Russia is signaling its intention to reject a U.S. ceasefire proposal already accepted by Ukraine in Jeddah this week, setting the stage for a likely diplomatic standoff between Washington and Moscow. After nearly 48 hours of silence on the issue, Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov on March 13 dismissed
The "ball is in (Russia's) court," U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 11 after Kyiv and Washington emerged from talks in Saudi Arabia in agreement over a ceasefire proposal. After the negotiations with Washington, Ukraine announced that it was ready to accept a 30-day-long ceasefire if
Over the course of a tumultuous few weeks of talks, U.S. President Donald Trump has repeatedly expressed his frustration with Kyiv. On March 7, Trump declared that he finds it "more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine" than Russia. Yet, after weeks of strong-arming Ukraine into submission, the Trump
The Kyiv Independent's Chris York sits down with Michael McFaul, former U.S. ambassador to Russia and political scientist, to discuss the Ukraine-Russia peace negotiations, U.S. President Donald Trump's approach to Russian President Vladimir Putin, and the ideological parallels between Putinism and MAGA.
Kyiv officials will meet their Washington counterparts in Jeddah on March 11 for talks which will impact the future of diplomatic relations between the two countries and likely the future of the war in Ukraine. The Ukrainian side hopes the meeting would help mend ties with the White House and
Just a few years ago, the biggest purveyors of disinformation on the internet were bots, conspiracy theorists and Russian propaganda outlets. Today the world is a very different place and two of the most prominent sources of lies and mistruths are the President of the United States, Donald Trump, and the world’s richest man, Elon Musk. The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York sits down with Eliot Higgins, founder and creative director of the investigative outlet Bellingcat, to discuss how we arrived at this point and what can be done about it.
Earlier this week, British lawmaker Graham Stuart raised the possibility that the president of the United States, Donald Trump, had been groomed by the Kremlin’s security services over a period of decades. In this interview Stuart explains what prompted him to make such an extraordinary public statement, and what it means both for the future of Ukraine, and the continent as a whole.
Days after U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a pause in sharing U.S. intelligence, the Ukrainian military has reported little effect from that decision on the front. The pause is likely to have a higher toll on Ukrainian cities and infrastructure, experts and military officials say. The U.S.
U.S. President Donald Trump's claim to be the only person who knows why Russia wants to "make a deal" and end the war in Ukraine is "probably just bluster," experts have told the Kyiv Independent. Speaking to reporters in the White House on March 6, Trump addressed his ongoing
U.S. President Donald Trump’s escalating pressure on Ukraine over the past week has shocked the global community as he pushes for a quick end to Russia’s full-scale invasion. The news on March 3 that the U.S. would suspend all military aid to Ukraine sparked fears in
U.S. President Donald Trump entered the White House promising to bring a swift end to Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, and his first few weeks in office have proven he’s determined to follow through. While his endeavour to fulfil a campaign promise in itself is not too surprising, the way he is approaching the issue has stunned not only Ukraine, but also the U.S.’s long-term global allies, who are now scrambling to adjust to a world in which Washington cannot be viewed as a reliable security partner. The Kyiv Independent spoke to George Barros, Russia team lead at the Institute for the Study of War, who explains why America’s global adversaries will be “salivating” at what is currently unfolding on the global stage.
A decision by the White House to suspend all military aid to Ukraine has stunned Kyiv and its European allies, throwing the very future of the established world order into doubt. "I'm utterly staggered. It's just extraordinary," Timothy Ash, associate fellow at the Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme,
The U.S. has suspended military aid to Ukraine as part of a pressure campaign to push Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky toward negotiations with Russia, U.S. President Donald Trump’s senior adviser Jason Miller said on March 4. It’s just the latest in a series of developments since Trump took office that mark a dramtic shift in the U.S.’s relationship with not only Ukraine, but Europe, and the rest of the world. The Kyiv Independent spoke with Timothy Ash, associate fellow at the Chatham House’s Russia and Eurasia Programme, who told us that what is unfolding right now amount to “teutonic shifts in alliances that I don’t think anyone could quite have imagined.”
Even in a country grimly accustomed to negative news, the headlines that Ukraine woke up to on March 4 still came as a shock — the U.S. is freezing military aid. "It hurts to watch it unfolding," Volodymyr Dubovyk, the head of Odesa National University's Center for International Studies, told
An astounding political encounter played out in front of the world on Feb. 28, as a highly-anticipated meeting between Presidents Volodymyr Zelensky and U.S. President Donald Trump descended into a verbal brawl, the cancelling of a mineral deal and — reportedly — Zelensky's unceremonious eviction from the White House. Zelensky left
Questions about U.S. President Donald Trump's possibly shady relationship with Russia and the country's security services have long swirled, even culminating in a special counsel investigation during his first term in office. Though that investigation found evidence of "extensive criminal activity" by Trump, his associates, and some of his
Craig Unger is an American journalist and writer who has written two books on Donald Trump’s connections to Russia’s security services and the Russian mafia stretching all the way back to the 1980s. Unger says he is “absolutely certain” that the U.S. president is a Russian asset whose current actions are benefiting Russian President Vladimir Putin, and destroying relationships with long-time allies.
Earlier on Feb. 26, Russia's Defense Ministry said 128 Ukrainian drones had been downed over the country, 83 of them in Krasnodar Krai.
Elon Musk on Feb. 21 questioned why Ukraine was still actively defending itself amid the ongoing Russian full-scale invasion, suggesting the country's fight against the Kremlin's imperialist ambitions was, in fact, a giant money-making scam. "What are they dying for? What exactly are they dying for? The line of engagement
Despite a long history of controversial and bombastic statements, U.S. President Donald Trump still managed to stun those watching this week by calling President Volodymyr Zelesnky a "dictator" and blaming Ukraine for Russia's full-scale invasion. Trump's comments were the latest example of increasingly hostile rhetoric towards Ukraine that has,
U.S. President Donald Trump on Feb. 19 launched an astonishing attack on President Volodymyr Zelensky, calling him a "dictator" with a "very low" approval rating that refuses to hold elections in Ukraine. The comments came a day after similar remarks made at the White House, in which Trump falsely
Russia on Feb. 18 ended years of political isolation sparked by its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, as a delegation of Kremlin officials met with their U.S. counterparts in Saudi Arabia to discuss how to end the very war it started. The talks ended with little in the way of
After years of political isolation sparked by the full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. and Russian officials will meet in Saudi Arabia this week to discuss how to bring an end to the war. Neither Ukraine nor Europe has been invited to the main discussion, setting off alarm bells in
The Kyiv Independent’s Chris York speaks with Kurt Volker, the former U.S. special representative for Ukraine negotiations, about the upcoming U.S.-Russia talks in Saudi Arabia and why he thinks Ukraine should not be overly concerned about U.S. President Donald Trump's first steps toward peace negotiations
U.S. Vice President JD Vance stunned those watching on Feb. 14 when his speech at the Munich Security Conference turned into a searing attack on Europe's ideals and a call to embrace far-right political parties. At an event focused almost entirely on how to end Russia's full-scale invasion of
After promising to quickly resolve the war in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump and his top officials’ actions on Feb. 12 appeared to undermine Ukraine’s leverage in peace talks, renewing fears that his plans for a quick resolution could amount to a victory for Russia. Trump announced he
In a post on Truth Social, Trump said both agreed that "we want to stop the millions of deaths taking place in the War with Russia/Ukraine."
As Ukraine nears the fourth year of full-scale war with Russia, it is launching a major army reform aimed at improving its efficiency and organization on the battlefield. "We need the corps system," President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Feb. 3, adding: "Today we discussed approaches to the appointment of corps
Editor’s Note: The Kyiv Independent isn’t a recipient of U.S. foreign aid, and its funding wasn’t affected by the aid freeze. With the stroke of a pen, U.S. President Donald Trump last week put a freeze on projects that have helped Ukraine become freer and
Editor's note: This story has been updated with comment from a serviceman from Ukraine's 24th Mechanized Brigade communications unit. Reports that the embattled Ukrainian city of Chasiv Yar has fallen to Russian forces have been dismissed by experts and officials speaking to the Kyiv Independent, and the latest OSINT data
According to a military intelligence source, the Lukoil oil depot in the city of Kstovo was targeted by four drones, all of which struck their target and caused "significant damage."
For those with a vested interest in Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump's first week in office was a bit of a rollercoaster. His inauguration speech on Jan. 21 made no explicit mention of Ukraine or Russia's full-scale invasion, prompting some to question if either was anywhere near a priority
