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Zelensky To Meet Vance As Trump-Putin Talks Spark Alarm

Published

6 months ago

February 14, 2025

President Volodymyr Zelensky is set to meet US Vice President JD Vance in Germany on Friday with a warning against trusting Russia’s Vladimir Putin, as concerns mount in Kyiv and among its European allies that the Ukraine war will be settled over their heads.

The Munich Security Conference starts days after US President Donald Trump and Putin held watershed talks that have shaken Ukraine and America’s NATO allies, almost three years after Russia launched its full-scale invasion.

Trump said he had agreed with Putin to soon start Ukraine peace talks and exchange friendly visits. The new US administration also signalled Ukraine would have to give up territory to Russia and that NATO membership for Kyiv was “impractical”.

Vance, ahead of his speech in Munich on Friday, sought to dampen European fears and said “the president is not going to go in this with blinders on,” in comments to the Wall Street Journal.

“He’s going to say, ‘Everything is on the table, let’s make a deal,’” Vance added, stressing that there are economic and even “military tools of leverage.”

Vance said it was too early to say how much of Ukraine’s territory would remain in Russian hands or what security guarantees the United States and other Western allies could offer Kyiv.

“There are any number of formulations, of configurations, but we do care about Ukraine having sovereign independence,” he said.

Zelensky on Thursday warned world leaders “against trusting Putin’s claims of readiness to end the war” and said he wanted the United States to agree a “plan to stop Putin” before any negotiations.

European concern
EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas warned Thursday that “any deal behind our backs will not work” and that “appeasement also always fails”.

Kyiv’s European backers fear Trump could force Ukraine into a bad peace deal that will leave them facing an emboldened Putin on their doorstep — while paying the lion’s share of costs for post-war security.

Among the European leaders, diplomats and generals in Munich, many hold grave concerns over the deepening chasm between the transatlantic allies and even for the post-World War II international order itself.

European allies were stunned to be bluntly informed this week that the future task of helping secure Ukraine would fall to them alone, in line with Trump’s “America First” stance.

The head of the Munich conference, Christoph Heusgen, told German radio on Friday that “I suspect that today the American Vice President will announce that a large part of the American troops will be withdrawn from Europe”.

Timothy Garton Ash, a professor of European studies at Oxford, wrote that America’s “message to Europe was pretty stark on Ukraine — it’s your problem. We will help cut a deal with Russia — but policing that is up to you.

“That is surely a green light for Putin to test that defence in Ukraine, meaning that Ukraine and Europe will hardly be secure as a result of a peace agreed by Trump.”

‘Just peace’
Zelensky, despite facing the prospect of having Ukraine’s key demands ignored after years of gruelling war, has pushed back with moderate language.

He said it was “not very pleasant” that Trump had called Putin first before speaking to him, while again insisting he wanted to hammer out a “plan to stop Putin” with the United States before any talks happen.

Zelensky was expected to redouble his efforts for more help from Europe to reach a “just peace”.

Aside from Vance, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio was also finally headed to Europe on Friday after his plane was forced to turn around due to a mechanical issue.

Trump said Thursday that “high-level people” from Moscow, Kyiv and Washington would meet in Munich on Friday — but the Ukrainian presidency said it did not expect to take part in talks with Russian officials and that “for the moment there is nothing on the table”.

Heusgen told German radio that no high-ranking Russian government officials had been accredited but did not rule out that there may be possible meetings outside the security conference.

Security was tight at the annual meeting in the Bavarian state capital, with police on heightened alert a day after a car-ramming attack injured 30 people, with an Afghan asylum seeker arrested at the scene.

AFP

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

6 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

6 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

6 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP