He was only 11 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of his homeland in 2022. After the storming of Mariupol, Russian soldiers took him and his mother to a "filtration camp." Russia has set up such camps in the territories it occupies to subject Ukrainians to ideological screening before transferring them to Russia. Sasha was separated from his mother in the camp and taken to occupied Donetsk.
The commission is the EU's executive arm. It proposes laws that impact the lives of around 450 million people across 27 countries, and monitors whether those rules are respected. In recent years, it has helped Europe to survive fallout from the COVID-19 pandemic, break its dependency on Russian energy supplies and cope with a trade war launched by a traditional ally like the U.S.
One US official reportedly said that the Trump administration was ready to go, ready to go right now, but we are only going to do this if our European partners step up with us. Trump's proposal comes amid his frustration at brokering a peace deal, including at a high-profile summit with Putin in Alaska, and amid Russia's increasing drone attacks, including its largest ever air attack on Ukraine last week.
Volodymyr Zelenskiy spoke with French President Emmanuel Macron on Sunday, discussing measures to bolster Ukraine's defenses hours after a massive Russian air assault that included a strike on a key government building in Kyiv. The drone and missile barrage on the capital and other cities left at least four people dead and more than 44 injured, Zelenskiy said in the Telegram post on Sunday. Ukraine's president and Macron discussed coordinated diplomatic efforts and next steps with partners to ensure an appropriate response, according to his post. Together with France, Ukraine is preparing new measures to strengthen its defenses, Zelenskiy said.
A suspected GPS sabotage forced European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen's plane to divert from its course and in Russia, the incident quickly made her the focus of mockery and smear campaigns. The politician had flown to Bulgaria on August 31. The GPS disruption of the aircraft resulted in an unscheduled landing in the city of Plovdiv. Authorities in Bulgaria suspect that Moscow was behind the attack and link it to Russia's war against Ukraine.
If any [Western] troops appear there, especially now during military operations, we proceed from the fact that these will be legitimate targets for their destruction. And if decisions are reached that will lead to peace, to long-term peace, then I simply do not see any sense in their presence on the territory of Ukraine. That's all. Because if these agreements are reached, let no one doubt that Russia will implement them in full.
On Wednesday morning, the three men led a group of more than 20 world leaders as they strode towards a rostrum in Tiananmen Square in Beijing to watch a victory day parade marking the end, eight decades ago, of a global conflict that would soon usher in the first cold war. When Wednesday's celebrations end, however, the regimes in Beijing, Moscow and Pyongyang will be left to confront significant domestic challenges that might yet shift their focus from global power politics.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen has said Europe was preparing 'pretty precise plans' to send troops to Ukraine as part of post-conflict security guarantees Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeated his claims that Ukraine and the West provoked the war Chancellor Friedrich Merz has said Germany is preparing for a long war in Ukraine Below is a roundup of the key events in Russia's war in Ukraine on Monday, September 1:
KYIV, Ukraine A major Russian air attack on Kyiv early Thursday, including a rare strike in the city center that damaged the European Union's diplomatic offices, killed at least 17 people and wounded 48 more, authorities said. The bombardment of drones and missiles was the first major Russian attack on Kyiv in weeks as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggled to gain traction.
My thoughts are with all those affected by the senseless Russian strikes on Kyiv which have damaged the British Council building.
United States President Donald Trump's diplomatic efforts to bring peace to Ukraine remained stalled during the past week, as Russian President Vladimir Putin refused to meet with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy. Ukraine's allies, on the other hand, began to commit to provide troops, hardware and air cover in the event of a ceasefire. European allies agreed on the need for a NATO Article 5-type defence clause that would trigger their entry into the war should Russia renew hostilities.
The Ukrainian capital was rocked with devastating explosions overnight as almost 600 ballistic cruise missiles and drones striking Ukraine. Kyiv was "hit the hardest" and at least thirteen people including children were killed and nearly 50 were injured as many residential buildings were completely "destroyed and damaged." In the Russian attack the EU delegation building was "severely damaged by the shock wave" which was described by the president of the EU Council, Antonio Costa as a "deliberate Russian attack."
Ukraine's capital Kyiv has come under a large-scale night-time attack by Russia, officials said early on Thursday, with at least one dead, four injured and damage to buildings in several districts of the city, including a kindergarten. Russian troops have entered the villages of Novoheorhiivka and Zaporizke in the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region, a major Ukrainian industrial centre next to the Donetsk region, The Associated Press (AP) news agency reported, citing a local commander.
Russia's massive drone attack overnight on six Ukrainian regions, which hit energy and gas transport infrastructure and cut off power to over 100,000 people, is the latest sign that Moscow is nowhere near peace. Coupled with the Kremlin's rejection of meaningful security guarantees for Ukraine, it's clear that President Vladimir Putin is still pursuing his maximalist war goals. That doesn't surprise General (Ret.) Philip Breedlove, former NATO Supreme Allied Commander, who said the U.S. has been "completely deterred" by Putin for the last 11 years, across four presidents, which has built a "sanctuary" for Russia and allowed it to escalate in Ukraine unchecked.
"Putin should have no illusions that Germany's support for Ukraine could crumble," said Klingbeil. "On the contrary: We remain Ukraine's second-largest supporter worldwide and the largest in Europe. Ukraine can continue to rely on Germany." The Vice Chancellor's comments come after a round of peacetalks between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin did not yield any results in Alaska.
"I think I'll know. I think I'll know the attitude of Russia, and, frankly, of Ukraine. It takes two," Trump said when asked what he would do at the end of a two-week timeframe for assessing the state of peace talks. "Then I'm going to make a decision as to what we do and it's going to be a very important decision," he said. "Whether it's massive sanctions, massive tariffs, or both. Or I'll do nothing and say, 'This is your war.'"
Russian President Vladimir Putin appears to be resisting a bilateral meeting with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy, casting doubt over whatever hopes for peace may have been generated by a week of summit diplomacy. That bilateral meeting is supposed to be the next step in a process inaugurated by US President Donald Trump last Friday, when he and Putin met in Alaska.
"I express my deepest sympathy to those injured in the Russian missile attack on Munkachevo, and I wish them a speedy and full recovery," Sulyok said in his original statement posted to Facebook on August 21. The post was taken down shortly after it went up, only to be replaced by a nearly identical statement with the word "Russian" ("orosz" in Hungarian) removed from the first sentence.