Former Ukrainian presidential press secretary Iuliia Mendel has launched a scathing attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky, accusing him of prolonging the war with Russia for political survival and personal enrichment, while claiming that many ordinary Ukrainians and officials increasingly desire peace.
Speaking in an interview with American commentator Tucker Carlson, published on Monday,...
President Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met on Sunday at Trump’s Mar-a-Lago resort in Florida, saying they are close to a potential peace deal ending Russia’s war in Ukraine—while acknowledging that significant challenges remain.
Speaking at a joint news conference following their sit-down, both leaders said progress had been made on a 20-point...
BRUSSELS — The European Commission’s decision to send a commissioner to a meeting of Donald Trump’s Board of Peace was “a grave error of judgement,” the European Parliament’s social democratic, liberal and green groups said in a letter sent Friday to Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, seen by POLITICO.
Dubravka Šuica, the European...
Venezuelan opposition leader María Corina Machado presented her Nobel Peace Prize medal to U.S. president Donald Trump on Thursday, praising his “unique commitment with our freedom.” The presentation took place during a meeting at the White House, following lunch with Trump and discussions with U.S. lawmakers at the Capitol. Machado told reporters outside the Capitol:
I...
As negotiators gear up for another round of U.S.-brokered talks to end the war in Ukraine, Moscow and Kyiv remain deadlocked over the core disagreements that have defined the conflict since it began.
On Monday, Volodymyr Zelenskyy said his negotiating team could meet with the Russians and Americans as soon as Sunday. The Ukrainian president is ready to sit down with his Russian counterpart...
Few people in Germany will have heard of Christian Schmidt, yet everyone in Bosnia and Herzegovina knows the man who has played such a powerful role in defining their affairs. It took press reports of Schmidt’s resignation as High Representative to bring him to wider attention. But what is this man—who, as a democratically elected minister in Germany, met with only very moderate...
Kaja Kallas, the European Union’s top diplomat, started Monday’s meeting of the bloc’s foreign ministers by rejecting reported aspects of Donald Trump’s Ukraine peace plan and hailing the reaching of a goal that will enable the fighting to go on for longer.
Starting with the latter, the Estonian politician told reporters that Brussels’ target of sending two...
The European Union will take part in this week’s inaugural meeting of U.S. president Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, although a representative insisted on Monday, February 16th that Brussels would not be joining the body as a formal member.
Dubravka Šuica, the European Commissioner for the Mediterranean, will travel to Washington to represent the EU at the meeting this...
Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney says while he’s accepted Donald Trump’s invitation on principle to join the president’s “Board of Peace” to oversee next steps in Gaza, it’s just unclear now what the $1 billion permanent membership fee is for.
“The president raised it with me a few weeks ago,” he told reporters in Doha, Qatar on Sunday,...
The territorial destiny of Donetsk is the key issue preventing the conclusion of a peace deal between Ukraine and Russia, U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Wednesday.“The one remaining item … is the territorial claim on Donetsk. There is active work going to try to see if both sides’ views on this can be reconciled,” Rubio told a U.S. Senate Foreign Relations...
Fresh accusations of civilian casualties from a drone strike in Russian-occupied Ukraine have cast a shadow over U.S.-led efforts to secure a peace deal, as Kyiv and Moscow traded sharply conflicting accounts of what happened.
Russia accused Ukraine of carrying out the deadly drone strike on a hotel and café in the Russian-occupied village of Khorly, in Ukraine’s southern...
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi blamed the U.S. for the failure of peace negotiations, calling Washington’s demands “excessive” during a visit to Russia on Monday.
“There were some signs of progress in the negotiations. The American approach meant that the previous round of negotiations failed to achieve its goals, despite the progress made,” he...
The European Union is “the main obstacle to peace” in Ukraine, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said on Sunday ahead of a fresh round of peace talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump.
In an interview with the Russian state-owned media agency TASS, Lavrov said the EU is “making no secret of the fact that they are...
European leaders are beginning to reopen the question of direct talks with Russian president Vladimir Putin, nearly four years after the beginning of his invasion of Ukraine. French president Emmanuel Macron said on Tuesday, February 3rd that preparatory work is underway to restart direct discussions with Moscow.
Macron reiterated a position he first outlined last year, arguing that Europe...
The European Union establishment has spent the duration of the war in Ukraine refusing to engage in talks with Vladimir Putin. It has also been shut out of U.S.-led peace negotiations, including the latest between Kyiv and Moscow officials, only occasionally being told what has already been decided by others.
Yet now it feels it has the authority to put forward a list of demands for the...
BRUSSELS — The EU is sending Dubravka Šuica, the European commissioner for the Mediterranean, to Washington for the first formal meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace, the Commission said Monday. However, the EU is not joining the initiative.
“Commissioner Šuica will travel to D.C. later this week. She will participate in the meeting of...
The Brussels establishment widely snubbed Donald Trump’s ‘Board of Peace’ initiative at the time of its signing ceremony late last month. Yet now, it has quietly been announced that the European Union will be sending a representative to the body’s inaugural meeting this Thursday, February 19th.
Bloc spokesman Guillaume Mercier said Tuesday that European Commissioner...
LONDON — European leaders rushed to praise Donald Trump’s announcement of a peace deal in the Middle East. Now they’re not so sure they want anything to do with it.
Trump promoted his “Board of Peace” as an integral part of his plan for post-conflict governance in Gaza from the start, sparking jockeying for position on the panel.
Now that details...
There is perhaps no better indication of just how out-the-loop the European establishment has been on the Ukraine peace developments than Friedrich Merz saying last week he was “sceptical of some of the details” of the U.S. plan, as conveyed to him by Kyiv, before hailing a “truly remarkable” development on Monday that really must have been in the works for some time....
Europe enters one of its most decisive weeks since Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, as dozens of leaders meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in Berlin, amid growing U.S. pressure to move toward a negotiated end to the war.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will host the talks, beginning with a bilateral meeting with Zelensky before an expanded session brings together France,...
Since welcoming Donald Trump’s Gaza peace plan last November, Western European leaders—mostly, though not all, establishment—have got cold feet about one of its key points, the establishment of a ‘Board of Peace.’
So when the president carried out a signing ceremony in Davos this morning, on January 22nd, the stage was quite noticeably not graced with...
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Tuesday announced two European summits scheduled for the coming days, as he looks to capitalize on the momentum from his meeting with President Donald Trump in Mar-a-Lago on Monday.
National security advisers from a variety of allied countries will meet in Ukraine on Saturday, Zelenskyy said. And French President Emmanuel Macron will hold another...
In a bid to end the war of blockades strangling the global economy, France has deployed its premier naval asset, the aircraft carrier Charles de Gaulle, to the Red Sea.
Announced on May 6th, the deployment is the first phase of a high-stakes Franco-British proposal to secure the Strait of Hormuz through a multinational force.
With oil prices fluctuating around the $100-per-barrel...
PARIS — French President Emmanuel Macron has rejected U.S. President Donald Trump’s offer to join the “Board of Peace” tasked with overseeing the next steps in Gaza, his office said on Monday.
The decision was taken over concerns that the “Board of Peace,” chaired by Trump, would have extensive powers beyond transitional governance of the Gaza Strip, and...
This year’s G7 summit begins today in France, with the Ukraine war and prospective paths to peace once again being the highest items on the agenda for the leaders of the U.S., the UK, Germany, France, Italy, Japan, and Canada. The presidents of the EU Commission and Council also participate, representing the entire bloc.
Upon arriving in France on June 15th, the first thing President...
U.S. president Donald Trump announced on Thursday, January 15th the formation of a Gaza Board of Peace, marking a key second phase of the U.S.-backed plan to end the war in Gaza. Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that the names of the members of the board will be made public “shortly” and described it as “the Greatest and Most Prestigious Board ever assembled at any...
Tens of thousands of Hungarians gathered on Sunday in Budapest for the largest Peace March in Hungarian history, a march supporting Hungary’s sovereignty.
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán delivered the main speech at Kossuth Square, emphasizing his commitment to defending Hungary’s national achievements. “We will not allow our national colors to be replaced by Ukrainian...
Tehran and Washington have postponed the direct talks to hammer out the details of their tentative agreement to end the war in Iran, Switzerland’s Foreign Ministry announced on Friday.
“The planned talks between the U.S., Iran, Qatar and Pakistan have been postponed … Preparatory work on the Bürgenstock [a luxury resort on a mountain next to Lake Lucerne] will...
Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi returned to Islamabad on Sunday night, rejoining mediation efforts just hours after he left Pakistan and U.S. President Donald Trump abruptly scrapped a planned trip by American envoys to revive peace talks with Tehran.
Iranian state media confirmed Araghchi’s return on Sunday, reporting he had arrived back in the Pakistani capital...
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi touched down in Islamabad Friday night to negotiate a more lasting truce between Iran and the U.S. following a ceasefire agreement between the two countries.
Araghchi met with Pakistani Army Chief Asim Munir and Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif in Pakistan’s capital on Saturday to discuss the situation in Iran, according to the prime...
Qatari and Pakistani mediators said on Monday that negotiations on a U.S.-Iran peace deal showed “encouraging progress” and that talks will continue at a technical level.
The statement came after the U.S., Iran and the two mediating countries concluded talks in Switzerland, which marked the first high-level meeting between Washington and Tehran since the start of the war in late...
Jamie Dettmer is opinion editor and a foreign affairs columnist at POLITICO Europe.
Another round of U.S.-brokered Ukraine talks commence today in Abu Dhabi.
The overall outlook remains no less bleak for Ukraine, as it inches toward the fourth anniversary of Russia’s war. Yet there are signs that what comes out of this week’s face-to-face negotiations may finally answer a key...
Lebanese and Israeli representatives are scheduled to meet in Washington on Tuesday, April 14th, for U.S.-mediated talks on ending the war in Lebanon.
Naim Qassem–the leader of pro-Iran Hezbollah terrorist organization–called for the talks to be scrapped before they even began, describing them as “futile.”
The meeting, mediated by Secretary of State Marco Rubio,...
U.S. and Iranian officials will meet in Doha on Tuesday, President Donald Trump said, just days after a series of military exchanges strained the standing memorandum of understanding between Washington and Tehran.
Trump announced the meeting Monday morning on Truth Social, saying that Iran had requested it. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt confirmed on “Fox &...
Negotiators from Ukraine, Russia, and the U.S. were set to gather in Abu Dhabi on Wednesday for peace talks.
A massive Russian drone and missile barrage in the run-up to the talks–pounding Ukraine’s energy grid and knocking out power and heating in temperatures far below freezing–threatened to overshadow any chances of progress in the Emirati capital.
Ukrainian...
A 10-day ceasefire deal struck between Lebanon and Israel took effect on April 17th.
Shortly after the truce went into effect at midnight local time, the army told residents of the south—many of whom had to flee their homes following sweeping Israeli evacuation warnings—not to return, citing “several Israeli acts of aggression.”
The ceasefire represents a key...
This week France’s president sent an adviser to Moscow, an informed source disclosed on Thursday, February 5th—as a Russian minister said Vladimir Putin was ready to receive Emmanuel Macron’s call.
Tuesday saw Emmanuel Bonne meet discreetly with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov, according to the source, although neither Macron’s office nor the Kremlin confirmed...
Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni said Friday she hopes U.S. president Donald Trump will bring the war in Ukraine to an end—a step she said could see him nominated for the Nobel Peace Prize.
Speaking at a press conference after talks with German chancellor Friedrich Merz, Meloni praised Trump’s push for negotiations and said his involvement could prove decisive.
“I...
Fifty members of the European Parliament are demanding that FIFA investigate its president, Gianni Infantino, over alleged violations of the football federation’s own political neutrality rules.
In a letter obtained by POLITICO, the lawmakers express support for a complaint filed by human rights NGO FairSquare, asking FIFA’s ethics committee to look into “the decisions to...
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Friday insisted they would have been ready to join U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” but were prevented by constitutional barriers.
Their rejection of Trump’s controversial Board of Peace — an integral part of his plan for post-conflict governance in Gaza — appeared...
Moscow on Monday, December 22nd said there was “slow progress” in its talks with the United States over a plan to end the war in Ukraine, following weekend negotiations in Miami that failed to break the deadlock.
“Slow progress is being observed,” state media reported Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov as saying, after both Russia and Ukraine sent...
NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte said during a visit to Kyiv on Tuesday, February 3rd that Russia’s latest military actions do not suggest a serious commitment to ongoing peace efforts, as international talks aimed at halting the fighting continue. In an address to the Ukrainian parliament, Rutte declared
Direct talks are now underway and this is important progress…. But...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Wednesday in a statement that he will join U.S. President Donald Trump’s controversial Board of Peace, which is tasked with overseeing the ceasefire and reconstruction in Gaza.
Netanyahu is the latest leader to confirm his participation in the body, which Trump formally established last week as part of his 20-point plan to end the war...
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said Thursday that Israel would pursue direct peace talks with Lebanon “as soon as possible.”
“In light of Lebanon’s repeated requests to open direct negotiations with Israel, I instructed at the Government meeting yesterday to open direct negotiations with Lebanon as soon as possible,” he announced on X.
He added:...
The next round of U.S.-brokered peace negotiations between Ukraine and Russia is set to take place in Geneva next week as Russian President Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine is about to enter its fifth year.
According to Russian state news agency Interfax and Ukrainian officials, both sides scheduled talks for Tuesday and Wednesday, Feb. 17-18, in Switzerland. Ukrainian...
Vice President JD Vance gave a stark outlook on the reality of the Russia-Ukraine war, saying he doesn’t have “confidence” there will be a peaceful solution to the gruesome conflict reaching its fourth year.
“We’re going to keep on trying to negotiate. And I think that we’ve made progress, but sitting here today, I wouldn’t say with confidence that...
Prime Minister Viktor Orbán announced on social media that he is joining President Trump’s Board of Peace initiative. The board aims to coordinate political, security and humanitarian issues following the end of the Gaza conflict—while also promoting a longer-term peace process.
The Board of Peace is not a formal international organisation but a high-level political...
Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orbán said on February 7th that he will be going to Washington “in two weeks” to attend the first meeting of U.S. President Donald Trump’s Board of Peace. One of the U.S. leader’s closest allies in the European Union, Orbán attended the launch of the initiative last month in Davos.
Although originally intended to oversee...
Six weeks into a fragile and often mainly formal ceasefire between Tehran and Washington, intermediary Pakistan is working on a diplomatic resolution between them. Islamabad’s powerful army chief, Field Marshal Asim Munir, was scheduled to meet with senior Iranian officials on Thursday, May 21st.
According to a Pakistani official, speaking on condition of anonymity, U.S. president...
Pakistan has delivered a revised Iranian peace proposal to the United States in a bid to rescue a fragile six-week ceasefire following U.S.-Israeli airstrikes on Iran.
With diplomatic talks stalled and President Donald Trump declaring the truce to be on ‘life support’, a Pakistani mediating source warned on Monday, May 18th that time is rapidly running out to bridge the...
Pope Leo will not participate in U.S. President Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace” for Gaza due to concerns it seeks to undermine the United Nations.
The Holy See received an invitation to join the board in late January but declined “because of its particular nature, which is evidently not that of other...
Russia’s president Vladimir Putin has been invited to participate in his U.S. counterpart Donald Trump’s “Board of Peace,” the Kremlin reported on Monday, January 19th.
Designed to resolve conflicts globally and oversee governance and reconstruction in Gaza, the White House confirmed that the advisory forum will be chaired by Trump himself.
T It will bring...