Crunch time for Republicans on Ukraine, says ex-US State Senator
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The Hill
21 minutes ago
- The Hill
Rubio to head commission on Ukraine security guarantees
Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a newly formed joint commission that will work on forging a security guarantees proposal for Ukraine, an administration official told The Hill's sister network NewsNation on Tuesday. The commission will be made up of U.S., Ukrainian, European and NATO officials. The agreement for the commission came during Monday's White House meeting between President Trump and the seven European leaders who visited Washington. The news of Rubio as the commission's head was first reported by The Wall Street Journal. The outlet reported Monday night that Ukraine's security assurances will be made up of four parts: air defense, a military presence, tracking the cessation of fighting and armaments, citing European officials familiar with the matter. Rubio, who is also Trump's national security advisor, was one of three U.S. officials to participate in a closed-door meeting with the Russian delegation on Friday in Alaska, headed by Russian President Vladimir Putin. Trump talked to Putin over the phone on Monday after the meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House. Neither Zelensky nor European officials were in the room when the president spoke with the Kremlin leader. 'I didn't do it in front of them — I thought that would be disrespectful to President Putin. I wouldn't do that, because they have not had the warmest relations,' Trump told Fox News's 'Fox & Friends' on Tuesday. The call lasted for around 40 minutes, with the president telling Putin that the administration will set up a meeting between the Kremlin leader and Zelensky, which Russia has so far refused to commit to. Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov Kremlin is not turning down talks with Ukraine and added that Trump has an invitation to come to Moscow. Trump, who has pressed to help end the Russia-Ukraine war, one that has been raging for about three-and-a-half years, floated on Tuesday providing air support for Kyiv as part of security guarantees. 'We're willing to help them with things, especially, probably, if you talk about by air because nobody has stuff we have,' the president said. The Russian foreign minister warned NATO leaders against summoning NATO forces to Ukraine as part of a peace deal.
Yahoo
37 minutes ago
- Yahoo
Why Oval Office map has played crucial role in Trump's view of Ukraine war
Russia has occupied a fifth of Ukrainian territory - and a big map showing the area shaded in red was put up in the Oval Office as if to emphasise that point for President Donald Trump's talks with Volodymyr Zelensky on Monday. "I assume you've all seen the map," Trump told Fox News on Tuesday. "A big chunk of territory is taken and that territory has been taken." The message from the White House to Ukraine is unmistakable. That land has gone and it is time to consider a territorial compromise with Vladimir Putin or, as some have termed it, land swaps. Zelensky's team had brought their own map to the meeting and the Ukrainian leader said later he had been "fighting with what is on that map" during his conversation with Trump, regarding "who controls what – not by hearsay, but in reality". Although he felt he had made some headway on correcting any false impressions, by Tuesday Trump's view was the same. It was clear, he said, that Russia's force was "so clearly much more powerful, and you know, it's not like they've stopped". Asked what the feeling was like in the room with European leaders regarding land swaps he said: "Now they're talking about Donbas, but Donbas right now is... 79% owned and controlled by Russia." Read more: Tracking the war in Ukraine with maps Before the war began in the east in 2014, Ukraine's wealthy mining region of Donbas made up about 16% of Ukraine's economic output. Putin is reported to have told Trump he wants the whole Donbas region as part of a broad peace deal. It would certainly save Russia's leader a considerable amount of blood and treasure. Zelensky said he had also argued about the percentages on the White House map that showed Russian control in a number of Ukrainian regions, ranging from 99% of Luhansk and 76% of Donetsk in Donbas; 73% of Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south-east; 4% in Kharkiv in the north-east; and 1% in Sumy and Mykolaiv. Analysis of latest data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War has resulted in similar figures to the White House, and any differences could be down to different methodology used, especially over the extent of Russian control of an area. Part could be under limited control or merely claimed by Moscow. In areas where the White House suggests 1% of a region is under Russian control, that may reflect only that the Russians have some limited presence, as in Mykolaiv in the south, or where they have largely been repelled, as in Sumy in the north. Whatever the real figure for Russian control in Donetsk, the fortress cities of Kramatorsk and neighbouring Slovyansk in Donetsk region are still home to large populations. Local officials say about 242,000 people live in Ukrainian-controlled areas of Donetsk region, and no Ukrainian head of state would consider handing their territory to Moscow. Although Russian forces have made advances in recent months, ISW estimates that seizing the remainder of the Donetsk region would "very likely take Russian forces multiple years to complete after several difficult campaigns". Zelensky said the Ukrainian map he had shown Trump showed in the past 1,000 days Russia had managed to occupy less than 1% of Ukrainian territory. Analysts from Ukraine's DeepStateUA mapping group said that translated to 5,842 sq km since November 2022. While Russia did achieve operational success during the early days of the full-scale invasion, DeepState points out a large proportion of occupied territory was then liberated. Russia has, however, made undeniable advances in the past two to three months, even if more broadly the front line has shifted little since the early months of the war. Defence analyst Konrad Muzyka, who heads Rochan Consulting, says the Russian advance has clearly accelerated in some areas of the east around Kupiansk in Kharkiv region and Kreminna in Luhansk. "We are seeing far more fires and the Ukrainians are not really able to deploy enough firefighters to put them out," he told the BBC. Muzyka cites a lack of Ukrainian manpower to defend a long front line but also Russia's increased use of drones targeting soldiers, their equipment and particularly their artillery. Meanwhile, Russia has recently been able to recruit 30-35,000 soldiers a month and even with the heavy losses they have sustained on the ground they have been able to build up large operational and strategic reserve forces, he says. But Russia's rapid gains in limited areas of the east have not so far been matched elsewhere. One attempted Russian land grab 10-15km into Ukrainian-controlled territory near Dobropillya in Donetsk region was successfully fought off by Ukrainian forces last week, according to Ukraine's military leaders. And although Russia does hold some pockets of land in the Sumy and Kharkiv regions, Ukraine is still in control of an estimated 6,600 sq km of Donbas. Putin has not just laid claim to broad swathes of Ukraine, he has already annexed four regions as well as Crimea, even though many areas are out of his reach. The UK's defence intelligence update estimated recently that based just on Russia's "incremental battlefield advances so far in 2025" it would take 4.4 more years just to seize the four regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. That alone explains the different perspectives of Trump and Zelensky when it comes to maps showing the 1,200km front line in Ukraine. "Thank you for the map, by the way, it was great," Zelensky told him despite their differences, "I'm thinking how to take it back." Four key takeaways from Ukraine talks in Washington Zelensky leaves White House unscathed as he buys more time
Yahoo
an hour ago
- Yahoo
US treasury chief says status quo with China 'working pretty well'
By Kanishka Singh WASHINGTON (Reuters) -U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent said on Tuesday that the status quo situation with China was "working pretty well" as the world's two biggest economies have in recent days extended a truce in their bitter trade dispute surrounding tariffs. KEY QUOTES "China is right now the biggest revenue line in the tariff income," Bessent said in an interview on Fox News' "The Ingraham Angle" show. "We have had very good talks with China, I imagine we will be seeing them again before November," he added. "I think right now the status quo is working pretty well." WHY IT'S IMPORTANT Last week, Washington and Beijing extended a tariff truce for another 90 days to November, staving off triple-digit duties on each other's goods. The two sides initially announced a truce in their trade dispute in May after talks in Geneva, agreeing to a 90-day period to allow further talks. They met again in Sweden in late July after which U.S. negotiators returned to Washington with a recommendation that President Donald Trump extend the deadline. CONTEXT Washington has also been urging Beijing to stop buying Russian oil to pressure Moscow over its war in Ukraine, but Trump said on Friday there were no imminent plans to impose retaliatory tariffs on China, in light of talks on ending the war. Trump held a summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday and a meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, as well as NATO and European leaders, at the White House on Monday. After those meetings, he said Zelenskiy and Putin will hold a bilateral meeting before a trilateral meeting that would also include Trump. Bessent was asked on Fox News about reporting that Budapest could be a possible city for the three-way talks. He said that "could be" the case but that the bilateral meeting needed to happen first. Sign in to access your portfolio
