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UA-NATO/RU | Jan.-1st-2026/May 12th | Reporting

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Italian PM Giorgia Meloni - long regarded as one of the more pro-Trump figures in Europe - issues a scathing rebuke of Donald Trump's recent statements which denigrate European sacrifices in Afghanistan.

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Trump Heaps Praise on UK Troops Following Furor Over Afghanistan Comments

U.S. President Donald Trump heaped praise Saturday on British soldiers who fought in Afghanistan, in a post on social media that represented a partial reversal of comments he made this week that drew a cascade of criticism in the U.K., particularly from families of those killed and seriously injured in the conflict.

In the wake of a conversation earlier with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, Trump said on Truth Social that the “great and very brave soldiers of the United Kingdom will always be with the United States of America.”

He described the 457 British servicemen and women who died in Afghanistan and those that were badly injured, as “among the greatest of all warriors.”

Trump added that the bond between the two countries' militaries is “too strong to ever be broken” and that the U.K. “with tremendous heart and soul, is second to none (except for the USA)."

Trump's comments follow an interview with Fox Business Network on Thursday in Davos, Switzerland, when he said he wasn’t sure the other 31 nations in NATO would be there to support the United States if and when requested and that troops from those countries stayed "a little off the front lines.”

Trump did not apologize directly for those comments, nor retract them, as Starmer had suggested in his initial response on Friday when he described the words of the president as “insulting and frankly appalling.”

Starmer's office in No. 10 Downing Street said the issue was raised in a conversation between the pair on Saturday, in which other topics were discussed, including the war in Ukraine and security in the Arctic region.

“The prime minister raised the brave and heroic British and American soldiers who fought side by side in Afghanistan, many of whom never returned home," Downing Street said in a statement. “We must never forget their sacrifice.”

Trump's view as expressed in the Fox Business interview stands at odds with the reality that in October 2001, nearly a month after the 9/11 attacks, the U.S. led an international coalition in Afghanistan to destroy al-Qaida, which had used the country as its base, and the group's Taliban hosts.

Alongside the U.S. were troops from dozens of countries, including from NATO, whose mutual-defense mandate had been triggered for the first time after the attacks on New York and Washington. More than 150,000 British troops served in Afghanistan in the years after the invasion, the largest contingent after the American one.

The Italian and French governments also expressed their disapproval Saturday at Trump’s comments, with both describing them as “unacceptable.”
 

Ukraine’s Zelenskyy says US security agreement ‘100% ready’ to be signed

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said that an agreement on US security guarantees for his country is “100 percent ready” to be signed after talks with Russia in Abu Dhabi.

Speaking at a news conference in Vilnius, Lithuania, on Sunday, Zelenskyy said that Kyiv was ready to send the agreement to the US Congress and Ukrainian parliament for ratification.

“For us, security guarantees are first and foremost guarantees of security from the United States. The document is 100 percent ready, and we are waiting for our partners to confirm the date and place when we will sign it,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian and Russian negotiators met in the capital of the United Arab Emirates on Friday and Saturday to discuss Washington’s framework for ending Moscow’s almost four-year-old war.

While no deal emerged from the talks, Moscow and Kyiv both said they were open to further dialogue, and more discussions were expected next Sunday in Abu Dhabi, a US official told reporters immediately after the discussions.

Zelenskyy described the talks as likely the first trilateral format in “quite a long while” that included not only diplomats but military representatives from all three sides.

The Ukrainian leader acknowledged fundamental differences between the Ukrainian and Russian positions, reaffirming territorial issues as a major sticking point.

Russian President Vladimir Putin discussed a Ukraine settlement with US President Donald Trump’s envoys, Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, during marathon talks late on Thursday.

Zelenskyy said that while Moscow wants Ukraine to abandon eastern regions of the country, Kyiv has not budged from its position that territorial integrity must be upheld.

“These are two fundamentally different positions – Ukraine’s and Russia’s. The Americans are trying to find a compromise,” Zelenskyy said, adding that “all sides must be ready for compromise”.
 
Russia accidentally admits the cruiser Moskva was sunk by the Ukrainians, and reveals casualty figures (the official version has always been that a fire broke out and caused munitions to explode).

A military court in Moscow last week issued a statement about the sentencing of a Ukrainian navy commander who ordered strikes against the Moskva. According to the court, he was sentenced to life in prison in absentia. The statement was quickly wiped off the court’s website, but not before some users managed to download it. It reads (among others):

On April 13, 2022, a missile strike using two missiles was carried out against the Guards Missile Cruiser Moskva, as a result of whose explosions a fire broke out on the vessel accompanied by smoke filling the internal compartments. As a consequence of the explosions, fire, and smoke inhalation, 20 members of the cruiser’s crew died, 24 crew members sustained bodily injuries of varying severity, and eight persons went missing, including during efforts to preserve the ship’s survival, which lasted more than six hours.

Irina Zhirnova, the spokesperson for the 2nd Western District Military Court, which issued the now-deleted statement, said there would be no comment.

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Novaya Gazeta reports on the shockingly high rate of criminal convictions among veterans of Russia's "Special Military Operation" in Ukraine - with over 8,000 cases where court documents mention the defendant's participation in the war.

Officially, the number of Russians veterans who have returned to civilian life stands at just 137,000 - which means that over 6% of those have already committed, and been convicted of, violent crimes after being released from military service. Study authors speculate that the actual rate may be much higher, because:
  • Not all crimes are reported, and the Russian justice system is generally reluctant to prosecute war veterans,
  • Not all case dockets are published by the courts (the authors estimate that only 60-70% of them are),
  • The defendant's participation in the war is not always revealed.
This phenomenon may have significant repercussions for the Russian society in the event of cessation of hostilities.

Source
 
Lukoil - the largest privately owned oil producer in Russia - has been forced to seek government aid over low crude prices.

Citing a letter sent by the U.S.-sanctioned company to the cabinet and the Energy Ministry, Izvestia said Lukoil has proposed changes to reduce its tax burden and potentially secure payments from the federal budget.

Source
 
US links security guarantees for Ukraine to peace deal ceding Donbas: FT report
The Trump administration has signalled to Ukraine that US security guarantees depend on Kyiv agreeing to a peace deal likely requiring it to cede the Donbas region to Russia, the Financial Times reported on Jan 27, citing eight people familiar with the talks.

Washington has also indicated that it could offer Ukraine more weapons to strengthen its peacetime army if Kyiv agreed to withdraw forces from the parts of the eastern region it controls, the newspaper said.

Reuters could not immediately verify the report.
 
Ukraine shoots down Russian Su-34 bomber over Black Sea

Ukraine’s Air Force shot down a Russian Su-34 Fullback fighter-bomber over the Black Sea near Snake Island.

The aircraft was engaged and shot down during a combat mission over the maritime area west of Odesa. The incident occurred close to Snake Island, a strategic outpost that has remained a focal point of air and naval operations since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion.

Russian military bloggers linked to the Ministry of Defense and several pro-Kremlin media outlets later acknowledged the loss of the aircraft and confirmed that the two-member crew was killed. These admissions appeared on Russian Telegram channels within hours of the incident, indicating the scale of the loss and the difficulty of concealing it.

 
From 14 hours ago:

14 European countries have announced that they are closing the Baltic Sea to Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, according to a joint statement released by the UK government. The countries warned that tankers concealing their origin, by changing flags, switching off transponders, or operating without proper documentation, will be treated as vessels without nationality. Such ships may be detained without legal risk. Russia was also accused of deliberately interfering with satellite navigation systems, posing a serious threat to maritime safety and complicating rescue operations in the event of accidents. The statement was signed by Belgium, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Iceland, Latvia, Lithuania, the Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Sweden, and the United Kingdom
 
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Germany is pushing a “two speed” EU model to accelerate defense cooperation and industrial competitiveness, via an “E6” core group of major economies.

Germany’s finance minister Lars Klingbeil and France’s Roland Lescure convened Poland, Spain, Italy and the Netherlands for a Jan 28 call aimed at moving faster than the EU’s consensus by 27 process.

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Trump says Putin has agreed to pause attacks on Ukrainian energy

US President Donald Trump said Russia had agreed to a partial ceasefire, and would not fire missiles at Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities for a week after extensive bombardment of the energy grid left millions without power and heating in the depths of a brutal winter.

Trump revealed on Thursday (Friday AEDT) he had personally asked Russian President Vladimir Putin to grant a reprieve as Ukrainians shiver through a bitterly cold January. The claim came as his peace envoy indicated a peace deal could soon be finalised.
 
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Starlink terminals are reportedly disconnecting above 90 km/h, per Russia milblogger channels, reducing usability on fast moving drones. Ukraine reporting cites the posts and quotes Serhii Beskrestnov saying SpaceX has applied temporary countermeasures and may shift to device “whitelisting.”

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A drone of unknown origin reportedly crashed onto a Polish military base in Przasnysz (north-central Poland) on Jan 28, 2026. Polish outlet Radio ZET reports the Military Police launched proceedings and secured the UAV.

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“According to preliminary findings, it looks like a toy drone, but we are waiting for the opinion of experts on this matter," said Polsat News, spokesman for the Military Gendarmerie, Col. Paweł Durka.”
 
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