'Russia ready to discuss temporary ceasefire with Ukraine'

Russia is ready to discuss a temporary ceasefire in Ukraine if progress is made toward a permanent peace deal, Bloomberg reported, citing people in Moscow familiar with the matter.

Agreeing to the ceasefire would require a clear agreement on the principles of the eventual peace deal, two people familiar with the matter said.

Russia would particularly push to spell out the parameters of any peacekeeping mission, including agreement on which countries would participate, another person familiar with the matter said. Russia has previously made it clear that it does not want NATO troops on Ukrainian soil.

The Kremlin has not yet officially commented on the news.

President Bush on Putin.

We have to see but Rutte and Trump get along well, Mark always defended Trump in Europe.

NATO's future could be decided in Washington this week

https://www.msn.com/en-ca/news/worl...ek/ar-AA1AvQbg?ocid=weather-verthp-feeds

NATO chief praises Trump: 'You broke the deadlock' on Ukraine

Trump praised for getting NATO allies to bolster defense spending: 'really staggering'
'We will have a NATO which is really invigorated'
By Diana Stancy Fox News
Published March 13, 2025 4:56pm EDT | Updated March 13, 2025 5:15pm EDT

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte lauded President Donald Trump’s efforts to push NATO allies to increase defense spending, amid efforts to end the war in Ukraine.

Trump has long advocated for NATO allies to ramp up defense spending to between 2% and 5% gross domestic product — and has made it clear that European nations need to shoulder greater responsibility for the security of their continent.

"You're starting to hear the British prime minister and others all committing to much higher defense spending," Rutte told reporters Thursday at the White House. "We're not there. We need to do more, but I really want to work together with you . . . to make sure that we will have a NATO which is really reinvigorated, under your leadership. And we are getting there."

"When you look at Trump 47, what happened the last couple of weeks is really staggering," Rutte said.

‘MAKE NATO GREAT AGAIN’: HEGSETH PUSHES EUROPEAN ALLIES TO STEP UP DEFENSE EFFORTS

NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte visited the White House on March 13, 2025.

Rutte’s comments come as European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen put forth an $841 billion proposal on March 4 for European Union nations to bolster defense spending.

Likewise, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer pledged in February to boost his country's defense spending to 2.5% of its gross domestic value. That is an increase from the 2.3% the U.K. currently spends, and amounts to a nearly $17 billion increase.

Still, Rutte emphasized the need to strengthen the defense industrial base in both the U.S. and Europe, and cautioned they were falling behind Russia and China in defense production.

As of 2023, the U.S. spent 3.3% of its GDP on defense spending — totaling $880 billion, according to the nonpartisan Washington, D.C.-based Peterson Institute for International Economics. More than 50% of NATO funding comes from the U.S., while other allies — like the United Kingdom, France and Germany — have contributed between 4% and 8% to NATO funding in recent years.

NATO comprises more than 30 countries and originally was formed in 1949 to halt the spread of the Soviet Union.

ecretary of Defense Pete Hegseth also encouraged NATO allies to beef up defense spending during a trip to Brussels in February.

"NATO should pursue these goals as well," Hegseth said. "NATO is a great alliance, the most successful defense alliance in history, but to endure for the future, our partners must do far more for Europe’s defense."

Pledges from European and allied nations to increase defense spending coincide with negotiations to end the war in Ukraine.

Nations including the U.K. and France have proposed deploying troops to ensure that Ukraine is protected from future Russian aggression under a peace negotiation.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/tr...lster-defense-spending-really-staggering

The Associated Press contributed to this report.

Rutte is a very clever and loyal guy prime minister of the Netherlands from 2010 to 2024. We did have some major problems and many blame him but I blame the system more.
To run the Netherlands for 14 years is not an easy job real leaders like Angela Merkel, Macron and even Trump know that DJT would love to rule the USA for 14 years haha..

A new deal with the Greens could allow for as much as €1 trillion in new spending for defense and infrastructure over the next decade.

Germany’s conservative Chancellor-in-waiting Friedrich Merz has reached a breakthrough with the Greens on a massive spending plan to unleash hundreds of billions of euros for defense and infrastructure.

“Germany is back,” Merz told reporters in Berlin on Friday. “Germany is making its great contribution to the defense of freedom and peace in Europe.”

https://www.politico.eu/article/germanys-merz-secures-breakthrough-on-historic-spending-plan/

Separate peace talks, US-Russia confrontation in Riyadh: Trump wants truce by Easter
Washington's goal is to achieve an immediate partial ceasefire in the war in Ukraine, followed by a comprehensive peace agreement

by Benedetta Guerrera

March 24, 2025

A symbolic date, April 20, when both Catholic and Orthodox Easter will fall. With this limit on the horizon to achieve peace in Ukraine, talks between Donald Trump's team and Volodymyr Zelensky's team took place in Saudi Arabia, ahead of the meeting between Washington and Moscow's representatives today. "The discussion was productive and focused: we addressed key points, including energy," reported Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who heads the Kiev team, at the end of the meeting with the American delegation.

"President Volodymyr Zelensky's goal is to secure a just and lasting peace for our country and our people, and, by extension, for all of Europe. We are working to make this goal a reality."

The US president and his team, special envoy Steve Witkoff, have sounded optimistic about ending Europe's worst conflict since World War II, despite renewed mutual attacks on the ground, but have slammed British- and French-led efforts to shore up Ukraine's defenses and Europe's plan to build long-term security guarantees as "posturing." "Putin doesn't want to conquer all of Europe. The situation is very different today than it was in World War II," the tycoon's right-hand man for foreign policy said, arguing that the Kremlin leader is "not a bad person, he's very intelligent." "I have the impression that he wants peace," Witkoff told Fox News, saying he was confident that Monday's talks with Moscow would yield "concrete progress" such as "a first ceasefire in the Black Sea that will then lead to a full truce."

The Kremlin has scaled down American expectations for a quick resolution to the conflict, saying that negotiations with the United States "will be difficult." "We are only at the beginning of this path," spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, confirming however that Moscow's "main" focus will be on resuming an agreement to ensure safe navigation for commercial ships in the Black Sea, especially for grain, as has already been the case between 2022 and 2023.

Announcing the start of the Riyadh talks, Ukrainian Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, who led the Kiev delegation, said on Facebook: "We are implementing our president's directive to move closer to a just peace and strengthen security." Zelensky, who in his usual evening speech called the ongoing talks in Riyadh with the Americans "useful," continued to push for "sanctions against Russian terrorists. New solutions and new pressure on Moscow are needed to stop these attacks and this war. We need to strengthen Ukraine and our army: more air defense and real assistance," the Ukrainian leader urged, commenting on Moscow's attacks over the past 48 hours.
Ukrainian authorities reported that a Russian drone attack in Kiev overnight killed at least three people, including a 5-year-old boy, causing fires in buildings and damage throughout the capital. Meanwhile, Russian air defenses said their air defenses destroyed 59 Ukrainian drones targeting the country's southwestern regions, adding that the strikes killed one person in Rostov.

A situation of very high tension, far from the peace in the short term hoped for by Trump. The American president has, however, assured that efforts "to avoid a further escalation of the conflict are underway". "I have a good relationship with Putin and Zelensky and no one else, apart from me, is capable of stopping the war in Ukraine", reiterated the commander-in-chief who is already thinking of being awarded the Nobel Peace Prize. "Obama got it for no reason, he didn't even know it, he didn't do anything. If I were a democratic president I would win it".

The United States said on Tuesday it has reached separate agreements with Ukraine and Russia to ensure safe navigation in the Black Sea and to implement a ban on attacks by the two countries on each other's energy facilities.

The agreements, if implemented, would represent the clearest progress yet towards a wider ceasefire that Washington sees a stepping stone towards peace talks to bring an end to Russia's three-year-old war in Ukraine.

https://www.france24.com/en/europe/...roposal-ceasefire-black-sea-truce-riyadh

It's a VERY small step IMO. Trump told Newsmax he believes Russia wants to end its war with Ukraine, but that Moscow could be “dragging their feet.”

All Russia needs to do to end the war is to vacate the Ukraine. Trump knows that, but his real interest is in doing future business with Russia.

At least there is now diplomacy underway but don't underestimate the Kremlin. No deal is better than a bad deal for the Free Western World.

A ‘coalition of the willing’ mulls more aid for Ukraine and a possible European armed force

By JOHN LEICESTER and SAMUEL PETREQUIN
Updated 2:10 PM CET, March 27, 2025
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PARIS (AP) — Ukraine’s allies from across Europe gathered for talks in Paris on Thursday about how to strengthen Kyiv’s hand and its military as it pushes for a ceasefire with Russia, and to consider proposals to deploy European troops in the country in tandem with any peace deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting the leaders of nearly 30 countries plus NATO and European Union chiefs. The summit comes at a crucial juncture in the more than three-year war, with intensifying diplomatic efforts to broker ceasefires, driven by pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to end the fighting.

But the conflict is raging on.

Before the leaders met in the luxury of the French presidential palace, Russian drone attacks overnight wounded more than 20 people and heavy shelling Thursday afternoon killed one person and knocked out electricity in parts of Kherson, Ukrainian officials said.

U.S.-brokered agreements this week to safeguard shipping in the Black Sea and last week to halt long-range strikes on energy infrastructure were greeted as a first step toward peace. But Ukraine and Russia have disagreed over the details and accused each other of deal violations, foreshadowing a long and contentious process ahead.


Europe mulls boots on the ground
France and the United Kingdom are pushing a separate initiative to build a coalition of nations willing in one way or another to support the deployment of a European armed force in Ukraine, with the aim of securing any peace deal by dissuading Russia from attacking the country again.

Some European countries are more comfortable with a potential deployment than others — not least because a big unknown is whether Trump would allow American forces and intelligence agencies to back up any European contingent with air and logistical support and other assistance.

Building a force big enough to act as a credible deterrent — U.K. officials have talked about possibly 10,000 to 30,000 troops — would also be a considerable effort for nations that shrank their militaries after the Cold War but are now rearming. There would also be questions to resolve about who would command the force and how it might respond to a major violation by Russia of any peace agreement.

The office of U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer, who’s driving the European initiative together with Macron, said that military planners from Europe and beyond have been drilling down into details of how such a force might be put together, examining “the full range of European military capabilities including aircraft, tanks, troops, intelligence and logistics.”

A litmus test for Europe
In the face of enduring pressure from Trump on European nations to increase military spending and rely less on U.S. forces, dating back to his first presidency, the proposed contingent is also seen as a test of Europe’s ability to defend itself and its interests.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy posted an image from inside the summit of him and other leaders standing together with the caption: “Europe knows how to defend itself. We must prove it.”

Macron said Wednesday that the proposed European force could deploy to “important towns, strategic bases” in Ukraine and that it could “respond” to a Russian attack if Moscow launched one.

Macron didn’t specify what sort of response he envisaged. But he suggested that a Russian attack might not go unanswered, even though the European troops wouldn’t be deployed to the front lines.

“If there was again a generalized aggression against Ukrainian soil, these armies would, in fact, be under attack and then it’s our usual framework of engagement,” Macron said. “Our soldiers, when they are engaged and deployed, are there to react and respond to the decisions of the commander in chief and, if they are in a conflict situation, to respond to it.

“So we are not on the front lines, we don’t go to fight, but we are there to guarantee a lasting peace. It’s a pacifist approach,” he said. “The only ones who would, at that moment, trigger a conflict, a bellicose situation, would be the Russians if they decided again to launch an aggression.”

How Russian sanctions could affect a ceasefire
The meeting in Paris came as Russia has demanded lifting sanctions to meet its terms for the Black Sea ceasefire.

Sanctions imposed by the U.S. and Europe have punished Russia’s economy and limited its access to global markets.

Zelenskyy accused Moscow of attempting to add conditions to what should be an unconditional agreement.

While the White House said that it would help restore Russia’s access to the world market for fertilizer and farm exports, it didn’t validate Moscow’s conditions. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that Russia’s demands would be evaluated and presented to Trump.

There has been a growing chorus of opposition in Europe to lifting the sanctions, which remain their main leverage against Moscow.

António Costa, the president of the European Council representing the EU’s 27 member states, said that sanctions are crucial to support Ukraine and reach a lasting peace.

“This means keeping up the pressure on Russia through sanctions,” Costa said Thursday.

More aid and more attacks
As ceasefire efforts gather steam, Ukraine’s allies in Europe are working to strengthen Kyiv’s hand militarily. Their aim is to enable it to keep fighting until any broad peace takes hold and also to turn the Ukrainian army into the first line of defense against any future Russian aggression.

Macron announced a new package of defense aid for Ukraine that he said was worth 2 billion euros ($2.15 billion) and will include light tanks, air defense and anti-tank missiles and other weaponry and support.

Russian drone attacks overnight wounded at least 18 people in the Kharkiv region and three people in Dnipro, officials said. Shelling in a front-line community in the Zaporizhzhia region knocked out electricity and phone coverage, regional head Ivan Fedorov said on Telegram.

Zelenskyy said that the attacks were further evidence that the U.S. and Europe shouldn’t ease sanctions on Moscow.

“Russia is killing every day and prolonging this war,” Zelenskyy said on social media. “The American proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table for half a month now.”

Separately, the Ukrainian Army General Staff said that its attack at Engels military airfield in Russia on March 20 had destroyed 96 air-to-air cruise missiles and significant reserves of aviation fuel.

Satellite imagery taken the next day by Maxar Technologies appeared to show damage to ammunition and weapons storage at Engels, the main base for Russia’s nuclear-capable strategic bombers.


https://apnews.com/article/russia-u...willing-8f6f3e0afdfbdaa08a00d289c206bf4f

https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/four-us-soldiers-missing-lithuania-embassy-says-2025-03-26/

A search for four U.S. soldiers continued in Lithuania after their vehicle was found submerged in a training area, the U.S. Army said on Wednesday.
"The M88 Hercules armored recovery vehicle the four missing U.S. Soldiers were operating during a training exercise has been located in Lithuania," it said in a statement.
The military search and rescue operation has been ongoing since Tuesday, after the soldiers and their vehicle went missing at Pabrade training ground, about 15 kilometers (nine miles) from Belarus.

"He will die soon, that is a fact, and everything will be over," Zelensky said on March 26 in comments regarding Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky sees new US commodity deal proposal as 'completely different': 'Very unfavorable for Ukraine'

According to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, the new draft for a comprehensive raw materials deal with the United States is "completely different" from an earlier concept. The proposal requires further assessment by lawyers, Zelensky said.

The president emphasized that Ukraine will not accept an agreement that would jeopardize accession to the European Union. A day earlier, the American news agency Bloomberg reported that the Americans are demanding even more economic power in Ukraine. Washington sees this partly as compensation for military aid to Ukraine in the fight against Russia.

The United States would insist on control over all major future investments in infrastructure and minerals. According to Bloomberg, Washington could even undermine Ukraine's efforts to become a member of the EU. The Americans would gain enormous power in projects such as roads and railways, ports, mines, oil and gas and the extraction of important minerals.

Zelensky did not provide details about the deal, but according to Ukrainian media it would be "very unfavorable" for the country. Ukrainian parliamentarians have also already expressed criticism and called the document "unacceptable".