Putin Attempts ‘Desperate’ Plea for More Soldiers as Zelenskyy Declares Donbas Is ‘Not for Sale’

Dec 8, 2025 | Former British Army Colonel Hamish de Bretton-Gordon joins Times Radio’s Maddie Hale to discuss the White Houses’ 33 page 2025 National Security Strategy, Czech President Petr Pavel warns the United States any handover of Ukrainian territory will resemble the logic of the 1938 Munich Agreement and President Putin attempts a “desperate” plea for foreign soldiers with an increase of targeted social media campaigns.

Putin Accuses Europe of Blocking US Efforts to End War in Ukraine

THE GUARDIAN: Russian president says European demands ‘not acceptable’ as key talks begin in Moscow with Witkoff and Kushner

Vladimir Putin has accused Europe of standing in the way of US efforts to end the war in Ukraine, as he began key talks in the Kremlin with Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff, and the US president’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

Witkoff, on his sixth trip to Moscow this year, is to present Putin with an updated version of a US peace proposal drafted with input from a senior Russian official and reworked to make it more acceptable to Kyiv.

The two Trump allies arrived in Moscow on Tuesday after meeting Ukrainian officials at the weekend in Florida to discuss revisions to the original 28-point peace plan, which overwhelmingly favoured Moscow.

The Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, on a diplomatic push to rally support among European capitals that have backed changes to the original plan, said in Paris that the updated version of the proposal “looks better” but emphasised it was “not over yet”.

Moments before the closed-door meeting with Witkoff and Kushner, Putin made a series of hard-edged remarks. Speaking to reporters at the Kremlin, he accused European governments of sabotaging the peace process and said that “European demands” on ending the war in Ukraine were “not acceptable to Russia”.

“Europe is preventing the US administration from achieving peace on Ukraine,” Putin said, adding: “Russia does not intend to fight Europe, but if Europe starts, we are ready right now.” » | Pjotr Sauer | Tuesday, December 2, 2025

World of Trouble: Putin Is Manipulating Trump and Doesn’t Want Peace, Ex-US Aide Warns

Nov 29, 2025 | Fiona Hill, a Russian expert and former White House adviser, who witnessed meetings between Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin, tells The Independent podcast World of Trouble’s Sam Kiley that the Russian president knows how to mesmerise his US counterpart - and has no plan to give up his designs on Ukraine.

Trump to Hand Putin Ukraine’s Occupied Territories

THE TELEGRAPH: US president sends envoys to Moscow with peace plan that recognises Russia’s war gains

The United States is poised to recognise Russia’s control over Crimea and other occupied Ukrainian territories to secure a deal to end the war.

The Telegraph understands that Donald Trump has sent his peace envoy Steve Witkoff and son-in-law Jared Kushner to make the direct offer to Vladimir Putin in Moscow.

The plan to recognise territory, which breaks US diplomatic convention, is likely to go ahead despite concerns among Ukraine’s European allies.

One well-placed source said: “It’s increasingly clear the Americans don’t care about the European position. They say the Europeans can do whatever they want.”

Russia’s president on Thursday said Washington’s legal recognition of Crimea and the Donetsk and Luhansk regions as Russian territory would be one of the key issues in negotiations over the US president’s peace plan.

The Kremlin on Friday said it had received a revised strategy for ending the war drawn up after emergency talks between Ukrainian and American officials in Geneva, Switzerland, last weekend.

An initial 28-point peace plan, formulated by Mr Witkoff after discussions with Russian officials, offered America’s “de facto” recognition of Crimea and the two eastern Donbas regions.

The strategy also proposed “de facto” recognition of Russian-held land behind the line of contact in Ukraine’s Kherson and Zaporizhzhia regions after any ceasefire agreement. » | Joe Barnes, Brussels Correspondent | Friday, November 28, 2025

The Guardian View on Ukraine Peace Talks: Putin Is Taking Trump for Another Ride on the Kremlin Carousel

THE GUARDIAN — EDITORIAL: Russia’s president is only interested in a deal on Moscow’s terms. Equipping Kyiv with the resources to fight on is the quickest route to a just settlement

As Donald Trump’s Thanksgiving Day deadline for a Ukraine peace agreement came and went this week, the Russia expert Mark Galeotti pointed to a telling indicator of how the Kremlin is treating the latest flurry of White House diplomacy. In the government paper Rossiyskaya Gazeta, a foreign policy scholar close to Vladimir Putin’s regime bluntly observed: “As long as hostilities continue, leverage remains. As soon as they cease, Russia finds itself alone (we harbour no illusions) in the face of coordinated political and diplomatic pressure.”

Mr Putin has no interest in a ceasefire followed by talks where Ukraine’s rights as a sovereign nation would be defended and reasserted. He seeks the capitulation and reabsorption of Russia’s neighbour into Moscow’s orbit. Whether that is achieved through battlefield attrition, or through a Trump-backed deal imposed on Ukraine, is a matter of relative indifference. On Thursday, the Russian president reiterated his demand that Ukraine surrender further territory in its east, adding that the alternative would be to lose it through “force of arms”. Once again, he described Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s government as “illegitimate”, and questioned the legally binding nature of any future agreement. » | Editorial | Friday, November 28, 2025

Trump Is ‘No Friend’ to Ukraine as Europe ‘Steps Up’ to Take Down Putin | Sir Bill Browder

Nov 28, 2025 | Sir Bill Browder joins Times Radio’s Maddie Hale to discuss the latest developments on Ukrainian land concession discussions, why the progression of the war puts Vladimir Putin’s life at stake and The New York Times details the timeline of European officials finding out the United States had left them out of a peace plan proposal.

Putin’s Puppet

Father David talks a little sense on TACO and that awful peace plan.

Putin - From Poverty to Power

Oct 24, 2025 | Explore the incredible, decades-long journey of Vladimir Putin, the figure who has dominated Russian politics since the turn of the millennium. This deep-dive biography traces his remarkable rise to power, from his origins as a KGB officer in Leningrad and East Germany to becoming President of Russia and one of the world's most influential leaders.

We analyse the key moments of the Putin era, including the consolidation of power, the management of Russia's economy fuelled by oil and gas, the suppression of the oligarchs, and major geopolitical events. Understand the shift from the chaos of the post-Soviet 1990s under Boris Yeltsin to the centralized, authoritarian state of modern Russia.

Putin Envoy Suggests Elon Musk Could Build a Russia-Alaska Tunnel

Oct 19, 2025 | “It’s his job to dangle really tantalising business proposals in front of Trump.”

A Putin envoy proposed involving Elon Musk’s Boring Company in a far-fetched plan for a Russia-Alaska tunnel: a play for postwar US business, says former Moscow Times journalist Charles Hecker.

Trump’s ‘Disgraceful’ Attack on Political Enemies a ‘Dangerous Autocratic Move’ | Adam Boulton

Oct 16, 2025 | “It’s a very dangerous and autocratic move.”

Trump’s use of the justice system against people he claims are his enemies is an “absolute disgrace,” says Times Radio’s Adam Boulton.

Trump Made My ‘Blood Boil’ in Most Shameful Moment in US History | Sir Bill Browder

Oct 10, 2025 | Sir Bill Browder joins Times Radio’s Maddie Hale to react to Vladimir Putin’s comments about Donald Trump brokering a peace deal between Israel & Hamas, Russia’s stock market fell to its lowest level in three years and why the US President has an important card he can still play to end Putin’s war.

Putin Enraged as the EU Steps Closer to Giving Seized Russian Assets to Ukraine

Oct 1, 2025 | “It is a bit of a complex contract but I think it could work.”

The West and Ukraine are "in a difficult situation" and the seized Russian assets would help, says German MEP and Vice Chair for the European Parliament's Committee on Economics and Monetary Affairs, Damian Boeselager.

Putin's Recklessness Is Driving Europe to the Brink of ‘War' | Mark Galeotti

Sep 29, 2025 | “The more reckless the Russians are, the greater there is the chance for some kind of miscalculation that spirals upwards.”

Putin’s actions provide a firm reality check on the risk of “conflict escalation” in Europe, as the UK and other European nations may “already be at war with Russia”, says author and Russian Analyst Mark Galeotti.

Trump and Putin Are Carrying Out a Pincer Movement on Europe’s Democracies. Suddenly, It All Feels a Bit 1939

THE GUARDIAN — OPINION: Forget the US president’s seeming volte-face on Ukraine this week: he and Putin fundamentally agree that European liberal democracy is the problem

For many people in eastern Europe, August 1939 may not feel that long ago. That was the moment Hitler’s Germany and Stalin’s Soviet Union secretly agreed to partition Poland and forcibly subsume the sovereign Baltic republics and Finland into their totalitarian “spheres of influence”. The world knows what came next.

Now the question arises: is it happening again? This time around, it’s Donald Trump’s United States and Vladimir Putin’s Russia making the big geopolitical power-play – and, once again, all of Europe is potential prey. Notwithstanding last week’s sparring over Ukraine, the two leaders’ core aims appear closely aligned.

Physical subjugation of the European continent is not a Trump objective (unlike, perhaps, in Venezuela, Canada or Greenland). But US efforts to dominate the continent through political interference, ideological subversion, economic blackmail, unregulated big-tech predation and the projection of conservative, Christian nationalist cultural beliefs amount to much the same thing.

Putin’s methods are cruder, yet his agenda mirrors Trump’s. He will not let go of Ukraine. He is intensifying, and leveraging, the Russian military threat, from the Baltic states to the Black Sea, including in Moldova, Romania and Georgia. Russian hybrid warfare – sabotage, cyber-attacks, online trolling and disinformation – is now a fact of daily western European life. » | Simon Tisdall | Sunday, September 28, 2025

Some Europeans Fear Trump Aides Want a Far-Right Takeover: The continent’s leaders have concerns that U.S. officials are pushing for parties that support their views of nationalism and traditional values to come into power. »

Putin Preparing to Attack Another European Country, Zelenskyy Says

THE GUARDIAN: Ukraine’s president says Kremlin checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies following new drone sightings

Vladimir Putin will expand his war in Ukraine by attacking another European country, Volodymyr Zelenskyy has predicted, and accused Russia of recent drone incursions that he said were an attempt to test Nato’s defences.

Speaking in Kyiv after his meeting with Donald Trump at the UN in New York, the Ukrainian president said Russia was preparing for a bigger conflict. “Putin will not wait to finish his war in Ukraine. He will open up some other direction. Nobody knows where. He wants that,” he said.

Ukraine’s president said the Kremlin was deliberately checking Europe’s capacity to protect its skies, after drone sightings in Denmark, Poland and Romania and the violation of Estonian airspace by Russian fighter jets. More drones were spotted on Friday night above a Danish military base, and over a Norwegian base on Saturday. » | Luke Harding in Kyiv | Saturday, September 27, 2025

Russian Jets Violate NATO Airspace - as Trump’s Fails to Stop Putin - Making the World Less Safe

Sep 19, 2025 | Three Russian MiG-31 fighter jets violated Estonian airspace in a dangerous 12-minute incursion, intercepted by NATO forces. European leaders call it a reckless provocation, the latest sign of Putin testing the West’s defenses.

This escalation didn’t happen in a vacuum. Years of Donald Trump’s appeasement of Putin, undermining NATO, dismissing Russian aggression, and weakening U.S. credibility, have emboldened Moscow. Now, the world is paying the price for Trump’s failure to confront authoritarian power.


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Trump Turns Fire on Putin and Lauds UK in Press Conference with Starmer

THE GUARDIAN: US president also advises PM to use military to stop irregular migration at conclusion of his second state visit

Donald Trump has accused Vladimir Putin of letting him down in a joint press conference with Keir Starmer during which the US president piled criticism on his Russian counterpart.

Trump said on Thursday that he had hoped to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine soon after entering office, but that Putin’s actions had prevented him from doing so.

His comments came during an hour-long press conference alongside Starmer which marked the culmination of a two-day state visit during which the president has largely steered clear of several points of tension between the two leaders.

Trump largely avoided criticising the prime minister over Palestinian statehood or attacking Britain on free speech, though he caused awkwardness when he suggested Starmer could bring in the army to deal with irregular migration.

His comments about the Russian president, however, will delight British officials who had hoped to use the unprecedented second state visit to isolate Putin on the world stage. » | Kiran Stacey and Pippa Crerar | Thursday, September 18, 2025

Pivotal Regional Powers Are Turning Away from America and toward China

Sep 7, 2025 | CNN’s Fareed Zakaria speaks with The Atlantic staff writer Anne Applebaum about China calling attention to its growing global strength, with a huge military parade and a summit between China’s Xi Jinping, Russia’s Vladimir Putin, and North Korea’s Kim Jong Un.

Putin’s Situation Is ‘Extremely Grave’ | Sir Bill Browder

Sep 5, 2025 | Sir Bill Browder joins Times Radio’s Maddie Hale to analyse reports Russia’s economy has slipped into “technical stagnation”, how Vladimir Putin forces state companies to pay for his war and Donald Trump continues to choose a diplomatic path towards peace in Ukraine but warns “something is going to happen”.

Trump Accuses Xi Jinping, Putin, and Kim Jong Un of 'Conspiring' against the US | DW News

Sep 4, 2025 | China marked 80 years since Japan's surrender in the Second World War with its largest ever parade on Wednesday - a two-hour show of national unity, diplomatic depth and military might. President Xi was the star of the show. He traveled in an open-top car and wore a Mao-style suit as a tribute to the founding father of the People’s Republic. His guests were a rogue’s gallery of leaders who reject the American-led world order, among them Russia’s Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un, who rarely leaves his country. Also on display was an array of military hardware, some of it never seen before. Xi cast himself as the leader of a new world order and characterized his country as “unstoppable” in a speech delivered at Wednesday’s parade.