Trump promises Kyiv involvement in peace talks with Russia

President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
President Donald Trump speaks before Robert F. Kennedy Jr., is sworn in as Health and Human Services Secretary in the Oval Office at the White House, Thursday, Feb. 13, 2025, in Washington. (Photo/Alex Brandon)
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Updated 13 February 2025
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Trump promises Kyiv involvement in peace talks with Russia

Trump promises Kyiv involvement in peace talks with Russia
  • Kremlin says talks would include bilateral track with US
  • Hegseth says Trump is ‘best negotiator on the planet’
  • Zelensky: we will not accept agreements made without us

KYIV/BRUSSELS: US President Donald Trump said on Thursday that Ukraine would be involved in peace talks with Russia, after Kyiv and its European allies warned against a “dirty deal” between Washington and Moscow following Trump’s call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Speaking to reporters at the White House, Trump said Ukraine would have a seat at the table during any peace negotiations with Russia over ending the war.

“They’re part of it. We would have Ukraine, and we have Russia, and we’ll have other people involved, a lot of people,” Trump said.

Asked whether he trusts Putin, he said: “I believe that he would like to see something happen. I trust him on this subject.”

The US president also said Russia should be readmitted to the Group of Seven nations.

Russia’s financial markets soared and the price of Ukraine’s debt rose at the prospect of the first talks in years to end Europe’s deadliest war since World War Two.

Trump’s unilateral overture to Putin on Wednesday, accompanied by apparent concessions on Ukraine’s principal demands, raised alarm for both Kyiv and the European allies in NATO who said they feared the White House might make a deal without them.

“We, as a sovereign country, simply will not be able to accept any agreements without us,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said. He said Putin aimed to make his negotiations bilateral with the United States, and it was important that this not be allowed.

The Kremlin said plans were under way for Putin and Trump to meet, possibly in Saudi Arabia. Ukraine would “of course” participate in peace talks in some way, but there would also be a bilateral negotiation track between the United States and Russia, said Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov.

The United Arab Emirates has told the United States it wants to host talks aimed at ending the war in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

European officials took an exceptionally firm line in public toward Trump’s peace overture, saying any agreement would be impossible to implement unless they and the Ukrainians were included in negotiating it.

“Any quick fix is a dirty deal,” European foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. She also denounced the apparent concessions offered in advance.

“Why are we giving them (Russia) everything that they want even before the negotiations have been started?” said Kallas. “It’s appeasement. It has never worked.”

A European diplomatic source said ministers had agreed to engage in a “frank and demanding dialogue” with US officials — some of the strongest language in the diplomatic lexicon — at the annual Munich Security Conference beginning on Friday.

‘BEST NEGOTIATOR ON THE PLANET’

On Wednesday, Trump made the first publicly acknowledged White House call with Putin since Russia’s February 2022 full-scale invasion, and then followed it up with a call to Zelensky. Trump said he believed both men wanted peace.

But the Trump administration also said openly for the first time that it was unrealistic for Ukraine to expect to return to its 2014 borders or join the NATO alliance as part of any agreement, and that no US troops would join any security force in Ukraine that might be set up to guarantee a ceasefire.

US Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth, who unveiled the new policy in remarks at NATO headquarters, said on Thursday the world was fortunate to have Trump, the “best negotiator on the planet, bringing two sides together to find a negotiated peace.”

Kremlin spokesman Peskov said Moscow was “impressed” by Trump’s willingness to seek a settlement.

Russia seized Ukraine’s Crimea peninsula and its proxies captured territory in the east in 2014, before its full-scale invasion in 2022 when it captured more land in the east and south.

Ukraine pushed Russian invaders back from the outskirts of Kyiv and recaptured swathes of territory in 2022, but its outmanned and outgunned forces have slowly ceded more land since a failed Ukrainian counter-offensive in 2023.

Relentless fighting has killed or injured hundreds of thousands of troops on both sides — there is no reliable death toll — and pulverised Ukrainian cities.

Meanwhile, there has been no narrowing of positions on either side. Moscow demands Kyiv cede more land and be rendered permanently neutral in any peace deal; Kyiv says Russian troops must withdraw and it must win security guarantees comparable to NATO membership to prevent future attacks.

Ukrainian officials have acknowledged in the past that full NATO membership may be out of reach in the short term, and that a hypothetical peace deal could leave some occupied land in Russian hands.

But Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Kyiv remained committed to joining NATO, which he said was the simplest and least expensive way the West could provide the security guarantees needed to ensure peace.

“All our allies have said the path of Ukraine toward NATO is irreversible,” said Sybiha.

NATO’s Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a former Dutch Prime Minister adept at smoothing over differences between Europe and Washington, said it was important Moscow understand the West remained united, noting that Ukraine had never been promised a peace deal would include alliance membership.

Some Ukrainians saw Trump’s moves as a betrayal. Myroslava Lesko, 23, standing near a sea of flags in downtown Kyiv honoring fallen troops, said: “It truly looks as if they want to surrender Ukraine, because I don’t see any benefits for our country from these negotiations or Trump’s rhetoric.”

However, Ukrainians have been worn out by three years of war, and many say they are prepared to sacrifice some aims to achieve peace.

Many were frustrated by US policy under Trump’s predecessor Joe Biden, who vowed to help Ukraine win all its land back and provided tens of billions of dollars worth of military hardware, but only after delays that Ukrainian commanders say let Russian forces regroup.

Trump, at least, was being forthright about the limits of US support, said Tymofiy Mylovanov, president of the Kyiv School of Economics.

“The difference between Biden and Trump is that Trump says out loud what Biden was thinking and doing about Ukraine,” he said on social media.


US designates group that claimed Kashmir attack as terrorists

US designates group that claimed Kashmir attack as terrorists
Updated 19 sec ago
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US designates group that claimed Kashmir attack as terrorists

US designates group that claimed Kashmir attack as terrorists
  • Gunmen in April shot dead 26 people, almost all Hindus, in Pahalgam, a tourist hub in the Indian-administered side of divided Kashmir

WASHINGTON: The United States on Thursday designated as terrorists a shadowy group that claimed an April attack in Kashmir, which triggered Indian strikes on Pakistani territory.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio described The Resistance Front as a “front and proxy” of Lashkar-e-Taiba, a UN-designated terrorist group based in Pakistan.

The terrorist designation “demonstrates the Trump administration’s commitment to protecting our national security interests, countering terrorism, and enforcing President (Donald) Trump’s call for justice for the Pahalgam attack,” Rubio said in a statement.

Gunmen in April shot dead 26 people, almost all Hindus, in Pahalgam, a tourist hub in the Indian-administered side of divided Kashmir.

Little had been previously known about The Resistance Front, which claimed responsibility for the attack.

India designates TRF as a terrorist organization and the India-based Observer Research Foundation calls it “a smokescreen and an offshoot of LeT.”

Pakistan has denied responsibility for the attack.


US House passes landmark crypto bills in win for Trump

US House passes landmark crypto bills in win for Trump
Updated 22 min 14 sec ago
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US House passes landmark crypto bills in win for Trump

US House passes landmark crypto bills in win for Trump
  • It will now head to the Senate, where Republicans hold a thin majority

WASHINGTON: The US House passed landmark cryptocurrency bills on Thursday, delivering on the Trump administration’s embrace of the once-controversial industry.

US lawmakers easily passed the CLARITY Act, which establishes a clearer regulatory framework for cryptocurrencies and other digital assets.

The bill is intended to clarify rules governing the industry and divides regulatory authority between the Securities and Exchange Commission  and the Commodity Futures Trading Commission .

It will now head to the Senate, where Republicans hold a thin majority.

House legislators also easily passed the GENIUS Act, which codifies the use of stablecoins — cryptocurrencies pegged to safe assets like the dollar. That bill was due to immediately go to Trump for his signature to become law.

The GENIUS Act was passed by the Senate last month and sets rules such as requiring issuers to have reserves of assets equal in value to that of their outstanding cryptocurrency.

The raft of legislation comes after years of suspicion against the crypto industry amid the belief that the sector, born out of the success of bitcoin, should be kept on a tight leash and away from mainstream investors.

But after crypto investors poured millions of dollars into his presidential campaign last year, Trump reversed his own doubts about the industry, even launching a Trump meme coin and other ventures as he prepared for his return to the White House.

Trump has, among other moves, appointed crypto advocate Paul Atkins to head the Securities and Exchange Commission .

He has also established a federal “Strategic Bitcoin Reserve” aimed at auditing the government’s bitcoin holdings, which were mainly accumulated by law enforcement from judicial seizures.

The Republican-led House is also considering a bill it calls the Anti-CBDC Surveillance State Act that aims to block the issuance of a central bank digital currency  — a digital dollar issued by the US Federal Reserve.

Republicans argue that a CBDC could enable the federal government to monitor, track, and potentially control the financial transactions of private citizens, undermining privacy and civil liberties.

It would require a not-easily-won passage in the Senate before going to Trump for his signature.

An aborted effort to set the anti-CBDC bill aside caused a furor among a small group of Republicans and delayed the passage of the two other bills before a solution was found.


‘A trap’ — Asylum seekers arrested after attending US courts

‘A trap’ — Asylum seekers arrested after attending US courts
Updated 25 min 56 sec ago
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‘A trap’ — Asylum seekers arrested after attending US courts

‘A trap’ — Asylum seekers arrested after attending US courts

NEW YORK: In gloomy corridors outside a Manhattan courtroom, masked agents target and arrest migrants attending mandatory hearings — part of US President Donald Trump’s escalating immigration crackdown.

Trump, who campaigned on a pledge to deport many migrants, has encouraged authorities to be more aggressive as he seeks to hit his widely-reported target of one million deportations annually.

Since Trump’s return to the White House, Homeland Security agents have adopted the tactic of waiting outside immigration courts nationwide and arresting migrants as they leave at the end of asylum hearings.

Missing an immigration court hearing is a crime in some cases and can itself make migrants liable to be deported, leaving many with little choice but to attend and face arrest.

Armed agents with shields from different federal agencies loitered outside the court hearings in a tower block in central New York, holding paperwork with photographs of migrants to be targeted, an AFP correspondent saw this week.

The agents arrested almost a dozen migrants from different countries in just a few hours on the 12th floor of the Jacob K. Javits Federal Building.

Brad Lander, a city official who was briefly detained last month by ICE  agents as he attempted to accompany a migrant targeted for removal, called the hearings “a trap.”

“It has the trappings of a judicial hearing, but it’s just a trap to have made them come in the first place,” he said Wednesday outside the building.

Lander recounted several asylum seekers being arrested by immigration officers including Carlos, a Paraguayan man who Lander said had an application pending for asylum under the Convention Against Torture — as well as a future court date.

“The judge carefully instructed him on how to prepare to bring his case to provide additional information about his interactions with the Paraguayan police and make his case under the global convention against torture for why he is entitled to asylum,” Lander said.

After his hearing, agents “without any identifying information or badges or warrants grabbed Carlos, and then quickly moved him toward the back stairwell,” he said.

Lander, a Democrat, claimed the agents were threatening and that they pushed to the ground Carlos’s sister who had accompanied him to the hearing.

The White House said recently that “the brave men and women of ICE are under siege by deranged Democrats — but undeterred in their mission.”

“Every day, these heroes put their own lives on the line to get the worst of the worst... off our streets and out of our neighborhoods.”

Back at the building in lower Manhattan, Lander said that “anyone who comes down here to observe could see... the rule of law is being eroded.”


US prosecutor in Epstein, Maxwell cases abruptly fired

US prosecutor in Epstein, Maxwell cases abruptly fired
Updated 39 min 14 sec ago
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US prosecutor in Epstein, Maxwell cases abruptly fired

US prosecutor in Epstein, Maxwell cases abruptly fired

WASHINGTON: A US federal prosecutor who handled the case of notorious sex offender Jeffrey Epstein and is the daughter of a prominent critic of President Donald Trump has been abruptly fired, US media reported.

Maurene Comey, the daughter of former FBI director James Comey, was dismissed on Wednesday from her position as an assistant US attorney in Manhattan, several major US outlets reported.

The Justice Department declined to confirm Comey’s firing to AFP, saying it would have “no comment on personnel.”

Politico published a message Comey, who spent 10 years in the US attorney’s office, sent to her former colleagues in which she said she had been “summarily fired” by the Justice Department with no reason given.

She also encouraged them not to fall prey to “fear.”

“If a career prosecutor can be fired without reason, fear may seep into the decisions of those who remain,” Comey said. “Do not let that happen. Fear is the tool of a tyrant.”

Comey’s dismissal comes a week after the Justice Department confirmed it had opened an unspecified criminal investigation into her father, a long-time Trump adversary.

It also comes amid mounting pressure on Trump to release material from the probe into Epstein, who committed suicide in a New York prison in 2019 after being charged with sex trafficking.

Comey was among the prosecutors who handled the case involving the wealthy financier, which never went to trial because of his death.

She also prosecuted Ghislaine Maxwell, the only former Epstein associate who has been criminally charged in connection with his activities.

Trump is facing the most serious split in his loyal right-wing base since he returned to power over claims his administration is covering up lurid details of Epstein’s crimes to protect rich and powerful figures.

The Trump-supporting far-right has long latched on to the scandal, claiming the existence of a still-secret list of Epstein’s powerful clients and that the late financier was in fact murdered in his cell as part of a cover-up.

The Justice Department and FBI said this month that there was no evidence that Epstein kept a “client list” or was blackmailing powerful figures.

Comey’s father, the former FBI chief, has had a contentious history with Trump dating back to his first term in the White House.

Trump fired Comey in 2017 as the then-FBI chief was leading an investigation into whether any members of the Trump campaign had colluded with Moscow to sway the 2016 presidential vote, in which the Republican beat Democratic candidate Hillary Clinton.

Since taking office in January, Trump has taken a number of punitive measures against his perceived enemies, stripping former officials of their security clearances and protective details, targeting law firms involved in past cases against him and pulling federal funding from universities.


Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts

Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts
Updated 46 min 31 sec ago
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Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts

Slashed US aid showing impact, as Congress codifies cuts

WASHINGTON: The United States’ destruction of a warehouse worth of emergency food that had spoiled has drawn outrage, but lawmakers and aid workers say it is only one effect of President Donald Trump’s abrupt slashing of foreign assistance.

The Senate early Thursday approved nearly $9 billion in cuts to foreign aid as well as public broadcasting, formalizing a radical overhaul of spending that Trump first imposed with strokes of his pen on taking office nearly six months ago.

US officials confirmed that nearly 500 tons of high-nutrition biscuits, meant to keep alive malnourished children in Afghanistan and Pakistan, were incinerated after they passed their expiration date in a warehouse in Dubai.

Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party said they had warned about the food in March. Senator Tim Kaine said that the inaction in feeding children “really exposes the soul” of the Trump administration.

Michael Rigas, the deputy secretary of state for management, acknowledged to Kaine that blame lay with the shuttering of the US Agency for International Development , which was merged into the State Department after drastic cuts.

“I think that this was just a casualty of the shutdown of USAID,” Rigas said.

The Atlantic magazine, which first reported the episode, said that the United States bought the biscuits near the end of Biden administration for around $800,000 and that the Trump administration’s burning of the food was costing taxpayers another $130,000.

For aid workers, the biscuit debacle was just one example of how drastic and sudden cuts have aggravated the impact of the aid shutdown.

Kate Phillips-Barrasso, vice president for global policy and advocacy at Mercy Corps, said that large infrastructure projects were shut down immediately, without regard to how to finish them.

“This really was yanking the rug out, or turning the the spigot off, overnight,” she said.

She pointed to the termination of a USAID-backed Mercy Corps project to improve water and sanitation in the turbulent east of the Democratic Republic of Congo. Work began in 2020 and was scheduled to end in September 2027.

“Infrastructure projects are not things where 75 percent is ok. It’s either done or it’s not,” she said.

The Republican-led Senate narrowly approved the package, which needs a final green light from the House of Representatives, that, in the words of White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt, will rescind funding for “$9 billion worth of crap.”

The bill includes ending all $437 million the United States would have given to several UN bodies including the children’s agency UNICEF and the UN Development Programme. It also pulls $2.5 billion from development assistance.

Under pressure from moderate Republicans, the package backs off from ending PEPFAR, the anti-HIV/AIDS initiative credited with saving 25 million lives since it was launched by former president George W. Bush more than two decades ago.

Republicans and the Trump-launched Department of Government Efficiency, initially led by tycoon Elon Musk, have highlighted spending by USAID on issues that are controversial in the United States, saying it does not serve US interests.

House Speaker Mike Johnson said that the Republicans were getting rid of “egregious abuses.”

“We can’t fund transgender operas in Peru with US taxpayer dollars,” Johnson told reporters, an apparent reference to a US grant under the Biden administration for the staging of an opera in Colombia that featured a transgender protagonist.

The aid cuts come a week after the State Department laid off more than 1,300 employees after Secretary of State Marco Rubio ended or merged several offices, including those on climate change, refugees and human rights.

Rubio called it a “very deliberate step to reorganize the State Department to be more efficient and more focused.”

Senate Democrats issued a scathing report that accused the Trump administration of ceding global leadership to China, which has been increasing spending on diplomacy and disseminating its worldview.

The rescissions vote “will be met with cheers in Beijing, which is already celebrating America’s retreat from the world under President Trump,” said Jeanne Shaheen, the top Democrat on the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.