Latest news with #VladimirPutin
Los Angeles Times
26 minutes ago
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
On Putin's advice, Trump launches assault on mail-in ballots and voting machines
President Trump said Monday he would renew his assault on mail-in voting after Russia's autocratic leader, Vladimir Putin, told him to do so at their meeting in Alaska last week. The president provided few details, but wrote on social media that he would 'lead a movement to get rid of MAIL-IN BALLOTS, and also, while we're at it, Highly 'Inaccurate,' Very Expensive, and Seriously Controversial VOTING MACHINES.' Already in March, Trump had issued an executive order directing the Justice Department to 'take all necessary action' to prevent mail-in ballots received after election day from being counted. The order also attempted to impose a proof of citizenship requirement for voter registration. Those portions of the executive action has been enjoined by courts over constitutional concerns. But another provision, directing the independent U.S. Election Assistance Commission to shift its guidance on voting machines banning the use of certain bar codes and quick-response codes, has been allowed to proceed. The U.S. Constitution states that the timing, place and manner of elections 'shall be prescribed in each state' by local legislatures, and that Congress has the ability to pass laws altering state election regulations. The president is given no authority to prescribe or govern election procedures. Trump's action comes on the heels of his meeting with Putin in Anchorage, where the Russian leader told him that mail-in ballots led to his electoral defeat in 2020, according to the president. The U.S. intelligence community has assessed that Putin attempted to influence the last three U.S. presidential elections in Trump's favor. 'Vladimir Putin said something — one of the most interesting things. He said, 'Your election was rigged because you have mail-in voting,'' Trump told Fox News in an interview. Trump has criticized mail-in voting since entering politics in 2015. But his presidential campaign embraced the practice leading up to the 2024 election, encouraging his supporters — especially those affected by Hurricane Helene in North Carolina — to take advantage of mail-in voting opportunities. 'Absentee voting, early voting and election day voting are all good options,' Trump said at the time. 'Republicans must make a plan, register and vote!'
Newsweek
27 minutes ago
- Politics
- Newsweek
Why Handing Donbas to Putin Would Be So Difficult for Ukraine
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. For Kyiv, losing its eastern regions wouldn't just be a major social and political disaster. It would also be a military nightmare. After President Donald Trump met Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week, the Republican reportedly told European leaders he backed a Kremlin proposal that would mean Ukraine cedes its two eastern regions, Donetsk and Luhansk, while freezing the conflict elsewhere. Donetsk and Luhansk are collectively known as the Donbas. This presents huge problems for Kyiv. Ukraine has always said it will not let go of territory occupied by Russia—not to mention that it is bound by its constitution to not cede land. Ukrainian soldiers fire on Russian positions along the front line in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Monday, June 24, 2024. Ukrainian soldiers fire on Russian positions along the front line in the Donetsk region of Ukraine on Monday, June 24, 2024. AP Photo/Evgeniy Maloletka, File "No one will deviate from this—and no one will be able to," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said earlier this month. "Ukrainians will not gift their land to the occupier." Politically and socially, too, Zelensky's hands are tied, while on the military side, Donetsk is vital to Ukraine's defensive lines. What Is The Donbas? The Donbas is the term used to collectively describe Ukraine's Donetsk and Luhansk regions, in the very east of the country. They are country's industrial heartland, with a strong Russian-speaking history. The two regions were well-known for being home to Moscow-leaning groups. They are two of the regions, or oblasts, Moscow has claimed to have annexed. The Kremlin seized control of Crimea, the peninsula to the south of mainland Ukraine, back in 2014, and propped up separatist groups in Donetsk and Luhansk. In April 2014, Russian-backed militants proclaimed the Donetsk People's Republic and the Luhansk People's Republic as independent states. Russia covertly supported them with troops, tanks and artillery. Moscow then said it was annexing four Ukrainian regions in fall 2022, months after launching its full-scale invasion. Donetsk and Luhansk were among these regions, along with the southern Kherson and Zaporizhzhia Oblasts. Much of the heaviest fighting of the war has been concentrated in Donetsk, not least around key Ukrainian cities Russia has been desperate to capture. Bakhmut, Avdiivka, Pokrovsk—these are all Donetsk settlements that quickly became synonymous with high casualty counts and months of drawn-out, bitter battles between defending Ukrainian troops and waves of Russian soldiers. Overall, Russia controls roughly a fifth of Ukrainian territory. Moscow controls small chunks of territory along the Russian border with Ukraine's Sumy and Kharkiv regions, while also pushing from Luhansk west into Kharkiv. The Kremlin has also seized very small areas of the southern Mykolaiv region and of Dnipropetrovsk, which borders Donetsk. How Much of the Donbas Does Russia Control? A Russian-appointed official claimed at the start of July that Russia had captured all of Luhansk, but Western assessments say Ukraine still controls a sliver of the region. The Institute for the Study of War (ISW), a U.S.-based think tank that tracks the daily changes to the front lines in the conflict, said earlier this month Ukraine still controls roughly 6,500 square kilometers of territory in Donetsk—equivalent to a quarter of the region. "Seizing the remainder of Donetsk Oblast will very likely take Russian forces multiple years to complete after several difficult campaigns," the ISW said in a fresh update published on Sunday. Trump told Zelensky after the Republican met Putin in Alaska on Friday that the Kremlin chief had told him that Russia could capture all of Donetsk if it tried, Axios reported. "Putin's claim that Russian forces will inevitably seize all of Donetsk Oblast if the war continues is false," the ISW said on Sunday. "The Russian campaign to seize all of Donetsk Oblast has been ongoing since Russia's first invasion in 2014 and remains incomplete." Russia controls about three quarters of both the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions, according to the ISW. Why Is The Donbas So Important? For Ukraine, it is a part of their country—a limb of the nation that Ukrainians have died for. It would be a "tragedy" for Russia to end up with control of the two regions, Ukrainian historian Yaroslav Hrytsak told the BBC. "Ukrainian people live there, under bombardment and threat to their lives, and to leave them is to betray them," Oleg Dunda, a Ukrainian parliamentarian with Zelensky's Servant of the People party, told Newsweek. To cede the territories to Russia, he continued, could run the risk of the military rebelling in Ukraine and the damage spreading out in broader Ukrainian society. The swathes of territory Ukraine still controls in Donetsk include several settlements that have been dubbed "fortress cities," which have been key for linking up Ukraine's defenses and blocking Russia from advancing further westward for more than a decade. Cities like Kostiantynivka, Kramatorsk, Druzhkivka and Sloviansk are all linked and vastly important for coordinating Ukrainian forces and logistics. "Ukraine has spent the last 11 years pouring time, money, and effort into reinforcing the fortress belt and establishing significant defense industrial and defensive infrastructure in and around these cities," the ISW has said. The west of the Donetsk Oblast is "bulwark" for Ukraine to shield its other regions, Oleksandr Merezhko, the chair of Ukraine's parliamentary foreign affairs committee, previously told Newsweek. The defensive line joining up these "fortress" cities "was never taken," Dunda said. Surrendering the fortifications Ukraine has spent so long constructing "opens the way for Moscow to central Ukraine," he added. "A withdrawal from the remaining parts of the Donbas—especially the 'fortress belt' in Donetsk would certainly make Ukraine more vulnerable," said Matthew Savill, director of military sciences at the U.K.-based think tank, the Royal United Services Institute (RUSI). If Russia gained control of all of Donetsk in a U.S.-brokered deal, Ukrainian forces would need to quickly build up massive defenses on the Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk borders, the ISW said. These areas are not well suited to becoming defensive lines, and Ukraine would need "enormous, urgent investment from its Western allies" to get new defenses against Russia in place, the think tank has assessed. Ukraine would also be withdrawing from slightly higher ground, leaving Kharkiv and Dnipropetrovsk "both more open," Savill told Newsweek. For Russia, gaining control of the Donbas has always been a core goal. Moscow sees the region in particular as part of its historical sphere of influence, and has drawn on history to justify its annexation of the two regions. "Moscow is using a narrative of cultural and linguistic affinity to justify intervention and portray itself as a protector of the Russian-speaking population," said Natia Seskuria, an associate fellow at RUSI. "Although the Donbas region is predominantly Russian-speaking, that does not make it pro-Russian." Not lost to either Moscow or Kyiv is how rich the Donbas is in resources, not least for steel production and coal mining, as well as minerals. It was the largest coal producer across the Soviet Union until the 1960s, according to the World Bank, and in the decades after, the Donbas "continued to play a major role in Ukraine's economic output, employment, and exports." In 2013, the Donbas was responsible for more than a quarter of all the goods exported abroad by Ukraine, Oleksii Reznikov, Ukraine's former defense minister, wrote while serving as deputy prime minister for reintegrating occupied Ukrainian areas back in 2020. Crimea, Military Dominance and Historical Narratives Ahead of the meeting with Zelensky, Trump said that it was up to Ukraine to agree to a peace deal, but that Ukraine regaining Crimea was off the table. The more than 11 years the peninsula has spent under Moscow's control has seen Crimea become the base for Russia's Black Sea naval fleet—a force heavily targeted by Ukraine—and host to several major airfields and air defense sites. "Crimea matters profoundly to both Ukraine and Russia because it combines deep historical symbolism with immense strategic value," Seskuria told Newsweek. For Russia, it's needed to project power out into the wider Black Sea and beyond, including to the Mediterranean and the Middle East, Seskuria said. "Without it, Russia would struggle to maintain its maritime dominance, making control of Crimea essential for Putin's vision of accomplishing Russia's imperial ambitions," Seskuria added. Losing the peninsula in 2014 was a "direct challenge" to Ukraine's national identity, as well as its sovereignty, Seskuria said. "The loss of Crimea not only weakened Kyiv's maritime position but also gave Russia a forward base to launch its 2022 full-scale invasion, allowing rapid advances in southern Ukraine," she said.
Euronews
27 minutes ago
- Politics
- Euronews
Russia can't seize all of Donetsk unless Ukraine withdraws. ISW says
Russian president Vladimir Putin reportedly told Donald Trump that one his demands for peace in Ukraine is full control of the Donbas. The region in eastern Ukraine, which had a pre-war population of around 6.5 million people, is made up of two regions: Donetsk and Luhansk. Moscow's demands regarding this area are not new, and even date back before the start of the full-scale invasion in 2022. Putin has been trying to occupy Donbas for 11 years, since Russia's first invasion of Ukraine, when after the illegal annexation of the Crimean Peninsular, Russian forces occupied territories in the east of the country. But even following the all-out war, Moscow has still failed to occupy all of Donbas militarily and hopes now to do it with the maximalist demands under Trump's mediation. The US-based Institute for the Study of War estimates that Russia will be unable to seize the remainder of Donetsk region rapidly through force, as Russian forces have failed to do for over a decade. "Russia could only rapidly seize all of Donetsk region if Ukraine concedes to Putin's demand and withdraws from it," the ISW said, after an analysis of Russian advances in the area, adding that Putin's claim that Russian forces will inevitably seize all of Donetsk region if the war continues is false. The ISW provides some examples of the settlements and areas where Moscow's forces have dedicated most of their efforts since February 2022. The Russian campaign for Chasiv Yar, began in May 2023 after Russian forces seized Bakhmut. It had then intensified a year later in April 2024 but in all, it has taken Russian forces 26 months to advance roughly 11 kilometres from western Bakhmut to the western edge of Chasiv Yar. The Pokrovsk assault campaign began in February 2024 after the seizure of Avdiivka. Moscow has dedicated multiple efforts to seizing Pokrovsk through frontal assaults, envelopment or encirclement, all of which have thus far been unsuccessful after more than 18 months. Putin previously said he also wants to control two more region of Ukraine: Zaporizhzhia and Kherson. This, according to UK defence ministry estimates, would take Moscow four and a half years, in addition to 2 million more Russian casualties - both killed and wounded - on top of the 1 million troops Russia has already lost since the war started in 2022.
RNZ News
28 minutes ago
- Politics
- RNZ News
Ukraine's Zelensky says he's ready to work for peace ahead of Trump talks
By Trevor Hunnicutt , Max Hunder and Yuliia Dysa , Reuters Russian President Vladimir Putin US President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. Photo: AFP Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky says he's ready to work to end the war with Russia ahead of talks with United States President Donald Trump in Washington, where he could face pressure to accept terms favourable to Moscow . "Russia can only be forced into peace through strength, and President Trump has that strength," Zelensky wrote on social media after meeting with the US special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg. Zelenskiy is due to meet with Trump at 1:15 pm EDT (NZ 5:15am) in the Oval Office, where he last received a dressing-down from Trump during a disastrous visit in February. Trump is now pressing for a quick end to Europe's deadliest war in 80 years, and Kyiv and its allies worry he could seek to force an agreement on Russia's terms after the president rolled out the red carpet for Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday (local time). Russian attacks overnight on Ukrainian cities killed at least 10 people, in what Zelensky called a "cynical" effort to undermine talks. European leaders are also flying to Washington to show solidarity with Ukraine and to press for strong security guarantees in any post-war settlement. After meeting Zelensky, Trump will meet the leaders of Britain, Germany, France, Italy, Finland, the European Union and NATO in the White House's East Room at 3 pm EDT (NZ 7 am), the White House said. "I know exactly what I'm doing, and I don't need the advice of people who have been working on all of these conflicts for years, and were never able to do a thing to stop them," Trump wrote on social media. At the weekend, Trump rejected accusations by critics that the Alaska summit had been a win for Putin. Trump's team stressed on Sunday (local time) that there had to be compromises on both sides of the conflict. However the president himself put the burden on Zelensky to end the war, saying Ukraine should give up hopes of getting back Crimea, annexed by Russia in 2014, or of joining the NATO military alliance. Zelensky "can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight," Trump said on social media. Zelensky has already all but rejected the outline of Putin's proposals from the Alaska meeting. Those include handing over the remaining quarter of its eastern Donetsk region, which is largely controlled by Russia. Ukrainian forces are deeply dug into the region, whose towns and hills serve as a crucial defensive zone to stymie Russian attacks. Zelensky is also seeking an immediate ceasefire to conduct deeper peace talks. Trump previously backed that but reversed course after the summit with Putin and indicated support for Russia's favoured approach of negotiating a comprehensive deal while fighting rumbles on. Ukraine and its allies have taken heart from some developments, including Trump's apparent willingness to provide post-settlement security guarantees for Ukraine. A German government spokesperson said on Monday (local time) that European leaders would seek more details on that in the talks in Washington. The war, which began with a full-scale invasion by Russia in February 2022, has killed or wounded more than a million people from both sides, including thousands of mostly Ukrainian civilians, according to analysts. On the battlefield, Russia has been slowly grinding forward, pressing its advantages in men and firepower. Putin says he is ready to continue fighting until his military objectives are achieved. Officials in Ukraine said a drone attack on a residential complex in the northern city of Kharkiv killed at least seven people, including a toddler and her 16-year-old brother. Strikes also hit the southeastern city of Zaporizhzhia, killing three people, they said. Russia says it does not deliberately target civilians, and the Defense Ministry's daily report did not refer to any strike on Kharkiv. Local resident Olena Yakusheva said the strike hit an apartment block that was home to many families. "There are no offices here or anything else, we lived here peacefully in our homes," she said. Firefighters battled a blaze in the building and rescue workers dug in the rubble. Ukraine's military said on Monday (local time) that its drones had struck an oil pumping station in Russia's Tambov region, leading to the suspension of supplies via the Druzhba pipeline. - Reuters
Bloomberg
an hour ago
- Politics
- Bloomberg
Modi, Lula Say Putin Shared Takeaways From Trump Meeting
Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi said he received a phone call from his 'friend' President Vladimir Putin, who shared his insights on a recent meeting with Donald Trump in Alaska, in another signal that ties between New Delhi and Moscow remain strong despite backlash from Washington. 'India has consistently called for a peaceful resolution of the Ukraine conflict and supports all efforts in this regard,' Modi said in a post on X on Monday, adding that he looks forward to a 'continued exchanges' with Putin in the coming days.
