One could attribute Russian attempts at hacking and influencing the 2016 general election to retaliation for the CIA's involvement in Ukraine, or to a personal vendetta against former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton with regard to Ukraine ahead of the Maidan revolt, or to rousing anti-Putin sentiment in Russia: ... Five years ago, he blamed Secretary of State Hillary Clinton for the anti-Kremlin protests in Moscow's Bolotnaya Square. "She set the tone for some of our actors in the country and gave the signal," Putin said. "They heard this and, with the support of the U.S. State Department, began active work." (No evidence was provided for the accusation.) ...
Ukraine's top negotiator Rustem Umerov has given positive signals from the first day of trilateral talks involving his country, Russia and the United States in Abu Dhabi. "The work was substantive and productive, focusing on concrete steps and practical solutions," Umerov said on the Telegram messaging app. US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said that a breakthrough may not come for a while but the Trump administration has made great progress on negotiations over the past year.
Brussels had some strong sentiments today about what a future peace deal between Russia and Ukraine should look like. EU foreign affairs chief Kaja Kallas said she plans to send around a list of ideas to the bloc's 27 member states in the coming days, outlining what demands they believe should be put to Moscow. She stressed that the burden should be on Russia to make concessions.
Jakub Krupa Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the negotiations with the US over a security guarantees agreement were 100% done and the deal was just waiting to be signed, as Russia has praised the trilateral talks with Ukraine and the US over the weekend as held in constructive spirit. It would be a mistake to expect any significant results from the initial contacts But the very fact that these contacts have begun in a constructive spirit can be viewed positively.
Today in Florida, the Russian Special Envoy Kirill Dmitriev held productive and constructive meetings as part of the US mediation effort toward advancing a peaceful resolution of the Ukrainian conflict, Witkoff posted on X. We are encouraged by this meeting that Russia is working toward securing peace in Ukraine. He said the US treasury secretary, Scott Bessent, Donald Trump's son-in-law Jared Kushner and White House senior adviser Josh Gruenbaum also attended the talks.
A US security agreement for Ukraine is 100% ready to be signed, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelenskyy has said after two days of talks involving representatives from Ukraine, the US and Russia indicating some progress was made. Further discussions are expected next weekend. Speaking to journalists in Vilnius during a visit to Lithuania on Sunday, Zelenskyy said Ukraine is waiting for its partners to set a time and place for the signing of the security guarantees document,
Speaking during a visit to Latvia on Monday, Wadephul called for "better cooperation between Baltic nations," including Germany, including better maritime surveillance and more effective deterrence. "We want to take action against ships whose flag status is unclear," he said. "We must use all the possibilities offered by maritime law to stop such ships." His Latvian counterpart, Baiba Braze, concurred, saying: "All loopholes that are being exploited by Russia to carry out these operations must be closed."
