The Turkish president notes that Ankara won't circumvent EU and US sanctions imposed on the Kremlin since it launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022. But he adds that third-country nationals subject to these sanctions may face certain difficulties in their relations with Turkey, citing EU sanctions against Uzbek philanthropist and businessman Alisher Usmanov and his family as the most important example.
The narratives they offer through culture are therefore some of the clearest expressions of how they see their role in a wartime country. This year, Moscow has hosted two major government-backed awards ceremonies one for books, one for films. In both cases, the organisers played it safe, repeating familiar themes, many of them rooted in Soviet-era cultural and wartime mythology. Prizes went largely to people within the same orbit in most cases, the families of well-known Soviet-era cultural icons.
William Burns had travelled halfway around the world to speak with Vladimir Putin, but in the end he had to make do with a phone call. It was November 2021, and US intelligence agencies had been picking up signals in the preceding weeks that Putin could be planning to invade Ukraine. President Joe Biden dispatched Burns, his CIA director, to warn Putin that the economic and political consequences if he did so would be disastrous.
In an explosive post on X and an interview with Piers Morgan, Zelensky tore into Moscow for wasting time on long-winded historical lectures instead of ending the war. "I don't need historical sh*t to end this war and move to diplomacy. Because it's just a delay tactic," Zelensky fumed. The talks, involving Ukraine, Russia, and the United States, broke off with no breakthrough on sensitive territorial disputes.
Ben Hodges said the proposed multinational force, discussed this week by the British and French leaders with Ukraine's president Volodymyr Zelenskyy in Paris, had to be robust enough to deal with likely Kremlin-orchestrated provocations. The coalition of the willing has to have real force and rules of engagement that allow it to immediately react and respond to any violations, he said. Captains can't be having to call back to Paris or London to find out how to deal with a Russian drone.
Ukraine and Russia have agreed to hold a second round of US-brokered direct peace talks next weekend after a two-day meeting in Abu Dhabi, despite Ukrainian complaints that negotiations were undermined by a barrage of deadly strikes. The trilateral talks in the UAE would resume on 1 February, a US official said on Saturday, adding: I think getting everyone together was a big step.
Writing on Telegram, Pushkov criticised Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski, French President Emmanuel Macron, and EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas, arguing that European leaders have offered "no serious answers" for why they should be involved in talks already led by the United States. Pushkov suggested that EU ambitions risk "derailing even the fragile negotiations that are already underway," framing European efforts as symbolic rather than substantive.
United States special envoy Steve Witkoff has said he held productive and constructive meetings with Russian special envoy Kirill Dmitriev in Florida, as President Donald Trump's administration presses to end Russia's nearly four-year war in Ukraine. We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine, wrote Witkoff in a post on X following Saturday's talks.
The U.S. is close to agreement with Ukraine on a peace plan, but has so far had little clear success in getting Putin on board, though he hasn't rejected it outright. Territorial control in eastern Ukraine will be the primary issue discussed in Abu Dhabi, sources say. Driving the news: White House envoy Steve Witkoff, Trump's son-in-law and senior adviser Jared Kushner, and White House official Josh Gruenbaum met with Putin inside the Kremlin.
The spy chief who led Ukraine's most audacious behind-the-lines operations in its war with Russia has been forced to resign by Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Vasyl Malyuk, who was awarded the title of Hero of Ukraine last year, reportedly fought to stay in post as head of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) but relented on Monday at a meeting with the president. Announcing his resignation on the SBU's official Telegram channel, Malyuk said he would remain in the agency to lead world-class asymmetric special operations against Russia.
Speaking during a visit to Latvia on Monday, Wadephul called for "better cooperation between Baltic nations," including Germany, including better maritime surveillance and more effective deterrence. "We want to take action against ships whose flag status is unclear," he said. "We must use all the possibilities offered by maritime law to stop such ships." His Latvian counterpart, Baiba Braze, concurred, saying: "All loopholes that are being exploited by Russia to carry out these operations must be closed."
The agency, known as the FSB, also released more surveillance video footage, including a nearly minute-long clip in which the alleged shooter -- identified as 65-year-old Lyubomir Korba -- was shown confessing to the crime. In the video, which could be not be independently verified, the man said he was recruited by Ukraine's SBU security agency in August 2025 in the western Ukrainian city of Ternopil, and underwent training in Kyiv. He said he was promised $30,000 in cryptocurrency if he killed Alekseyev.
