US President Donald Trump told Russia on Monday to end its Ukraine war within 50 days or face massive new economic sanctions as he laid out plans for new infusions of weaponry for Kyiv via NATO.

Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov met Sunday in Beijing with his Chinese counterpart to discuss Ukraine and relations with the United States.

Russia on Friday said that it sees no immediate diplomatic way out of the war in Ukraine, hours after pummelling the war-torn country with its largest ever drone and missile barrage of the invasion.

Afghanistan's government said on Thursday that Russia had become the first country to officially recognise its rule, calling it a "brave decision".

The White House said Tuesday it is halting some key weapons shipments to Ukraine that were promised under the Biden administration for Kyiv's battle against the Russian invasion.

One week after a ceasefire ended Israel's 12-day war with Iran, the two men also discussed Tehran's nuclear programme, with Macron suggesting Moscow and Paris work together to de-escalate tensions.

Russian President Vladimir Putin said Friday that Russia and Ukraine's demands for peace were "absolutely contradictory", after two rounds of peace talks have failed to bring the sides closer to an elusive ceasefire.

Almaty, Kazakhstan - Russian nuclear energy giant Rosatom will lead the construction of the first atomic power plant in Kazakhstan, the world's top uranium producer, the Central Asian country's authorities said on Saturday. "Rosatom has been named as the leader of the international consortium for the construction of the first...

ICAN said Britain, China, France, India, Israel, North Korea, Pakistan, Russia and the United States together spent nearly $10 billion more than in 2023.

Brussels, Belgium - Ukraine's "creativity", including its massive "Spider's web" drone attack deep inside Russia, holds profound lessons for Western militaries, the top NATO commander overseeing battlefield innovation told AFP. "What the Ukrainians did in Russia was a Trojan horse -- and the trojan horse was thousands of years ago,"...

The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles and added that "the air attack was repelled by aviation, anti-aircraft missile troops, electronic warfare and unmanned systems units, and mobile fire groups of the Ukrainian Defense Forces".

Russian and Ukrainian officials will meet Monday in Istanbul to exchange their plans for how to end the three-year war, Europe's largest conflict since World War II, after Kyiv says it struck dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases deep in Russia.

NATO member Turkey, which has strove to maintain relations with both Kyiv and Moscow, has become a key mediator amid US President Donald Trump's push for a deal to end the over three-year war.

The 22-nation group began a series of cuts in 2022 to prop up crude prices, but Saudi Arabia, Russia and six other members surprised markets recently by sharply raising output for May and June.

The Organization of the Petroleum Exporting Countries and their allies - collectively known as OPEC+ - have justified their change in strategy by citing "current healthy market fundamentals, as reflected in the low oil inventories".

The Kremlin said Saturday a meeting between Russia's Vladimir Putin and Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky would be possible only after both sides reach an agreement, a day after the first direct talks between the two countries in more than three years.

War rivals Ukraine and Russia are set to go into their first direct talks in more than three years on Thursday, with Russian President Vladimir Putin not included on the list of attendees.

Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan on Monday urged parties to take advantage of recent contacts to strike a deal toward peace in Ukraine, after speaking with the country's leader.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Sunday proposed holding direct talks with Ukraine in Istanbul on May 15, hours after Kyiv and European leaders called for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire to start Monday.

NATO member Turkey has sought to maintain good relations with both of its Black Sea neighbors since the Russian invasion and has twice hosted talks aimed at ending the war.

Syrian Foreign Minister Asaad al-Shaibani expressed on Monday his government's willingness to build a "strategic partnership" with China, a key backer of ousted ruler Bashar al-Assad

Before Putin's announcement, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio held new talks with Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov, having declared that this will be a crucial week in a US decision on whether to halt its peace efforts.

The meeting comes at a critical moment for the world economy after the International Monetary Fund this week slashed growth forecasts over the impact of the American leader's sweeping new tariffs. Foreign ministers from the 10-member trading bloc -- which includes current-chair Brazil, Russia, India, China and South Africa --...

US President Donald Trump said he believed Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky was ready to concede Crimea to Russia as part of any ceasefire deal, as talks on a truce entered what Washington called a critical week on Monday.

The Russian army has fully liberated the border Kursk region from Ukrainian control with the help of North Korean soldiers, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov said on Saturday, admitting their participation in the conflict for the first time.

US President Donald Trump on Saturday criticized Russian President Vladimir Putin for attacks on civilian areas of Ukraine in recent days, and said "maybe he doesn't want to stop the war."

Witkoff, a businessman friend of Trump who has become his globe-trotting negotiator, last met Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on Saturday in Rome, where they reported progress and called for talks among technical teams.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Saturday announced a surprise Easter truce in Ukraine, set to last until midnight on Sunday in what would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.

The United Nations nuclear watchdog chief Rafael Grossi warned on Wednesday that Iran was "not far" from possessing a nuclear bomb, shortly before he arrived in Tehran for talks.

Iran's foreign minister is to visit ally Russia this week to discuss nuclear negotiations with the United States, ahead of a new round of talks planned between the foes.

US President Donald Trump on Sunday said a Russian strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy that killed at least 34 people was "a horrible thing."

Leeuwarden, Netherlands - Fighter jets from the United States, France, Finland and Germany roar into the skies from a Dutch base as part of NATO's biggest air exercise this year. The aim: to practice stopping -- and then defeating -- an enemy attack against the alliance as Russia's war in Ukraine...

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday lamented the lack of a US response to Russia's refusal to sign "a full, unconditional ceasefire" as two people were killed in Moscow's latest aerial bombardment.

The meeting is seeking to set out what security guarantees Europe can offer Ukraine once a ceasefire deal is agreed, including the possible deployment of military forces by a so-called "coalition of the willing".

With President Donald Trump pushing for a rapid end to the war that has killed tens of thousands of people, US negotiators shuttled separately over three days in the Saudi capital Riyadh between delegations from Ukraine and Russia.

The US-Ukraine and US-Russia talks were originally planned to take place simultaneously to enable shuttle diplomacy, with the United States going back and forth between the delegations, but they are now taking place one after the other.

US President Donald Trump is pushing for a rapid end to the three-year war and hopes talks in Riyadh could pave the way for a breakthrough, with both sides have proposed different plans for temporary ceasefires.

Moscow has rejected a joint US-Ukraine proposal of a full and unconditional 30-day ceasefire, instead suggesting just to halt aerial strikes on energy facilities. Despite that offer, both sides have continued to launch aerial attacks in the run-up to the negotiations.

French President Emmanuel Macron on Thursday said the leaders of a coalition of Ukraine backers would meet again in Paris next week, as it seeks to finalise plans to secure a potential truce in the war with Russia

Russia has mounted a rapid counteroffensive in the western border region of Kursk over the past week, recapturing much of the territory Ukraine seized in a shock incursion last August.

The positive response from Ukraine prompted President Donald Trump's administration to lift a freeze on military aid and to predict the beginning to an end to three years of war.

The talks on Tuesday will be the first Ukraine-US meeting since a White House blow-up between Zelensky and US President Donald Trump that led to Washington halting military aid to Kyiv. "We do have a proposal for a ceasefire in the sky and ceasefire at sea," the official told AFP.

President Donald Trump suspended military aid to Ukraine on Monday, a US official told AFP, sharply escalating pressure on Kyiv to agree to peace negotiations with Russia. The move comes just days after a stunning public clash at the White House between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Trump, who is...

Washington, United States  - President Donald Trump closed out a packed week at the White House after hosting a string of eager-to-please guests, and generating the usual eye-popping menu of news items. 'Did I say that?' Last week, Trump branded elected Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" -- but things...

During a tense meeting at the White House, Trump and Zelensky argued over the war with Russia, with Trump accusing Zelensky of disrespecting the US and demanding preferential access to Ukraine’s resources.

Washington noted European nations would have to have a seat at the negotiating table "at some point", following the first high-level official Washington-Moscow talks since the 2022 invasion of Ukraine.

Rio de Janeiro, Brazil - Leaders of the countries known as BRICS will hold a summit in Rio de Janeiro in July, the current chair Brazil announced Saturday.Other members of the trading bloc include Russia, India, China and South Africa and others.Brazilian Foreign Minister Mauro Vieira said on the social media...

Bashar al-Assad's whereabouts not clear, but his key backer Russia said he had resigned from the presidency and left Syria. Crowds loot his home and vandalize the Iranian embassy.

A meeting was expected on the forum's sidelines between Turkey, and Damascus allies Iran and Russia.

The 22-member OPEC+ group led by Saudi Arabia and Russia was due to decide on its 2025 output policy at a ministerial meeting originally scheduled for Sunday.