Dramatic moment AI drones strike Russian armoured vehicles on Kharkiv border

Trump wants a deadline for Peace Russia/Ukraine

Trump cites tens of thousands dead each month as he presses Kyiv and Moscow toward a deal

President Trump told reporters that tens of thousands of people are dying each month in the Ukraine-Russia war, and he wants Zelenskyy and Putin to settle before winter.

Standing on the White House South Lawn as he departed Saturday, President Donald Trump put hard numbers on the bloodshed and made plain what he wants next from both sides.

Fox News reported that Trump said last month alone brought 25,000 deaths in the Ukraine-Russia war, with 32,000 the month before that and 33,000 two months ago. He framed the toll as a reason to end the fighting, not prolong it.

“Last month, 25,000 people died in the Ukraine-Russia war, OK? Twenty-five thousand,” Trump said.

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Russia and North Korea more involved in Ukraine War

Russia is firing North Korean missiles at Ukraine, Zelenskyy claims, as more overnight attacks kill 9

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy accused Russia of using North Korean ballistic missiles in its attacks, as another night of bombardment killed at least nine civilians and injured dozens of others.

Zelenskyy said Russian forces used ballistic missiles supplied by North Korea in their attack on the southeastern Ukrainian city of Zaporizhzhia, where local officials said six people were killed and 19 wounded.

"Every step Russia takes — increasing ballistic missile production, bringing in North Korean equipment, preparing for mobilization — all of this shows that Moscow is preparing not for peace, but for escalation," Zelenskyy said on social media.

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Ukraine Strikes Russian Oil Refineries Deep Inside Russia

Vladimir Putin admitted that Russia is experiencing “problems” in its war with Ukraine

Kyiv’s drone strikes destroyed more oil depots on Sunday

He made what appeared to be a rare admission of setbacks, commenting on the latest round of Ukraine’s retaliatory strikes on Russia’s energy infrastructure.

The air attacks have intensified with fighting along the front line having largely reached a stalemate, and Russia reportedly suffering 30,000 casualties a month.

“Yes, we see the problems, we are aware of them and are responding to them, but we will certainly ensure the security of both the country and our citizens, as well as the inviolability of Russia’s borders,” Putin said at the congress of United Russia, his ruling party.

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Ceasefire in Ukraine discussed on Trump's birthday

Birthday calls turned into peace talks

President Donald Trump spent part of his 80th birthday on the phone with two of the biggest names in the Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. That alone is news.

In a world where most leaders act like a quick call is some great diplomatic sacrifice, Trump was reportedly pressing both sides on the same issue: stopping the bloodshed. According to Kremlin adviser Yuri Ushakov, Trump told Putin that ending the conflict in Ukraine was vital and said he was ready to help. The conversation lasted 55 minutes, which is longer than many modern politicians can stay focused on one problem, let alone a war.

Moscow says Trump wants the fighting to stop.

Ushakov said Trump stressed that a ceasefire was important and that he was prepared to work with European partners and Kyiv, including talks at the G7 summit in France.

Reuters reported that Trump also said a quick resolution could open the door to a better U.S.-Russia relationship. That is not exactly the usual Washington script, where peace tends to get buried under talking points, filters, and three layers of staff approval.

If the reports are accurate, Trump is once again trying to force the conversation back toward results instead of endless speeches about how “concerned” everyone is while the war keeps grinding on.

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18 Republicans Back $9 Billion Ukraine Aid - Ignore Trump and Speaker

18 Republicans Buck Trump to Pass $9 Billion Ukraine Aid

The House of Representatives approved a new package on Thursday that adds another round of aid for Ukraine and tighter sanctions on Russia. The vote landed at 226 to 195. Eighteen Republicans voted yes, along with one independent who often votes with the GOP.

The bill includes sanctions on Russian banks, oil companies, and mining firms. It also bars Russian oil imports and sets 500% tariffs on other Russian imports into the United States. On top of that, it extends Biden’s lend-lease program for Ukraine by $8 billion so Kyiv can keep buying weapons. Another $1 billion goes toward security and reconstruction aid.

The move came at a time when Trump is pushing both sides toward negotiations instead of more escalation. After Zelensky sent a letter calling for face-to-face talks with Putin, Trump said, “I think it would be great if they met” and urged them to “get it done.”

The vote shows how divided Republicans still are on Ukraine. Some want a harder line against Russia. Others want Washington to stop writing checks and let Trump drive the peace push. For now, the House sent a loud message anyway: the fight over Ukraine is far from settled.

Mike Johnson had pressed Republicans to vote no.

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Zelensky complains about the U.S. again

The United States' shift in focus to the Middle East has reduced pressure on Russia>

Zelenky said these risks prolong the war, and Moscow will not move toward peace without stronger action from Washington.

"We all want to stop this war," Zelenskyy told Newsmax's Shelby Wilder in an interview conducted at the former Chernobyl nuclear power plant on Sunday that aired Wednesday on "National Report." "The problem is that the priority for the United States has now shifted to the Middle East."

"I'm afraid that if we will have just talks, Russia will not feel the most important thing that America can give us, pressure on them," he added.

Zelenskyy said U.S. military support for Ukraine continues, even as diplomatic pressure has eased.

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It's always, somehow, the fault of the United States.

Zelensky at Mar-A-Lago on Sunday

Trump, Zelenskyy to Meet Sunday at Mar-a-Lago

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy reportedly are expected to meet Sunday in Florida to discuss the U.S. peace plan for Ukraine's war against Russia.

Trump is expected to host Zelenskyy at Mar-a-Lago as both sides try to finalize terms of a U.S.-backed framework aimed at ending the nearly three-year conflict, Axios reported.

The planned sit-down is being viewed as a major signal that negotiations have advanced, especially after Trump previously suggested he would only meet Zelenskyy if a deal was close.

Russia is bleeding resources, Ukraine needs reliable guarantees, and Americans are demanding an end to the open-ended conflict.

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European Leaders Sabotaging Trump's Peace Deal

European Leaders Got Caught In Leaked Call Revealing Their Plan To Sabotage Trump’s Peace Deal

President Trump's peace negotiations between Russia and Ukraine finally brought both sides to the table after three years of endless war. Trump envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner spent five hours in Moscow this week discussing the President's 28-point framework with Vladimir Putin. The proposal includes territorial concessions from Ukraine, military caps, and security guarantees modeled on NATO's Article 5.

Trump's making progress where Biden failed for three straight years. But somebody doesn't want peace to break out. German magazine Der Spiegel obtained a transcript of a confidential December 1 call between top European leaders and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

What they said behind closed doors tells you everything about Europe's real agenda:

• French President Emmanuel Macron warned Zelenskyy that "there is a possibility that the US will betray Ukraine on the issue of territory without clarity on security guarantees." He called Trump's efforts "a great danger" for Ukraine.
• German Chancellor Friedrich Merz piled on, telling Zelenskyy to be "extremely careful in the coming days" because American negotiators are "playing games, both with you and with us."
• Finnish President Alexander Stubb declared "we must not leave Ukraine and Volodymyr alone with these guys," referring to Witkoff and Kushner.
• NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte agreed: "I agree with Alexander — we must protect Volodymyr."

These aren't leaders worried about Ukraine's interests. They're political operatives panicking that Trump might actually deliver peace.

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New funding to Ukraine is on hold: The Trump administration has not sought new congressional approval for additional military aid funding, focusing instead on a negotiated peace settlement.

President Trump said that Zelensky has not even read the peace deal. NO more $$$ to Ukraine.

Ukranian War rages on

Russian Forces Advance as Ukraine Hit by More Than 600 Drone Strikes Overnight

Russian forces made advances in Ukraine as U.S. and Ukrainian officials prepared for a third day of peace talks in Miami. Russia unleashed 51 missiles and 623 drone strikes on Dec. 6, which was observed as Armed Forces Day in Ukraine.

Ukraine shot down 30 missiles and neutralized 585 drones in the attack, which targeted residential buildings, energy facilities, and railways in 29 locations.

At least eight people were wounded in Saturday’s strikes, including three in the Kyiv region, according to Ukrainian Minister of Internal Affairs Ihor Klymenko.

“The night was tough,” Klymenko wrote in a translation of an X post on Dec. 6. “Russia again struck civilian infrastructure with drones and missiles.”

As Moscow continued escalations in Ukraine, U.S. special envoy Steve Witkoff, President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner, and Ukrainian negotiators Rustem Umerov and Andriy Hnatov discussed a security framework for postwar Ukraine in Florida on Friday.

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Putin's War

Putin gives Zelensky an Ultimatum

Trump Envoy Heads to Russia After Ukraine Talks

President Donald Trump says there's a “good chance” for a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, but his negotiators have hard work ahead — they now head to the Kremlin and still need to iron out key details with Kyiv.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was set to travel to Moscow to meet with Putin on Tuesday, the Kremlin said, after what the United States described as “very productive” talks Sunday with Ukraine.

President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was rallying European support in Paris, though he cautioned that some “tough issues” still have to be worked out with Washington.

Russian President Vladimir Putin signaled last week that he was ready to have a “serious” conversation after Kyiv and its allies demanded changes to the peace plan, but has shown little sign of stepping away from his hard-line demands that formed the basis of the original 28-point proposal backed by Trump.

Putin said last week he had received this new version of the Peace Plan and it could serve as a framework for a final peace deal. However, he also indicated that he was not keen to negotiate with the current “illegitimate” Ukrainian government.

He said fighting would only stop when Ukrainian troops withdraw from the territories they hold, showing little sign of compromise on the core issue of Ukrainian territorial concessions centered on the eastern Donbas region.

“If they don’t withdraw, we will achieve this by force,” Putin said.

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Brokering an end to Russia's war in Ukraine

Rubio and Witkoff Meeting With Ukraine's Negotiators in Florida

as Trump Pushes to Broker a Deal

Top Trump administration officials met with Ukrainian negotiators in Florida on Sunday, pushing to broker an end to Russia's war in Ukraine and setting the stage for key talks planned this week in Moscow with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio, special envoy Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the son-in-law of President Donald Trump, held talks with a Ukrainian delegation to further hash out the details of a proposed peace framework. The negotiations come at a sensitive moment for Ukraine as it continues to push back against Russian forces that invaded in 2022.

“The end goal, obviously, is not just the end of the war,” Rubio said at the start of the meeting. “But it’s also about securing an end to the war that leaves Ukraine sovereign and independent and with an opportunity at real prosperity.”

“This is not just about peace deals,” the top American diplomat said as the teams sat down at the Shell Bay Club, a golf and racket club developed by Witkoff in Hallandale Beach.

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Putin the Warmonger

EU gives counter-proposal to Trump's Peace Plan

EU's Counter-Proposal to Trump Peace Plan

Below is the text of a European counter-proposal to the United States' draft 28-point Ukraine peace plan, seen by Reuters on Sunday.

The counter-proposal, drafted by Europe's E3 powers of Britain, France and Germany, takes the U.S. plan as its basis but then goes through it point by point with suggested changes and deletions.

This agreement will be legally binding. Its implementation will be monitored and guaranteed by a Board of Peace, chaired by President Donald J. Trump. There will be penalties for violation.

Read the text of Peace Plan

Putin getting bat sh!t crazy!

A new Cold War?

Trump warns Putin about nuclear submarine just off shore after Russia brags about "flying Chernobyl" missile

• Russia tests long-range nuclear missile: Putin on Sunday hailed an 8,700-mile, 15-hour test flight of Russia’s “unique” nuclear-powered Burevestnik cruise missile, which the country claims could strike targets in the United States, prompting Trump’s sharp response.

• Trump demands end to Ukraine war: The president criticized Putin’s missile testing, saying “I don’t think it’s an appropriate thing for Putin to be saying” and demanded he end the Ukraine war, stating “A war that should have taken one week is now in its, soon, fourth year. That’s what he ought to do instead of testing missiles.”

• Zelensky calls for long-range missiles: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky praised Trump’s latest sanctions on Russia but told Axios that more pressure is needed, warning “if Putin doesn’t stop, we need something to stop him” and calling for the U.S. to supply Ukraine with long-range missiles to force Putin to make peace. [PolitiBrawl]

Trump and Putin to meet in Hungary

Trump Announces Budapest Summit with Putin Following ‘Productive’ Phone Call on Ukraine War

For three years, the Ukraine-Russia conflict has resembled a Gordian knot that establishment scissors couldn’t cut. Thousands of lives lost, billions in aid spent, and diplomatic meetings that produced little more than strongly-worded statements.

The Washington foreign policy establishment seemed content to manage the crisis rather than solve it, treating the conflict as an inevitable feature of the international landscape rather than a problem demanding resolution.

The human cost mounted daily while bureaucrats shuffled between capitals, achieving nothing. American taxpayers watched their dollars flow overseas with no end in sight. The previous administration’s approach – if one could call passive observation an approach – left both sides entrenched and the world wondering if anyone in Washington even remembered what decisive leadership looked like.

Something had to change. The old playbook of multilateral committees and indirect messaging through diplomatic channels had produced exactly what skeptics predicted: an expensive stalemate paid for in Ukrainian and Russian blood while enriching defense contractors and international bureaucrats.

Now, barely ten months into his presidency, Donald Trump has done what his predecessor couldn’t or wouldn’t: pick up the phone and talk directly to Vladimir Putin.

In a two-and-a-half-hour conversation, Trump and Putin agreed to meet in Budapest, Hungary, with high-level advisors from both nations meeting next week to prepare the groundwork.

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Germany's Plan to help finish the Ukrainian War

Germany Pushes to Unlock Frozen Russian Assets for $164 Billion Loan to Ukraine 

Friedrich Merz has changed the country’s position on the move, to which it had previously objected, over fears it could be illegal.

“We need maximum pressure on Putin to finally end his brutal war against Ukraine. The killing must come to an end. That is why it is right to make stronger use of the frozen Russian assets. Germany is ready to explore new paths that are legally possible and responsible,” Klingbeil said in a post on the Finance Ministry’s X account.

“We will continue to work intensively on this within the circle of G7 and EU finance ministers. We must further strengthen and secure for years Ukraine’s defense capabilities. And when it comes to reconstruction, Putin will have to pay for the destruction caused by his war.”

Until now, the EU has taken only interest generated from the Russian assets, which were frozen after Moscow invaded Ukraine in February 2022.

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Peace Stalled between Russia and Ukraine

Trump Weighs Next Move on Stalled Ukraine Talks

President Donald Trump is grappling with how deeply to get involved in stalled negotiations over Russia's war in Ukraine, torn between pressing harder for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy or stepping back and letting events unfold, CNN reported.

Two weeks after his summit with Putin in Alaska, Trump has grown increasingly frustrated by the lack of progress toward ending the conflict, according to administration officials.

Despite his high-profile push, including a White House meeting with seven European leaders and Zelenskyy just three days after his face-to-face with Putin, the momentum has largely evaporated.

"It's gotta be up to them. It takes two to tango," Trump said Monday when asked whether Putin agreed to meet with Zelenskyy.

"I'm going to make a decision as to what we do," Trump said. "It's going to be a very important decision, and that's whether or not it's massive sanctions or massive tariffs, or both, or do we do nothing and say, 'It's your fight.'" But I'll know in two weeks what I'm going to do."

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In two weeks, if nothing changes, President Trump needs to act. Putin has had enough chances and warnings. Putin is not to be trusted and has broken every agreement since 2014. 

Putin's Wants