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Los Angeles Times
17 minutes ago
- Los Angeles Times
European leaders rally behind Ukraine ahead of Trump-Putin meeting
KYIV, Ukraine — European nations have rallied behind Ukraine, saying peace in the war-torn nation can't be resolved without Kyiv, ahead of a planned meeting this week between President Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin. Trump had said Friday's meeting in Alaska with his Russian counterpart was to discuss ending the more than three-year war. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky responded by thanking European allies and wrote on X on Sunday: 'The end of the war must be fair, and I am grateful to everyone who stands with Ukraine and our people.' Saturday's statement by top European leaders came after the White House confirmed the U.S president was willing to grant Putin the one-on-one meeting Russia has long pushed for, and suggestions from Trump that a peace deal could include 'some swapping of territories.' That raised fears that Ukraine may be pressured into giving up land or accepting other curbs on its sovereignty. A White House official, who spoke on condition of anonymity as they aren't allowed to speak publicly, told the Associated Press that Trump remained open to a trilateral summit with both the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, but for now he will have the bilateral meeting requested by Putin. Trump had earlier said he would meet with Putin even if the Russian leader would not meet with Zelensky. On Saturday, U.S. Vice President JD Vance met with top European and Ukrainian officials at the British Foreign Secretary's weekend residence to discuss how to end the war. The Trump-Putin meeting could prove pivotal in a war that began when Russia invaded its smaller neighbor in 2022 and has led to tens of thousands of deaths, although Moscow and Kyiv remain far apart on their conditions for peace. Saturday's statement, signed by the president of the European Union and leaders of France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Finland and the U.K., stressed the need for a 'just and lasting peace' for Ukraine, including 'robust and credible' security guarantees. 'Ukraine has the freedom of choice over its own destiny. Meaningful negotiations can only take place in the context of a ceasefire or reduction of hostilities,' the statement said. 'The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine. We remain committed to the principle that international borders must not be changed by force,' the Europeans added. A monthlong U.S.-led push to achieve a truce in Ukraine has so far proved fruitless, with Kyiv agreeing in principle while the Kremlin has held out for terms more to its liking. Trump had also moved up an ultimatum to impose additional sanctions on Russia and introduce secondary tariffs targeting countries that buy Russian oil if Moscow did not move toward a settlement. The deadline was Friday. The White House did not answer questions Saturday about possible sanctions. Russia last week reiterated demands that Ukraine give up territory, abandon its bid to join NATO and accept limits on its military in exchange for a withdrawal of Russian troops from the rest of the country. Particularly galling for Kyiv is Moscow's insistence that it cede pockets of eastern and southern Ukraine the Kremlin claims to have annexed, despite lacking full military control. Mark Galeotti, an expert in Russian politics who heads the Mayak Intelligence consultancy in the United Kingdom, says Moscow's tactic of encircling towns in eastern Ukraine has brought a string of territorial gains for Russia, and Putin 'seems to feel he is still winning.' 'Putin does not appear to feel under pressure,' Galeotti argued in an analysis published Sunday by Britain's Sunday Times newspaper. He said that for Putin, 'further delaying any more serious U.S. action and the optics of a meeting with the U.S. president will already be wins.' Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine 'will not give Russia any awards for what it has done' and that 'Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier.' Ukrainian officials previously told the AP privately that Kyiv would be amenable to a peace deal that would de facto recognize Ukraine's inability to regain lost territories militarily. But Zelensky on Saturday insisted that formally ceding land was out of the question. Galeotti argued that any deal that involves Ukraine abandoning territory would be 'agonizing' and politically dangerous for Zelensky. Andriy Yermak, a top aide to Zelensky, noted on Sunday that Kyiv will strive to boost its position ahead of the planned Trump-Putin meeting. 'Ahead lies an important week of diplomacy,' he said. Kullab writes for the Associated Press. AP writer Michelle L. Price in Washington, D.C., contributed to this report.
New York Post
17 minutes ago
- New York Post
JD Vance: ‘You are going to see a lot of people get indicted' over Russiagate
Vice President JD Vance said in an interview Sunday that 'a lot of people' are about to get indicted over the Obama administration's machinations on so-called Russiagate. Without divulging specific names of who will get charged, Vance pointed to recent disclosures from Director of National Intelligence Tulsi Gabbard as ironclad evidence that there had been 'an aggressive violation of the law' revolving around Russiagate. 'I absolutely want to see indictments,' Vance told Fox News' 'Sunday Morning Futures' in a pre-taped interview. 'Of course, you've got to have the law follow the facts here.' Advertisement 'You don't just indict people to indict people. You indict people because they broke the law,' he went on. 'If you look at what Tulsi and Kash Patel have revealed in the last couple of weeks, I don't know how anybody can look at that and say there was an aggressive violation of the law.' 4 Vice President JD Vance called for people to get indicted over Russiagate. Getty Images 'I absolutely think they broke the law. And you're going to see a lot of people get indicted for that,' he later added. Advertisement Last month, Gabbard began unveiling a tranche of documents about the Obama administration's investigation of Russian meddling in the 2016 election. Among the disclosures was the declassification of a 2020 House Intelligence Committee report crafted by Republicans that found there was insufficient evidence that Russia favored President Trump in 2016. Gabbard also divulged material showcasing that top intelligence bosses had evidence that Russia did not hack 2016 voting systems in a way that allowed them to change the election outcome. 'What they basically did is they defrauded the American people in order to take Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign talking points and turn them into intelligence,' Vance said, accusing the Obama-era intelligence apparatus of 'lying about what the intel said.' Advertisement 4 Vice President JD Vance accused the Obama-era intelligence community of helping the Clinton campaign. James Messerschmidt 'They would take something that supported a Hillary Clinton campaign talking point, and they would overemphasize it and exaggerate it,' the vice president continued. 'They took anything that actually contradicted that narrative, and they buried it deep.' Following the revelations from Gabbard, the Justice Department formed a 'strike force' to begin assessing whether there were any criminal violations in what had been uncovered. Last week, US Attorney General Pam Bondi moved to open a grand jury to probe Obama administration officials. Grand juries are used to determine whether or not to hand down indictments. Advertisement 4 The vice president said the Russiagate debacle bogged President Trump down during his first term. NATHAN HOWARD/POOL/EPA/Shutterstock Vance broadly argued that 'they actually laundered Hillary Clinton's presidential campaign talking points through the American intelligence services.' He did not specify names. Former CIA director John Brennan and former DNI James Clapper have hit back at Gabbard, pointing to a 2020 bipartisan Senate Intelligence Committee report, which noted the panel 'heard consistently that analysts were under no politically motivated pressure to reach specific conclusions.' Clapper and Brennan also inked an op-ed insisting that the 2017 Intelligence Community report that was at the center of Gabbard's ire never described 'collusion' between Trump. They also stood by their claims that the Kremlin preferred him in the 2016 election. 4 President Trump is set to meet with Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin next week. Getty Images A spokesperson for former President Barack Obama issued a rare statement rebuffing Gabbard. 'The bizarre allegations are ridiculous and a weak attempt at distraction,' spokesperson Patrick Rodenbush said last month. 'Nothing in the document issued last week undercuts the widely accepted conclusion that Russia worked to influence the 2016 presidential election but did not successfully manipulate any votes.'
Newsweek
18 minutes ago
- Newsweek
What Russia and Ukraine Are Demanding Ahead of Putin-Trump Alaska Meeting
Based on facts, either observed and verified firsthand by the reporter, or reported and verified from knowledgeable sources. Newsweek AI is in beta. Translations may contain inaccuracies—please refer to the original content. With President Donald Trump's face-to-face meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin looming, there are still unanswered questions about how Ukraine will be involved, and whether the Republican can find a way to bridge the still-substantial distance between Kyiv and Moscow on a ceasefire deal. Trump said he would meet Putin in Alaska on August 15 for a "highly anticipated" summit. It will be the first time the Republican has met the Kremlin chief in person of his second term in office. Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov confirmed the meeting, saying on Saturday that the White House and the Kremlin would be "working vigorously hard" on the summit's agenda in the next few days. "The presidents will undoubtedly focus on discussing ways to reach a sustainable settlement to the Ukraine crisis," Ushakov said. The Trump administration is considering inviting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky, U.S. media reported on Saturday. Many months of talks on a ceasefire deal for Ukraine have failed to yield an agreement inked by both Kyiv and Moscow. Ukraine agreed to a U.S. proposal in March, and Trump—historically reluctant to overly criticize Putin—has grown increasingly frustrated with the Kremlin chief. U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. U.S. President Donald Trump, right, meets with Russian President Vladimir Putin at the G20 Summit in Hamburg, Germany, on July 7, 2017. AP Photo/Evan Vucci, File What Does Trump Want? Trump, often known for to-and-froing, has been consistent in his calls for an end to the largest conflict on European soil since World War II. A substantial part of his foreign policy has been shaped by his desire to be known as both a dealmaker and a peacemaker. As Moscow increased its aerial assaults on Ukraine in recent months, Trump became more critical of the Kremlin, saying Putin was giving the White House "a lot of b*******." Trump has warmed to Ukraine since the infamous White House meeting with Zelensky in February, during which the president, along with several senior administration officials, berated the Kyiv leader in front of the world's cameras. But as Russia's reluctance to sign a deal continued, Trump greenlet more aid for Ukraine, including air defense supplies to defend the country from Russian attacks, and imposed a deadline of "10 or 12 days" for Russia to agree to a ceasefire deal in early August. This window closed on Friday, but the White House did not appear to institute new economic sanctions on Russia as threatened. "Putin is not interested in a true ceasefire," said Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee and a member of Zelensky's party. "He is using negotiations with Trump for only one purpose—to avoid serious sanctions, including secondary sanctions against those countries which buy Russian oil and gas," he told Newsweek. Russia's oil and gas industry is crucial to the country's economy, and Moscow was slapped with sanctions by Ukraine's backers after it launched its full-scale invasion of its neighbor in early 2022. Kyiv has also targeted Russian oil and gas facilities with long-range drone strikes in an attempt to curb the Kremlin's access to the resources propping up its military. Secondary sanctions target third-party buyers of Russian exports, like India and China. Trump became embroiled in a war of words with Russia's former President, Dmitry Medvedev, and deployed two U.S. Navy nuclear submarines after "highly provocative" statements from Medvedev. The former president is currently the deputy chair of Russia's Security Council and well-known for his inflammatory social media commentary. Where Does Ukraine stand? Ukrainian officials frequently say they are seeking an end to the war, but one that does not reward Russia or open the door for Moscow to restart attempts to seize territory from Kyiv. Ukraine has repeatedly said that ceding Ukrainian territory to Russia is off the table. It goes against the country's constitution, Zelensky said again over the weekend. "No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to," Zelensky said in a post to messaging app Telegram on Saturday. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier." Ukraine has consistently said it needs security guarantees, and not to be bound by any limits on the size of its military. Kyiv also does not want to be labeled a neutral state, but one firmly on the path to NATO and European Union membership. Ukraine's memorandum, presented by Kyiv officials during rounds of direct talks with a Russian delegation in Turkey earlier this summer, also said it sought a "full and unconditional ceasefire in the sky, on land and at sea." Furthermore, Kyiv has said an agreement needs to look at humanitarian issues, such as an exchange of all prisoners and the return of children taken from Russian-controlled areas of Ukraine. And Russia's Perspective? Russia's demands have remained far away from what Ukraine appears willing to accept. During direct talks in Istanbul in June, Russia offered up two proposals for a 30-day ceasefire. "The first one is about how to reach a truly lasting peace," Vladimir Medinsky, Russia's chief negotiator, said at the time. "The second part highlights the steps to be taken toward a real ceasefire." One option would have Kyiv withdraw from the eastern regions of Donetsk and Luhansk, collectively known as the Donbas, as well as the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions of Ukraine. Russia declared it had annexed these four mainland Ukrainian regions in fall 2022. It does not fully control these regions, although it has captured much of Luhansk and Donetsk. Moscow annexed Crimea, to the south of the mainland, from Kyiv in 2014. The alternative, Russia said, would be for Ukraine to stop building up its military and halt military aid deliveries, while lifting martial law and opening up to elections. Elections are banned in Ukraine while martial law is in place. A more comprehensive peace agreement would come later, Moscow said, adding no foreign military personnel should be allowed in Ukraine. Russia has pushed for the recognition of its control over the annexed regions, and for Ukraine to abandon its hopes of joining NATO in favor of neutrality. Moscow has also said it wants Kyiv to limit the size of its military and put the Russian language on equal footing with Ukrainian. How Does Europe Fit In? The U.K., France, Italy, Germany, Poland, Finland, and European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen issued a joint statement on Sunday, reiterating their support for the "principle that international borders must not be changed by force." "We share the conviction that a diplomatic solution must protect Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests," the governments said. European leaders have offered a "counterproposal" following a meeting between Putin and Trump's special envoy, Steve Witkoff, The Wall Street Journal reported. This European plan rejected the idea Ukraine would cede territory it still holds in Donetsk and was presented to the U.S. on Saturday, according to the report.
