The Washington Post

Zelensky and Trump may be doing better, but tough issues lie ahead

The consequences of Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s contentious White House visit last month appear to have abated. But this week’s negotiations in Saudi Arabia suggest the conversation over how to end the war in Ukraine will only get harder.

Russia and Ukraine agreed Tuesday to expand a partial ceasefire to include the Black Sea, a development that followed the resumption of U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing to Kyiv. Both the United States and Ukraine have expressed optimism in recent weeks, smoothing over the fallout of Zelensky’s bruising Oval Office meeting.

Yet, even in announcing an agreement, Russia and Ukraine issued separate joint statements with the United States that read very differently, suggesting that the two countries would not be meeting at the same negotiating table anytime soon. And the path ahead is rife with potential hurdles.

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U.S. gets Russian and Ukrainian commitment to Black Sea ceasefire

Russia and Ukraine agreed Tuesday to expand their initial limited ceasefire on energy infrastructure to include the Black Sea after U.S.-sponsored indirect talks in Saudi Arabia.

In separate joint statements from the White House — one between the United States and Russia, another between the U.S. and Ukraine — the two countries agreed to “ensure safe navigation, eliminate the use of force, and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes” in the Black Sea. It did not specify when the limited ceasefire would go into effect.

The statements — which came after this week’s technical talks in Riyadh — differed in two key ways. The U.S. also separately agreed to help Russia gain access to the world markets to export fertilizer and other agricultural products and reiterated its commitment to Ukraine to help facilitate the exchange of prisoners of war, civilian detainees and kidnapped children.

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Trump, Zelensky speak a day after White House talks with Putin

President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky had a “very good telephone call” on Wednesday, Trump said, a day after the U.S. leader agreed with Russian President Vladimir Putin on a limited ceasefire in Ukraine that would spare energy infrastructure targets in both Ukraine and Russia.

The conversation between Trump and Zelensky took place nearly a full day after Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the timing was just the most recent evidence of how Ukraine has been relegated to the back seat in talks about its future. It came amid questions about whether Putin would live up to the commitments he made to Trump to stop strikes on Ukraine’s infrastructure — pledges that fell short of the full ceasefire that Trump was originally seeking.

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Trump and Putin agree to partial ceasefire in Ukraine, but plan still needs Kyiv’s approval

President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin on Tuesday negotiated a partial ceasefire in the Ukraine war, making a deal in a lengthy call to end strikes on energy and infrastructure after more than three years of battle. The Kremlin said that Putin immediately ordered the military to cease strikes on Ukrainian energy sites.

It was not immediately clear if Kyiv would accept the pared-down ceasefire offer. The leaders agreed to also immediately begin negotiations in the Middle East for a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea and an eventual full ceasefire deal, according to a summary of the call from the White House.

The call was part of a high-stakes gambit by Trump early in his term to broker a peace deal. Trump also plans to sign more executive orders Tuesday.

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Trump terminates program tracking mass abductions of Ukrainian children

The Trump administration has terminated a U.S.-funded initiative that documents alleged Russian war crimes, including a sensitive database detailing the mass deportation of Ukrainian children to Russia, according to U.S. officials familiar with the directive and documents obtained by The Washington Post.

The move has barred the transmission of evidence to prosecutors pursuing multiple criminal cases, including the International Criminal Court’s landmark indictment of Russian President Vladimir Putin for what it has called the “unlawful transfer” of children from occupied areas of Ukraine, U.S. officials said.

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Russia confirms Trump-Putin call set for Tuesday over next steps in ceasefire talks

President Donald Trump and Russian leader Vladimir Putin are set to speak in a phone call on Tuesday to discuss ending the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin confirmed Monday, as the United States seeks Moscow’s support for a 30-day ceasefire proposal.

Trump first announced the planned call on Sunday, stating there was “a very good chance” of reaching a deal. “We are doing pretty well, I think, with Russia,” he told reporters aboard Air Force One. “We’ll see if we have something to announce maybe by Tuesday.”

When asked what concessions Russia would make in a potential deal, Trump said discussions have already taken place about “dividing up” assets, including land and power plants. “We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants,” he said. “I think a lot of it has already been discussed at length by both sides, Ukraine and Russia.”

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Kremlin says Putin ‘cautiously optimistic’ on deal, needs to talk to Trump

Hours after President Donald Trump’s Russia envoy, Steve Witkoff, flew out of Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov portrayed Russian President Vladimir Putin’s position as standing “in solidarity” with Trump, although the Russian leader had cast serious doubt on a U.S. 30-day ceasefire proposal to halt fighting in the Ukraine war.

Peskov said Putin spelled out Moscow’s position to Witkoff, who left early Friday, on the ceasefire proposed by the United States and agreed to by Ukraine. Peskov said he expects a phone call between Trump and Putin in the near future.

“The Russian side was provided with additional information. And also through Witkoff, Putin gave information and additional signals to President Trump,” Peskov said during his daily media conference call. “Certainly, there are reasons to feel this cautious optimism.” He added, however, that “a great deal” remains to be done.

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Russia makes gains against Ukraine in Kursk as Trump envoy arrives in Moscow

Ahead of talks with U.S. officials over a proposed 30-day ceasefire in the Ukraine war, Russian President Vladimir Putin sent a defiant military message when he made a rare appearance in a camouflage uniform to mark Russian advances against Ukrainian forces in the Kursk region of southern Russia.

Ukraine’s seven-month-old occupation of a sliver of Russian territory in the Kursk region may be nearing an end as Gen. Valery Gerasimov, chief of staff of the Russian armed forces, said the operation to evict enemy forces was in its final stages.

With the Russian Defense Ministry announcing Thursday the retaking of Sudzha — the largest town under Ukrainian control — Moscow looks set to strip Kyiv of a territorial bargaining chip that it has hoped to use in peace talks that are being brokered by the Trump administration.

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U.S. and Ukraine start peace talks as Moscow and Kyiv trade strikes

JEDDAH, Saudi Arabia — The United States and Ukraine began talks Tuesday aimed at ending the war in Ukraine as Moscow came under one of its largest bombardments of the conflict from long-range drones.

The violence in Russia’s capital came as Ukrainian officials in Saudi Arabia underscored their openness to U.S.-led negotiations in a bid to repair their relationship with President Donald Trump following his rancorous Oval Office meeting with President Volodymyr Zelensky last month.

“We’re ready to do everything to achieve peace,” said Zelensky’s top aide, Andriy Yermak, who traded his usual military-casual garb for a suit and tie, a sartorial change following criticism from U.S. conservatives that Zelensky didn’t wear formal attire at the White House.

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Amid fierce fighting along the front, Ukraine prepares for U.S. talks

Ukrainian forces battled to stave off fierce Russian attacks both inside Russia and along Ukraine’s front lines, as the country’s officials prepared Monday for high-stakes talks in Saudi Arabia with an increasingly skeptical ally, the United States.

Ukraine hopes the talks, set to begin Tuesday, will restore relations after a bruising week in which President Donald Trump paused the provision of military aid and intelligence sharing vital for Kyiv to repel Russian attacks. After Russian advances in the Kursk region, the Ukrainian military said the situation was stabilizing.

Ukrainian officials will seek to convince the U.S. delegation that they are ready for a swift end to the war, and are set to present a case for a partial ceasefire after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said last week he would push for a ban on long-range drone and missile attacks as well as on military operations in the Black Sea.

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Ukraine fears Musk may cut vital Starlink internet amid Trump pressure

With the pausing of billions of dollars in U.S. military aid and of intelligence sharing with Ukraine, there are fears in the country that billionaire Elon Musk’s vital Starlink internet service could also be cut.

Thousands of Starlink terminals are working on Ukraine’s battlefields. They serve as commanders’ eyes and ears, providing access to drone footage in real time and maintaining command and control communications across the sprawling front.

Front-line commanders are increasingly concerned that the military has grown too reliant on Starlink, a product of Musk’s SpaceX, and it could become the latest pressure point for the White House as it pushes Ukraine to engage in peace talks with Russia and sign a deal giving the United States access to its minerals.

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Spooked by Trump and Putin, Europe rushes to rearm

The European Union, an entity that casts itself as a peace and trade project, is in crisis talks Thursday focused on defense.

Along with the specter of a belligerent Moscow, President Donald Trump’s sudden redrawing of alliances and withdrawal of aid for Ukraine are driving Europeans to fast-track plans to bolster their militaries, upgrade their arsenals — and, ultimately, to curb their dependence on the United States.

“I want to believe the U.S. will stand by our side, but we have to be ready for that not to be the case,” French President Emmanuel Macron told his country in a speech Wednesday night. “The future of Europe must not be decided in Washington or Moscow.”

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U.S. pauses sharing the intelligence Ukraine uses for strikes on Russia

The United States has paused major portions of its intelligence-sharing with Ukraine, squeezing the flow of vital information that Kyiv has used to repel invading Russian forces and strike back at select targets inside Russia, according to U.S. and Ukrainian officials.

The rupture in intelligence-sharing includes a halt in targeting data that U.S. spy agencies supply to Kyiv so it can launch American-provided weapons and Ukrainian-made long-range drones at Russian targets, Ukrainian officials said. Some Ukrainian missile operators say they are no longer receiving information needed to hit targets inside Russia.

The pause comes amid a decision early this week by President Donald Trump to freeze future deliveries of weapons to Ukraine, to pressure Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into peace negotiations with Russia.

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Trump administration to pause future deliveries of military aid to Ukraine

President Donald Trump has decided to pause all future deliveries of U.S. military assistance to Ukraine in an extraordinary move aimed at pressuring Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky into peace talks with Russia, said two U.S. officials familiar with the matter.

U.S. military support for Ukraine has been essential to fending off Russia’s invading forces, but what started as a conflict with widespread bipartisan support has fractured along partisan lines amid doubts about the war’s costs and a diplomatic off-ramp.

“The president has been clear that he is focused on peace. We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well,” said a White House official who, like others, spoke on the condition of anonymity to discuss sensitive policy deliberations. “We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

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Amid low birth rates, war and emigration, Ukraine’s numbers are dwindling

Ukraine is shrinking.

The war has killed tens of thousands of civilians and soldiers. At least 5 million more have fled and live outside Ukraine, and a fifth of the country — another 5 million people — are under Russian occupation.

And the number of deaths is nearly three times the number of births, according to the justice minister.

These missing Ukrainians — the ones who have fled, the dead, the occupied — have left a gaping hole in today’s Ukraine that will greatly shape what sort of country will be left when the conflict ends. A diminished population could have a major impact on the country’s economic health, political stability, ethnic makeup and ability to fight wars in the future.

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North Korea sending more troops to fight for Russia, Seoul says

North Korea appears to have sent more troops to support Russia in its war, South Korea’s spy agency said Thursday, but the agency has not yet determined exactly how many extra soldiers have been deployed.

The additional troops appear to have been deployed to the fronts in Russia’s Kursk region in the first week of February, after North Korean troops reportedly withdrew from the area at the end of January, the National Intelligence Service said in a brief statement to South Korean media.

Earlier on Thursday, South Korean newspaper JoongAng Ilbo had reported that 1,000 to 3,000 additional North Korean troops had been deployed. The NIS press office did not answer its phone line for comment on Thursday afternoon.

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Trump administration launches talks with Russia on Ukraine war

The Trump administration launched talks with Russia on Tuesday over the war in Ukraine, a turning point in Washington’s handling of Europe’s most destructive conflict in decades and a sign of the U.S. president’s willingness to sideline allies in his determination to impose a swift peace.

The talks marked a departure from an earlier U.S. insistence that Ukraine must lead any negotiations. The meeting also is part of an approach that appears likely to deliver an agreement unfavorable to Kyiv.

Rubio was joined at a cavernous Saudi palace by national security adviser Michael Waltz and Middle East envoy Steve Witkoff. The Saudi foreign minister, Prince Faisal bin Farhan al-Saud, and national security adviser, Musaad al-Aiban, joined the U.S. and Russian officials at a sprawling table to open the meeting but were expected to depart when the talks began in earnest.

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Europeans plan for troops to back Ukraine ceasefire — but want U.S. support

As European leaders strategize on sending troops to Ukraine under a ceasefire deal, they are also sounding out the Trump team about what kind of U.S. military support they would get. Washington is seeking answers, too, on the weaponry and forces European countries could commit.

Ukraine’s European backers are scrambling for a role in the negotiations to end the conflict from which they have been excluded even as the talks could reshape the continent’s security landscape. The prospect of troops in Ukraine has gained traction among European leaders as the Trump administration moves fast toward direct negotiations with Moscow, with U.S. and Russian officials expected to meet in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday.

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Top Russian and U.S. officials to meet in Riyadh over Ukraine war

Top U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia Tuesday to discuss the war in Ukraine, officials said, as Washington and Moscow race to advance President Donald Trump’s bid to broker an end to the conflict and, potentially, conclude a long period of frigid relations.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov, who will lead Russia’s delegation for talks with Secretary of State Marco Rubio and other top American officials, said the time had come for the United States and Russia to put an “absolutely abnormal period” of estrangement behind them. “We want to listen to our partners,” Lavrov told reporters Monday in Moscow.

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the talks in Saudi Arabia would lay the groundwork for a planned summit between Trump and President Vladimir Putin.

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Europe, sidelined by U.S. and Russia, seeks influence in Ukraine talks

As the Trump administration moves toward direct talks with Russian officials over the war in Ukraine, French President Emmanuel Macron has called European leaders to an emergency meeting to discuss how they might influence the talks.

Leaders will meet in Paris on Monday as they scramble for a role in negotiations that could determine the future of Ukraine and of Europe’s security landscape — and that are advancing quickly without them. President Donald Trump’s phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday, and U.S. plans to hold talks with Russian officials this week, have fueled European concerns that their defense interests will be sidelined.

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