Notifications can be managed in browser preferences.
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in
Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin over the phone and claimed he was making progress on a ceasefire
From reproductive rights to climate change to Big Tech, The Independent is on the ground when the story is developing. Whether it’s investigating the financials of Elon Musk’s pro-Trump PAC or producing our latest documentary, ‘The A Word’, which shines a light on the American women fighting for reproductive rights, we know how important it is to parse out the facts from the messaging.
At such a critical moment in US history, we need reporters on the ground. Your donation allows us to keep sending journalists to speak to both sides of the story.
The Independent is trusted by Americans across the entire political spectrum. And unlike many other quality news outlets, we choose not to lock Americans out of our reporting and analysis with paywalls. We believe quality journalism should be available to everyone, paid for by those who can afford it.
Russia has vowed that Vladimir Putin will not be spoken to in the language of ultimatums by US president Donald Trump.
Deputy Russian foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said it would not be possible to reach a US-brokered peace deal if Mr Trump undermines Mr Putin’s fundamental aims.
“Without solving the problems which were the root causes of what is happening, it will not be possible to reach an agreement,” Mr Ryabkov said. “So variations and half-measures are not the path we are prepared to go along.”
He suggested the non-negotiables for Mr Putin include Ukraine abandoning hopes of joining Nato and its withdrawal of troops from the four regions Russia illegally annexed in September 2022. All four regions remain partially unoccupied.
It comes as Ukraine’s defence ministry approved the military use of a domestically-produced drone.
The Baton drones – the word translates to “a loaf of bread” in Ukrainian – were designed to withstand extreme weather and travel at high speeds, allowing them to catch up with and strike moving targets.
Ukraine has prioritised drone warfare since the start of Russia’s full-scale invasion, heavily investing in aerial, naval, and ground-based unmanned systems.
The Russian spy ship, the Kildin, was packed with intelligence-gathering equipment
Ukraine’s $1.3bn drone war is now being led by a rap artist who has been fighting on the frontline – and in his music – since the start of the war, Sam Kiley reports
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that “serious people” from US president Donald Trump’s administration will visit Ukraine this week.
In a video released by Ukrainian media outlet UNIAN, Mr Zelensky said the visit would take place before the annual Munich Security Conference this weekend where he said he plans to have a meeting with US vice president JD Vance.
China’s Foreign Minister Wang Yi is due to visit Britain on Thursday to hold talks with his British counterpart David Lammy in a sign that relations between the countries are normalising after years of tensions.
Issues to be discussed include international security and the war in Ukraine, Prime Minister Keir Starmer’s spokesman told reporters.
Lammy and Wang will revive the UK-China Strategic Dialogue, a forum last held in 2018 to discuss bilateral issues.
That dialogue was paused during the COVID-19 pandemic and after Britain restricted some Chinese investment on worries over national security and over a crackdown on freedoms in Hong Kong.
The Labour government, in power in Britain since July, has made improving ties with China one of its main foreign policy goals after a period under successive Conservative governments when relations plunged to their lowest level in decades.
British finance minister Rachel Reeves visited China last month in a bid to revive economic and financial talks that had been frozen since 2019.
Russian authorities are accusing the embassy of ignoring a police request for information
The Trump administration’s freeze of foreign funding has begun impacting an international effort to hold Russia responsible for alleged war crimes in Ukraine, according to eight sources and a Ukrainian document seen by Reuters, halting dozens of jobs and tens of millions of dollars in aid.
Ukraine has opened more than 140,000 war crime cases since Moscow’s February 2022 invasion, which has killed tens of thousands, ravaged vast swathes of the country and left behind mental and physical scars from occupation. Russia consistently denies war crimes have been committed by its forces in the conflict.
US-funded international initiatives such as the Atrocity Crimes Advisory Group for Ukraine (ACA) have provided expertise and oversight to Ukrainian authorities. Kyiv has been praised by its Western partners for probing alleged crimes while the war is still raging.
At stake are six US-funded projects at the Prosecutor General’s Office (PGO) valued at $89 million, according to a Ukrainian document on the US funding and cuts seen by Reuters.
Funding for at least five of those projects has already been frozen, according to five sources directly involved, who cited interruptions in payments. The affected worked on issues ranging from the preservation of evidence from the battlefield to anti-corruption initiatives and reform of Ukraine’s prosecution system.
Two of the listed projects were funded by USAID, three by the Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement and one directly by the Department of State, the document showed.
Of that funding, $47 million was directly allocated to war crimes accountability, the document showed.
More than 50 per cent of Ukraine’s critical rare earth mineral resources are in regions illegally annexed by Vladimir Putin and partially occupied by his forces
Russian deputy foreign Minister Sergei Ryabkov, who oversees US relations and arms control, has said that all of president Vladimir Putin’s conditions for ending the conflict in Ukraine must be met before any settlement is possible.
On 14 June, Mr Putin set out his terms for an immediate end to the war: Ukraine must drop its Nato ambitions and withdraw its troops from the entirety of the territory of four Ukrainian regions claimed and mostly controlled by Russia.
Mr Ryabkov said that the sooner the United States and the West understood that all of Mr Putin’s conditions needed to be met, the sooner there would be a settlement in Ukraine.
Ukraine’s attack into Kursk has left Vladimir Putin’s forces scrambling
Join thought-provoking conversations, follow other Independent readers and see their replies
Please refresh the page or navigate to another page on the site to be automatically logged inPlease refresh your browser to be logged in