Security Service of Ukraine told Reuters.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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US President Donald Trump has stepped back from his Thanksgiving deadline for a deal in Ukraine, despite his urge to be seen as the peacemaker.

It is a key signal the coming denouement of his peace initiative – now a meeting in Moscow between his envoy Steve Witkoff and the Kremlin – will likely not yield a sudden deal to end Russia’s invasion.

The gaps between Kyiv and Moscow remain too explicit, and their reasons for obstinacy too drenched in sacrifice, anxiety and blood. Russian President Vladimir Putin’s reluctance to accept any proposal that does not leave him in control of all of Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region will likely remain clear over the coming days.


The latest US proposal headed his way apparently strips that key concession from the plan leaked last week, something neither Kyiv nor its European allies consider militarily or politically wise. Given the decade-long history of this war – Russia’s three invasions of Ukrainian territory, over years of diplomacy and deceit – there is justification to doubt Moscow’s sincerity.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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Orban revealed his plan to meet Putin in a video interview on his Facebook page, adding, "I am going (to Moscow) to ensure that Hungary's energy supply is secured for the winter and next year."
When asked if peace efforts in Ukraine would also be on the agenda, Orban said, "We can hardly avoid that."
The United States gave Hungary an exemption from sanctions this month to use Russian oil and gas, after Orban pressed his case for a reprieve during a friendly meeting with President Donald Trump in Washington.
Hungary also signed a pact on nuclear power cooperation with the United States.
The deal provides for Hungary to buy U.S. nuclear fuel and technology to store spent fuel at a Russian-built nuclear plant, known as Paks I. Russia's Rosatom is building an extension to the plant, a 2014 project that has been substantially delayed.
Orban has said before that he wants to revive plans for a "peace summit" in Budapest between Trump and Putin on Ukraine, which was shelved this year.
In contrast to most NATO and European Union leaders, Orban has kept up cordial relations with Russia while questioning the logic of Western military aid for Kyiv.
Hungary has imported 8.5 million tonnes of crude oil and more than 7 billion cubic meters of natural gas from Russia this year, its foreign ministry said in a statement on Friday.

1 month ago | [YT] | 3

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Zohran Mamdani’s victory in New York’s mayoral election this month may have scrambled what had been a clear political imperative for candidates in the city: the need to support Israel.

In a number of congressional races across New York City, challengers are betting that the success of Mr. Mamdani — a vigorous critic of Israel’s treatment of Palestinians — portends a potential vulnerability for pro-Israel incumbents.

Representative Adriano Espaillat, a Democrat whose district includes Upper Manhattan and portions of the Bronx, is facing a primary challenge from Darializa Avila Chevalier, who helped lead protests against the Israel-Hamas war at Columbia University and has criticized Mr. Espaillat for supporting the sale of weapons to Israel and receiving donations from the American Israel Public Affairs Committee.

Representative Daniel Goldman, a Jewish Democrat representing parts of Brooklyn and Manhattan, seems headed to a primary battle, too. Councilwoman Alexa Avilés, a harsh critic of Israel, and the city comptroller, Brad Lander, who has attacked the Netanyahu government, have both signaled interest in running for his seat.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

TrueBit

Donald Trump wants a peace deal in Ukraine very badly.

Kyiv wants peace even more, just not at any cost.

That's why when the US began pushing it to agree to a deal by Thanksgiving on what looked close to surrender terms, Ukraine pushed back.

It scrambled senior officials to talks in Geneva and all of Sunday we saw delegates from the US and Ukraine shuttling back and forth between the two main venues in black limousines with darkened windows.

They were joined by national security advisers from Germany, France and the UK.

The only time I glimpsed Andriy Yermak, heading the negotiating team from Kyiv, he looked stony-faced.

No wonder: the starting proposal on the table was so skewed towards Russia's demands, the talks began with the US Secretary of State Marco Rubio having to deny it had been written by the Kremlin.

But Donald Trump had been clear that Ukraine needed to sign up fast or face unspecified consequences. So Kyiv had to engage.

On Sunday night, Marco Rubio declared there'd been "tremendous progress" in the talks with just a "couple of things" still outstanding. When pressed, he wouldn't be more specific, calling the situation "delicate".

But a joint Ukraine-US statement says there's now a whole new deal in play, which it calls an "updated and revised framework document".

We haven't seen that yet. The Financial Times newspaper quotes one of the delegates, though - Ukraine's deputy foreign minister Sergiy Kyslytsya - who talks of a new 19-point plan with "very little left" from the original draft.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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The United States is set to designating Venezuela’s “Cartel de los Soles” a foreign “terrorist” organisation (FTO).

President Donald Trump’s administration will add the “cartel”, which it asserts is linked to Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro, to the list on Monday.

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JOHANNESBURG/KYIV, Nov 22 (Reuters) - European and other Western leaders said on Saturday a U.S. peace plan was a basis for talks to end Russia's war in Ukraine but needed "additional work", part of Western efforts to eke out a better deal for Kyiv before a Thursday deadline.
Meeting on the sidelines of a G20 summit, European and other Western leaders scrambled to come up with a coordinated response to U.S. President Donald Trump's demand for Ukraine to accept his 28-point peace plan with Russia by Thursday.

1 month ago | [YT] | 0

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At least 26 people have been killed including three children in a Russian missile and drone attack that hit two blocks of flats in the western city of Ternopil, Ukrainian officials say.

They say another 93 people were wounded, 18 of them children, in the strike early on Wednesday - one of the deadliest in the region since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion in February 2022.

Ukraine's air force later said Russian X-101 cruise missiles had hit the residential flats.

The neighbouring Lviv and Ivano-Frankivsk regions were also struck, and a drone attack on three districts of the north-eastern city of Kharkiv wounded more than 30 people. Photos posted online showed buildings and cars ablaze.

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