Author: Daily Sabah With DPA
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky called for the creation of an “armed forces of Europe” as he addressed the Munich Security Conference on Saturday, pointing to the altered relationship with Washington under President Donald Trump. Zelensky urged Europe to shape its own future in view of the threat emanating from Russia alongside Washington’s weakening commitment to the continent’s security. “The time has come, the armed forces of Europe must be created,” he said. Such troops should not replace NATO, but level European defence contributions with those made by the United States, he said. “Yesterday here in Munich, the US vice president…
US Vice President JD Vance said Europe is facing many challenges but that there is “nothing more urgent than mass migration.” Speaking at the Munich Security Conference on Friday, Vance referred to the attack in the city a day earlier by a 24-year-old Afghan man who intentionally slammed his car into a crowd, injuring 36 people. He called it a “terrible story” that we’ve heard “way too many times in Europe and, unfortunately, too many times in the United States as well.” “How many times must we suffer these appalling setbacks before we change course and take our shared civilization…
Leading politicians, diplomats and security experts are meeting on Friday at the Munich Security Conference (MSC) amid the shockwaves caused by dramatic shifts in US policy regarding the Ukraine conflict and in the Middle East. A speech by US Vice President JD Vance on Friday is set to be one of the most carefully watched at the three-day gathering, which also being attended by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, one of the 60 leaders registered for the conference, on Thursday warned against any peace talks between the US and Russia without including the Ukrainians and Europeans. His…
Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi said on Friday that he welcomed efforts to end the war in Ukraine, but that Beijing was unwilling to put pressure on Moscow by stopping Russian gas purchases. “If China does not buy gas from Russia, which country can meet the needs of the Chinese people with enough gas?” he asked at the Munich Security Conference. “We must be responsible to our people.” The foreign minister described relations with Russia as a “strategic partnership based on mutual trust.”
US Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth on Thursday has defended US President Donald Trump’s planned negotiations with his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin on peace in Ukraine despite criticism by NATO allies. This is “certainly not a betrayal,” Hegseth said on the sidelines of a NATO defence ministers’ meeting in Brussels. On Wednesday, Hegseth said that restoring Ukraine’s former borders is unrealistic, that Ukraine should give up aspirations to join the NATO alliance and that US troops would not serve as peacekeepers. At the same time, Trump announced that he would meet Putin to seek a solution to end Russia’s war…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has again firmly rejected talks about peace in Ukraine without the participation of Kiev. “We will not accept any bilateral negotiations about Ukraine without us,” Zelensky told journalists on a trip to a nuclear power plant in western Ukraine. He said that lasting peace could not be achieved without the participation of his government. Ukraine has been defending itself against a Russian invasion for almost three years with Western help. US President Donald Trump wants to end the war in Ukraine by holding direct negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin, possibly at a summit in Saudi…
The Kremlin has confirmed that Saudi Arabia could be a possible location for a planned meeting between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump. However, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in Moscow on Thursday that the heads of state had not yet made a firm decision, nor could he say when the meeting would be held. “It could be weeks or months or several months,” he told Russian state news agency TASS. The Saudi capital Riyadh was mentioned in the phone call between Putin and Trump, Peskov said. “Saudi Arabia is a country with which we have very…
US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth’s remarks about the war in Ukraine was met with approval in Moscow on Wednesday. “The statements of the Pentagon chief can be a cold shower for (Ukrainian President Volodymyr) Zelensky,” said the head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament, Leonid Slutsky, according to the state news agency TASS. Hegseth had said earlier in Brussels that it was unrealistic to expect Ukraine to return to the pre-2014 borders and also dismissed the country’s post-war accession to NATO. Hegseth’s assessment of the situation was “quite realistic,” said Slutsky, who is also the leader of…
The Kremlin has rejected Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenksy’s proposal to exchange the part of the western Russian region of Kursk captured by Kiev for territory held by Russia in Ukraine. “This is impossible,” said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov in Moscow on Wednesday. Russia has never discussed the subject of an exchange of territory and never will, he said, and insisted that the Ukrainian units that invaded Kursk would be destroyed or driven out. Russia annexed Ukraine’s Crimea region in 2014 and launched a large-scale invasion of its neighbour three years ago. A fifth of Ukraine is currently occupied, which corresponds…
An American citizen imprisoned in Russia since 2021 arrived back in the US late on Tuesday. US special envoy Steve Witkoff had secured the release of Marc Fogel, the White House announced on Tuesday. Fogel was arrested at a Moscow airport in 2021 and later sentenced to prison for drug smuggling. The White House later posted a picture on its official X account of Fogel wrapped in a US flag walking off a plane. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said US President Donald Trump had promised the Fogel family he would bring Fogel home. “Promises made, promises kept,” Rubio…