France summons US Ambassador Kushner over 'unacceptable' letter about rising antisemitism

Kushner, a real-estate developer, is the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner. 

(AND IS A TRUMP PARDONED EX FELON)

MICHELLE L. PRICE
Sun 24 August 2025

AP

 Charles Kushner arrives for the funeral of Ivana Trump,

 July 20, 2022, in New York. (AP Photo/John Minchillo, File)

WASHINGTON (AP) — France has summoned the American ambassador to Paris after the diplomat, Charles Kushner, wrote a letter to French President Emmanuel Macron alleging the country did not do enough to combat antisemitism.

France's foreign ministry issued a statement Sunday announcing it had summoned Kushner to appear Monday at the French Ministry for Europe and Foreign Affairs and that his allegations “are unacceptable.”

The White House and U.S. State Department did not immediately respond to messages seeking comment. The summoning of the ambassador is a formal and public notice of displeasure.

Kushner, a real-estate developer, is the father of President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner.

The French foreign ministry, in its statement, said “France firmly rejects these allegations” from Kushner and that French authorities have “fully mobilized” to combat a rise in antisemitic acts since the Oct. 7, 2023 attack by Hamas on Israel, deeming the acts “intolerable.”

The contents of the letter were not released.

Kushner’s allegations violate international law and the obligation not to interfere with the internal affairs of another country, the French ministry said, and, “They also fall short of the quality of the transatlantic partnership between France and the United States and of the trust that must prevail between allies.”

The dustup follows Macron's rejection this past week of accusations from Israel Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu that France's intention to recognize a Palestinian state is fueling antisemitism.

France is home to the largest Jewish population in Western Europe, with an estimated 500,000 Jews. That’s approximately 1% of the national population.

The diplomatic discord comes as French-U.S. relations have faced tensions this year amid Trump's trade war and a split over the future of U.N. peacekeepers in Lebanon. France in particular has objected to the U.S. push to wind down the peacekeeping operation known as UNIFIL, with a vote on the issue set for the end of the month by the U.N. Security Council.

France and the U.S. have also been divided on support for Ukraine in its war with Russia, but the split has eased with Donald Trump expressing support for security guarantees and a warm meeting with Macron and other European leaders at the White House last week.

Trump at the end of his first term as president pardoned Charles Kushner, who pleaded guilty years earlier to tax evasion and making illegal campaign donations.

His son Jared is a former White House senior adviser to Trump who is married to Trump’s eldest daughter, Ivanka

US envoy criticises France's lack of action over antisemitism

AFP
Sun 24 August 2025 

'In today's world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism -- plain and simple,' 

wrote Kushner (Ludovic MARIN)Ludovic MARIN/AFP/AFP

The US ambassador to Paris has upped the pressure on President Emmanuel Macron over antisemitism in France with a letter calling the government's action on anti-Jewish hatred insufficient, days after similar criticism from Israel.

US envoy Charles Kushner's letter to Macron was dated August 25, which he noted was "the 81st anniversary of the Allied Liberation of Paris, which ended the deportation of Jews from French soil" under Nazi German occupation.

In the letter, a copy of which has been obtained by AFP, he wrote: "I write out of deep concern over the dramatic rise of antisemitism in France and the lack of sufficient action by your government to confront it...

"In France, not a day passes without Jews assaulted in the street, synagogues or schools defaced, or Jewish-owned businesses vandalized," he added.

While "antisemitism has long scarred French life", the ambassador argued that hatred of Jews "has exploded since Hamas's barbaric assault on October 7, 2023," which triggered the ongoing war in Gaza.

His remarks tally with those made by Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu, who on Tuesday accused Macron of fomenting antisemitism, saying it had "surged" in France following the French president's announcement last month that he will recognise Palestinian statehood.

Macron's Elysee office was quick to hit back at Netanyahu, calling the Israeli leader's allegation "abject" and "erroneous".

- 'Anti-Zionism is antisemitism' -

But like Netanyahu, Kushner denounced Macron's criticisms of Israel over the war in Gaza and his planned recognition of a State of Palestine. Such moves, he said, "embolden extremists, fuel violence, and endanger Jewish life in France".

"In today's world, anti-Zionism is antisemitism -- plain and simple," the ambassador added.

"Surveys show most French citizens believe another Holocaust could happen in Europe. Nearly half of French youth report never having heard of the Holocaust at all.

"What are children being taught in French schools if such ignorance persists?," the letter read.

France is home to Western Europe's largest Jewish population at around half a million people, as well as a significant Muslim community sensitive to the plight of the Palestinian people in Gaza.

Both communities have reported a spike in hate crimes since Israel's retaliatory offensive against the Palestinian militant group Hamas in the besieged coastal strip.

Macron's announcement that France would formally recognise a Palestinian state during a UN meeting in September drew a swift rebuke from Israel at the time.

With the move, France is set to join a list of nations that has grown since the start of the Gaza war nearly two years ago.

France is among at least 145 of the 193 UN members that now recognise or plan to recognise a Palestinian state, according to an AFP tally.

NAKBA 2.0

Israeli bulldozers uproot hundreds of trees in West Bank village

AFP
Sun 24 August 2025 


Most of the felled vegetation appeared to be olive trees

Zain JAAFAR/AFP

Israeli bulldozers uprooted hundreds of trees in the West Bank village of al-Mughayyir on Sunday in the presence of the Israeli military, according to AFP journalists who witnessed the scene.

Most of the felled vegetation appeared to be olive trees, essential to the economy and culture of the West Bank, while olive groves have also long been a flashpoint for violent clashes between farmers and encroaching Israeli settlers.

Abdelatif Mohammed Abu Aliya, a local farmer from the village near Ramallah, said he lost olive trees that were over 70 years old on about one hectare of land.

"They completely uprooted and levelled them under false pretences," he said, explaining he and other residents had already begun replanting the pulled-up trees.

AFP photographers on the ground saw overturned soil, olive trees lying on the ground, and several bulldozers operating on the hills surrounding the village.

One bulldozer had an Israeli flag, and Israeli military vehicles were parked nearby.

"The goal is control and forcing people to leave. This is just the beginning -- it will expand across the entire West Bank," said Ghassan Abu Aliya, who leads a local agricultural association.

Residents said the bulldozing began on Thursday. A Palestinian NGO reported 14 people had been arrested in the village over the past three days.

When asked about the incident, the Israeli army told AFP late on Sunday it had "launched intensive operational activity in the area" following a "serious shooting attack near the village".

- 'Heavy price' -

In a statement issued Friday, the army said it had arrested a man from al-Mughayyir, accusing him of being "responsible for a terrorist attack" nearby.

On August 16, the Palestinian Authority reported that an 18-year-old man had been shot and killed by the Israeli army in the same village.

The army said its forces responded to stones thrown by "terrorists" but did not directly link the incident to the young man's death.

In a video widely circulated in Israeli media on Friday, a senior military commander refers to the attack in al-Mughayyir and vows to make "every village and every enemy... pay a heavy price" for attacks against Israelis.

Avi Bluth, the military's top commander in the West Bank, says in the video that the villages of Palestinian attackers could face curfews, sieges and terrain "shaping actions" with the aim of deterrence.

Violence in the West Bank has escalated since the war in Gaza began following the October 7, 2023 Hamas attack on Israel.

Since then, at least 971 Palestinians -- including both militants and civilians -- have been killed by Israeli soldiers or settlers in the West Bank, according to AFP figures based on Palestinian Authority data.

In the same period, at least 36 Israelis, both civilians and soldiers, have been killed in attacks or military operations in the West Bank, according to official Israeli sources.

The West Bank, occupied by Israel since 1967, is home to about three million Palestinians and 500,000 Israelis living in settlements that are considered illegal under international law.

Ukraine war shakes up geopolitics in other ex-Soviet states

The US mediated talks between Armenia and Azerbaijan in August

Lisa Louis (in Riga)

DW
Sat 23 August 2025 

Azerbaijan Presidency/Anadolu/picture alliance

The handshake between Azerbaijani President Ilham Aliyev and Armenian Prime Minister Nikol Pashinyan earlier this month sealed their intention to end decades of conflict with a peace treaty. For years, their two countries had fought bitterly for control of Nagorno-Karabakh, a historically Armenian-populated region within Azerbaijan.

The war ended in 2023, with Azerbaijan's victory and the mass exodus of almost all of the more than 100,000-strong Armenian population.

Another pair of hands joined the bilateral handshake: those of US President Donald Trump, who has been acting as a mediator. He promised that US companies would guarantee the infrastructure and security of a corridor to connect the main part of Azerbaijan with another part of its territory — the autonomous exclave of Nakhichevan — by crossing Armenian territory, for 99 years.
Is Russia's influence in the former Soviet Union waning?

The US involvement in the peace deal is possibly the most visible sign yet of Russia's waning influence in parts of the former Soviet Union.

Officially, Russia welcomed the news. "We have consistently supported all the efforts to help achieve this goal that is key to regional security. In this context the US-brokered meeting in Washington of the leaders of the South Caucasus republics deserves a positive assessment," said Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova. "We hope this step will help advance the peace agenda."

This handshake was supposed to seal a peace deal after decades of hostilities

Mark Schiefelbein/AP Photo/dpa/picture alliance

But other, less official, figures have voiced opinions that might be more realistic reflections of what Moscow really thinks. "This is a terrible humiliation for Russia," wrote far-right political philosopher Aleksandr Dugin on the Telegram messaging app. "It is a complete defeat, a total disaster for our policy in the South Caucasus."

For Fariz Ismailzade, an independent Azerbaijani lawmaker, it makes sense to close ranks with the US. "The primary objective of Azerbaijan is to be independent," he told DW. "That doesn't mean we want to be cut loose from Russia and be somehow a puppet of the West. Azerbaijan is trying to build new alliances, leveraging the power in the region, for example with countries of Central Asia and Turkey."

Azerbaijan has had a cooperation agreement with Turkey since 2010. This year, the two countries signed a memorandum to boost mutual military security.
Tense relations since December plane crash

Relations between Russia and Azerbaijan, on the other hand, have been tense since the crash of an Azerbaijani passenger plane that was hit by a Russian anti-aircraft missile as it headed for the Chechen capital Grozny on December 25, 2024. At least 38 people lost their lives.

After some delay, Russian President Vladimir Putin finally contacted President Aliyev, but only to apologize for the fact that the plane was downed in Russian airspace. "Russia has not shown us the necessary respect," Nariman Aliyev, an independent Azerbaijani political scientist, told DW.

Rusif Huseynov, the founder of the Topchubashov Center think tank in Azerbaijan's capital, Baku, said the incident had led to the collapse of an important pillar of the bilateral relationship. Until now, the leaders of the two countries "managed to communicate directly. The personal communication enabled both countries to overcome even the most serious institutional problems," he said.

"Azerbaijan has always been equidistant with Russia and the Western bloc. As we were financially independent due to our petrodollars, and last but not least due to our security umbrella with Turkey," he added.

But this year, there has been a series of diplomatic incidents between the two countries. Russian police have arrested people suspected of being Azerbaijani terrorists, while the Azerbaijani security forces have arrested suspected Russian drug traffickers. Recently, Russia reportedly attacked an oil depot belonging to the Azerbaijani state oil company SOCAR in Odesa, Ukraine.

Ukraine war offers 'window of opportunity'

Lawmaker Ismailzade said the Azerbaijani government had threatened to lift its embargo on arms supplies to Ukraine if Russia continued its attacks on Azerbaijani infrastructure in Ukrainian territory. "We have only supplied $30 million [€26 million] in humanitarian assistance and power generators," he said.

For Azerbaijan and other countries, he said the war in Ukraine had provided a "window of opportunity" as Russia was "busy." Thus, there was more scope to boost diplomatic relations with other countries, also "related to the fact that Azerbaijan achieved a victory in Karabakh." He added that this had "created a lot of diplomatic respect."

Russian troops were supposed to remain in Nagorno-Karakbakh until the end of 2025Str/AA/picture alliance

Huseynov of the Topchubashov Center said Azerbaijan had probably been able to persuade Russian troops to leave Nagorno-Karabakh because of the war in Ukraine. Many would not have thought that possible "because of the Western myth, which claims that Russians never leave. But the Azerbaijani side managed to kick them out and it was an important precedent for other countries," he said, adding that Russian troops were originally supposed to remain stationed in Nagorno-Karabakh until at least the end of 2025.

Dilnoza Ubaydullaeva, a lecturer at the National Security College at Australian National University in Canberra, told DW that since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, other former Soviet states had also changed their tone toward Moscow.

She gave the example of Tajik President Emomali Rahmon, who in October 2022 publicly complained about Putin's lack of "respect" for Tajikistan and other Central Asian countries that were once part of the Soviet Union. The video of the rant has garnered over 13 million clicks on YouTube.

"Russia was seen as a superpower" which would easily be able to take over Ukraine, said Ubaydullaeva. But this did not happen. "Obviously, the states around the region were able to observe that Russia was not as great as it was pictured in terms of its great power."

Ubaydullaeva added that international sanctions had isolated Russia and weakened the government's reputation. As a result of the sanctions, some states, including Kazakhstan and Kyrgyzstan, had become transit countries, exporting goods to Russia that are actually on the sanctions list. But at the same time, many former Soviet states were developing "multi-vector foreign policy," maintaining contacts with various countries.

Tajik President Emomali Rahmon (left) attended the first China-Central Asia summit in May 2023Florence Lo/REUTERS

"China has quietly advanced in the region. Russia has become, in fact, junior in this relationship," said Ubaydullaeva. "Though China is normally known for its economic projects, we also see China making statements such as: 'We will guarantee the sovereignty and security of the states in the region."

The first China-Central Asia summit was held in Xi'an, China in 2023 and was attended by the leaders of Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan and Turkmenistan, as well as China.

Azerbaijani President Aliyev said it was important to keep these developments in perspective. "We were colonized by Russia for a long time. And so, we have post-colonial syndrome," he said. "Leaders of the post-Soviet countries have this Soviet background. They grew up in the Soviet Union when their capital was Moscow. They have these sentiments for Moscow. For the next generation, that's not the case. They are waiting in line. Maybe in 10 or 20 years, with the next political generation, this will change."

This article was originally written in German.

Russia’s new middle class can’t afford for Putin’s war to end

PERMANENT ARMS ECONOMY

Eir Nolsoe
Sat 23 August 2025 

TELEGRAPH, UK

Soldiers can earn £74,000 for their first year of military service for Russia 

- AP Photo

LONG READ

The Russian city of Volgograd was the location of one of the bloodiest fights in world history. The seven-month-long Battle of Stalingrad, as the city was known in 1943, claimed half a million Soviet lives.

More than 80 years later, the Russian version of Facebook is awash with government ads encouraging men in the city to join today’s war effort in Ukraine.

“Men aged 18 to 63, we consider those with diseases – HIV, hepatitis. We accept those on parole and convicts,” reads one such ad on Vkontakte, or VK, as it is known.

Having flat feet, an intellectual disability or being a foreigner also need not be a disqualifier, it adds. In return, big prizes await.

One advert offers 8m rubles (£74,000) for the first year of military service – more than 10 times the region’s average wage of 712,883 rubles (£6,592) last year.

This includes hefty sign-on bonuses, extra payments for those with children and other perks like priority nursery places, discounted mortgages and tax breaks.

The payments are one example of how Russia’s war economy has created a new middle class in the country’s industrial heartlands.

Military families are receiving big cheques while men are on the frontlines, many of them facing death.

Blue-collar workers’ wages have also surged in the wake of the invasion of Ukraine.

While money is a paltry way to make up for the death of a loved one, there are some Russians on the home front who do not want the war to end.

It comes as Donald Trump and European leaders try to broker a peace deal between Russia and Ukraine, seemingly with little success.

Running out of patience with Moscow’s tricks and bombardments, Volodymyr Zelensky warned: “They don’t want to end this war.”

While the comment was aimed at Vladimir Putin, Russians lifted out of poverty as a result of the conflict may also feel apprehensive. For many of the new middle class, they cannot afford peace.

‘They are getting respect’

When Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022, many Western economists predicted it would face impending economic collapse in the face of the world’s harshest sanctions.

As the war approaches its fourth anniversary, the economy is under strain – but there has been no crisis. If anything, for some Russians life has improved.

The biggest benefactors are impoverished industrial areas that have suffered decades of decline, experiencing a fate similar to once-wealthy parts of the West.

Many towns and smaller cities across Russia that relied on a single industry such as defence or manufacturing never recovered after the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991.

“In the years after the dissolution of the Soviet Union, these areas went into decline, and people struggled to find jobs. But the facilities were still there,” says Tatiana Orlova, from Oxford Economics.

A safer world meant the need for ammunition, guns and other types of manufacturing had faded. That was, until Putin brought war to Europe.

Russia’s war has seen salaries surge among factory workers - SPUTNIK/AFP via Getty Images

“All that changed three years ago when the Russian leadership realised that it could not wrap up the war quickly. So it started moving the economy into a different mode,” says Orlova.

“Suddenly, these mothballed industrial facilities were hiring new workers, and new investment started flowing. These enterprises were competing with other sectors for workers, and they were offering good wages.”

Factories under pressure to churn out goods to support the war – munitions, uniforms and so on – started running three shifts a day.

Meanwhile, hundreds of thousands of working-age men joined the military, and Moscow restricted immigration – creating crippling worker shortages.

The result can be seen in wage data from Russia’s statistics office, Rosstat. Pay has surged in sectors related to the war effort, while other professions typically lucrative in peacetime have suffered.

Wages for workers making “finished metal items” rose by 78pc before accounting for inflation between 2024 and 2021, the fastest of any occupation.

In contrast, healthcare workers such as doctors and nurses and employees in the oil industry have seen the slowest growth, at 40pc and 48pc respectively.

“If you look at teachers or doctors, the increase is much, much smaller than in manufacturing,” says Orlova.

Putin has effectively done what Trump has promised American voters: creating well-paid factory jobs en masse in the poorest parts of the country. Workers with no education and few skills are benefiting.

“These people live in underdeveloped regions. They work in once underperforming industries. They don’t have higher education. But now these assets and skills are in demand,” says Ekaterina Kurbangaleeva, a visiting scholar at the George Washington University in Washington DC.

“They are getting higher salaries. Their savings are growing. And they are also getting social respect.”

It is a good time to be a Russian factory worker. But the real money comes if you join the military.

“When a man in the family joins the army on a military contract, first of all he gets his bonus and he starts getting monthly wages. The wages are decent. It’s something like $2,000 a month. All that money started flowing mostly into the Russian regions because people are less keen to sign up for the contractual army in the big cities,” Orlova says.

“I call this deathonomics,” says Russian economist Vladislav Inozemtsev. He co-founded the Cyprus-based Centre for Analysis and Strategies in Europe in 2023 alongside Dmitry Gudkov, one of the leaders of the Russian opposition in exile.

“This was actually a fascinating know-how on the part of Putin’s regime because he transformed the lives of – I’d say very impolitely – people [who were] kind of social waste, into a vehicle for economic development.

“These people were almost useless. Many of them had no work in the small towns and villages and were conducting a very anti-social way of life. Then all of a sudden, these people were taken out of the environment.”

Russian regions are competing to sign up soldiers, leading to significant financial rewards for recruits and their families - AP

The environment in which they now find themselves – a war zone – is a grim one. But Inozemtsev believes many of those left in Russia will have little sympathy.

“In some cases, I would say their neighbours were absolutely happy they disappeared from their lives. Their relatives got a lot of money and became quite prosperous people in their local communities.

“You take useless resources from the economy and you pour money instead of that. But of course, this all is only a temporary solution because the stock of these people is limited.”

Soldiers are offered big financial incentives to join the army, ranging from sign-on bonuses to debt forgiveness.

“Russian regions have been literally competing to sign people on military contracts. They got targets from above, and they had to fulfil them. They started offering sign-up bonuses in central regions, which reached something like $25,000-equivalent in rubles,” adds Orlova at Oxford Economics.

One can catch glimpses of how the lure of the big financial rewards is playing out all across Russia on Vkontakte.

A 23-year-old married father asks in a group discussing the military effort where he can get the most money by signing on, adding that he has heard in some areas families wait months for the payments.

Others express remorse. “I stupidly signed the contract, now I don’t need the money. I don’t know what to do, I’m not a warrior at all. I’m 21 years old,” despairs one man.

While the soldiers receive handsome salaries and bonuses, the biggest financial rewards come in death. Families of Russian soldiers killed on the frontline are entitled to payouts of up to 11m rubles – equivalent to around £100,000.

This includes an automatic “presidential” payment of 4.9m rubles, insurance worth 3.3m rubles and a “governor” payout of up to 3m rubles, according to independent Russian economic news outlet The Bell.

Officials from Russia’s ruling party have also been known to hand bereaved mothers and widows gifts, ranging from fridges, bags of onions to actual meat grinders.

On Vkontakte, a user whose account has been deleted replied to the 23-year-old father urging him not to sign up as he will be “cannon fodder”.

“Stay home, I buried mine, he died on his first mission. Enough deaths already,” another message reads.

Coming in from the cold

The influx of cash into Russia’s poorest regions has helped fuel a spending boom, as impoverished families have suddenly come into money.

“Many soldiers came from the very poor regions. This provoked a huge increase of real disposable incomes in very remote and poor regions in Russia like the Republic of Altai, the Republic of Tuva and some others – mostly North Caucasus and Siberia regions,” says Inozemtsev.

Families in tiny villages and small towns received “enormous” sums of money by local standards, he says. Many bought apartments in big regional cities with better schools and universities for their children, he adds.

The influx of cash has also fuelled redevelopment in some of Russia’s poorest areas.

“It gave rise to development of services in the poor regions where people previously, for example, could not even think of spending money on something like a monthly gym subscription,” says Orlova.

“Suddenly, new gyms and beauty salons started springing up. More cafes and restaurants opened as well. People really started spending on services.”

Visa restrictions and high costs mean foreign holidays are out of reach for most ordinary Russians. Instead, domestic travel has flourished.

“The number of hotel rooms is increasing 15pc-20pc per year. The whole hospitality industry – hotels, restaurants, catering – is growing. So the salaries of waiters, chefs and hotel managers are increasing too,” says Kurbangaleeva.

A busy shopping centre in Moscow earlier this year. Higher salaries have boosted consumer spending in Russia - Sefa Karacan/Anadolu via Getty Images

And so, a new social class is emerging.

Experts like Kurbangaleeva point out that what we refer to as middle class usually reflects three things: income levels, education and social standing.

In other words, becoming middle class isn’t something that happens overnight.

But there are signs of a bigger shift. One of the perks military families are entitled to is that soldiers and their children get priority access to Russia’s competitive public universities.

In families where no one has gone to university, the barriers have been lowered substantially.

“The Russian government imposed a special university admission quota for soldiers and their children. They can apply without contest,” says Kurbangaleeva.

“Before this quota, they had no chance. They don’t get a good education [growing up] or a high enough level of knowledge. So they could not compete with other children who live in big cities or go to better schools. They now face an obstacle-free road to apply to the best universities in the country.”

This year’s quota is 50,000 places across the country. Actual enrolment figures will only be available in September. However, last year nearly 15,000 students made use of the offer, up from 8,000 in 2023.

Kurbangaleeva believes it is the start of a bigger trend. “The social hierarchy is changing right now,” she says.

‘Social disaster’

Putin has achieved what many Western leaders have failed at: lifting the fortunes of some of the very poorest in society in a short period of time.

The price? One million Russian casualties, and counting.

In recent weeks, the promise of an end to the war briefly seemed closer than ever. The Russian leader flew to Anchorage, in Alaska, to meet President Trump on Aug 15, under the guise of peace negotiations.

Coverage was dominated by the images of Putin beaming as he strutted down the red carpet to engage in a warm handshake and chummy catch-up with America’s president.

President Trump met Putin in Alaska for peace talks over Ukraine

 - Getty Images North America

If the war does end, Russians who have grown accustomed to much higher living standards may pay the price. Surviving soldiers returning from the frontline and their families are likely to quickly slip back into their old lives, believes Inozemtsev.

“These people are not accustomed to accumulate and to save money. They will spend it in a year or two, and return to the type of life they were accustomed to. The service in the army will not change your social behaviour,” he says.


“If 500,000 people will come back to the regions with very low wages and their savings from the service time will be exhausted in months, or in one or two years, it might be a huge social disaster.”

Such returns can prove hugely destabilising, as in Germany after the First World War in the 1920s. After returning from the war, Adolf Hitler founded the Nazi Party and assembled a private army made up of mostly unemployed and disillusioned veterans.

The collapse of the Soviet Union was in part driven by the end of the Afghan war, experts also point out.


“It’s a big question for the government, for Putin – how to take care of those people after the war is over,” says a Russian economist based in Europe who did not want to be named.

“I wouldn’t be that optimistic about their future. The government will do everything to disseminate those people and not allow them to turn into a powerful group. Cynically, the Russian political class have experience, or at least prior knowledge of how to deal with that.”

Other workers who have benefited from the war are also likely to take a hit once the economy normalises. Blue-collar workers, business people buying up stranded Western assets and state employees working in law enforcement are all likely to lose out in a demobilised economy.

“All these people are not interested in the return to peacetime,” says Kurbangaleeva. “It seems to me that the Russian authorities feel that. These beneficiaries would be more confident if they could sustain the current situation, because when and if the war ends, a lot might change.

“For them, it’s more beneficial to continue.”

While the summit in Alaska was billed as an effort for peace, Putin made sure to dangle the promise of lucrative commercial deals in front of Trump at the brief press conference that followed their talks.

“When the new administration came to power, bilateral trade started to grow. It is clear that the US and Russian investment and business cooperation has tremendous potential,” the Russian president said.

“My best guess is that Putin is trying to sow division between the US and Europe,” says Robin Brooks, at the Brookings Institution.

US exports to Russia so far this year have jumped by a fifth compared to the same period of 2024. Much of that is pharmaceuticals and medical products. Sales going the other way – including nuclear materials and fertilisers – are up by one third.

Putin’s strategy may be to make Zelensky’s and Europe’s concerns seem like a sideshow compared to the real business of carving up resources, whether in Russia’s far north or in newly conquered lands in Ukraine.

“Trump is a real-estate guy, and Russia has a lot of real estate and a lot of resources. Why don’t we strike a great deal on that?” says Holger Schmieding, at Berenberg Bank, of Moscow’s approach.

“From all we know about Trump, that appeals to his gut reactions – who cares about laws and rules, there is land, there is stuff you can make money on, there is someone with whom he can strike a business deal.”

As a result, many fear peace is no closer. That means more misery in Ukraine – but there will be those cheering in Volgograd.

“It’s easy to begin the war, but it’s so hard to end it,” says Kurbangaleeva.

Russia’s Foreign Minister Struggles to Defend Civilian Deaths in Ukraine

Peter Wade
Sun 24 August 2025 
ROLLING STONE



Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov tried to defend his country’s assault on Ukraine under sharp questioning from Meet the Press moderator Kristen Welker, with Welker eventually asking, “Either the Russian military has terrible aim or you are targeting civilians. Which is it?”

“This week, Russia escalated its attacks in Ukraine,” Welker said at the start of the interview. “Just this week. Russia bombed an American-owned factory near the Hungarian border. I’ve spoken to people who, frankly, see that as a slap in the face to President Trump, to the entire peace process. Isn’t it?”

This embedded content is not available in your region.

Lavrov said that Russia “never, ever… deliberately targeted any sites which are not linked to military abilities of Ukraine.”

“This is an electronics factory though, sir. This is an electronics factory. I’ve spoken to people on the ground there. It builds coffee machines, among other electronics. This is not a military site,” Welker responded.

Trump has told the press he expressed displeasure to Putin over the drone attack on the American-owned plant. “I told him I’m not happy about it,” Trump said Friday. “And I’m not happy about anything having to do with that war.”

Trump and Putin recently met at a summit in Alaska, but no tangible progress toward peace appears to have come from the meeting, despite the administration’s attempts to spin it as a success.

The president said on Friday that he would know more about progress toward a Ukraine-Russia agreement in two weeks. “Over the next two weeks we’re gonna find out which way it’s going to go, and I better be very happy,” he said. (Trump loves to claim that complex, intractable problems will be solved “in two weeks.”)

Under Welker’s questioning, Lavrov stood firm in his stance that somehow an American-owned factory was producing equipment for Ukraine.

“I understand that some people are really naive and when they see a coffee machine in the window, they believe that this is the place where coffee machines are produced,” he said. “Our intelligence has very good information, and we target only — as I said — either military enterprises, military sites or industrial enterprises directly involved in producing military equipment for Ukrainian army.”

But Welker continued to press. “Mr. Foreign Minister, here are the facts: close to 50,000 civilians have either been killed or injured in this war,” she said. “Russia has hit maternity wards, churches, schools, hospitals, a kindergarten just this past week. So either the Russian military has terrible aim or you are targeting civilians. Which is it?”

“Look, look, NBC is a very respectful structure, and I hope you are responsible for the words which you broadcast,” Lavrov said, getting testy. “I ask you to send us or to publicize the information to which you just referred because we never targeted the civilian targets of the kind you cited. You might be mixing, you know, the information because it is a fact that quite a number of churches were purposefully hit by the Ukrainian regime.”

Lavrov continued by asking for proof. Welker said that “we have reporters on the ground who’ve seen it with their own eyes.”

Russia’s assaults on civilians appear to be escalating. According to the United Nations, this past June saw the highest number of civilian casualties in the three years of the ongoing conflict. Two hundred and eighty-six civilians were killed, while another 1,674 were injured, the U.N. Human Rights Monitoring Mission (HRMMU) in Ukraine said.

The U.N. has documented a total of 13,883 civilian deaths, including 726 children, since the war began. Another 35,548 civilians have been injured, including 2,234 children.

“Whether you are in a hospital or a prison, at home or at work, close to or far away from the frontline, if you are in Ukraine today, you are at risk of getting killed or injured by the war,” Danielle Bell, head of HRMMU said. “The risk is significantly higher than last year and it continues to rise.”

Russian foreign minister says ‘Ukraine has the right to exist’ with territory-related caveat

Tara Suter
Sun 24 August 2025 

THE HILL

Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said in an interview Sunday that Ukraine “has the right to exist” but added a caveat to that right related to territory.

“Mr. Foreign Minister, let me ask you about something that President Putin said in June. He said, quote, ‘I consider the Russian and Ukrainian people to be one nation. In this sense, all of Ukraine is ours,’” NBC News’s Kristen Welker said on NBC’s “Meet the Press.” “Does President Putin believe that Ukraine has a right to exist?”

“No, this is not — this is not true. Ukraine has the right to exist, provided it must let people go,” Lavrov responded.

“The people whom they call terrorists, who they call species and who — during a referendum — several referenda in Novorossiya, in Donbas, in Crimea, decided that they belong to the Russian culture and the government which came to power as a result of the coup was determined as a priority to exterminate everything Russian,” he added.

In 2022, referendums to become a part of Russia occurred in the Ukrainian regions of Luhansk, Donetsk, Kherson and Zaporizhzhia. Russian state media stated at the time, according to NPR, that the regions seemed to largely back annexation in the votes.

The Trump administration has pushed for an end to the war in Ukraine in President Trump’s first few months back in office. The president recently met with both Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin in a matter of days.

Vice President Vance also said in his own “Meet the Press” interview Sunday that security guarantees for Ukraine will not include American “boots on the ground.”

“The president’s been very clear. There are not going to be boots on the ground in Ukraine, but we are going to continue to play an active role in trying to ensure that the Ukrainians have the security guarantees and the confidence they need to stop the war on their end,” Vance said.

Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. 


Russia's Lavrov outlines terms for Ukraine peace: big power security guarantee and no NATO

Reuters
Sun 24 August 2025

MOSCOW (Reuters) -Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview published on Sunday that a group of nations including United Nations Security Council members should be the guarantors of Ukraine's security.

Reuters reported last week that President Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Reuters.

Lavrov told NBC News' "Meet the Press" that Putin and U.S. President Donald Trump had discussed the issue of a security guarantee for Ukraine and that Putin had raised the issue of the failed Istanbul discussions of 2022.

At those discussions, Russia and Ukraine discussed Ukraine's permanent neutrality in return for security guarantees from the five permanent members of the U.N. Security Council: Britain, China, France, Russia and the United States, and other countries, according to a copy of a draft agreement seen by Reuters in 2022.

Lavrov told NBC that a group including Security Council members should guarantee Ukraine's security. The group could also include Germany and Turkey and other countries, Lavrov said.

"And the guarantors would be guaranteeing the security of Ukraine, which must be neutral, which must be non-aligned with any military bloc and which must be non-nuclear," Lavrov said, according to a transcript of the interview released by the foreign ministry.

Lavrov also made it clear that NATO membership for Ukraine was unacceptable for Russia, that Russia wanted protection for Russian speakers in Ukraine and that there was a territorial discussion to be had with Ukraine.

Opinion

Trump’s ceasefire deal is dead – and Ukraine should count its blessings

Editorial
Fri 22 August 2025 

THE INDEPENDENT UK

Although he is far too proud to admit it, Donald Trump’s quest for peace in Ukraine is over – at least for the time being. It seems to be slowly dawning on the US president that the man he was honouring with lavish affection only a week ago in Alaska may not be quite as trustworthy and reliable a partner as Mr Trump would like.

The awakening has been a long time coming, and it remains partial. The realisation that Vladimir Putin might be “tapping me along” was raised as early as April, but that didn’t stop Mr Trump indulging his counterpart. When the first lady apparently suggested that President Putin “talks nice” but then bombs civilians in Ukraine, Mr Trump’s reluctant scepticism notched up a little more. Then he told the BBC he was “not done” with Putin, but was “disappointed”.

Still, though, President Trump persisted with this vision of a superpower summit after which the peace process in Ukraine would at least begin.

One week on, and with Russia’s cynicism as palpable as ever, Mr Trump seems to have decided to expend no more political capital on the war in Ukraine. He has discerned that “maybe [Putin] doesn’t want to make a deal”. A standard, Nobel Prize-winning deal in Ukraine is not clearly not going to materialise for Mr Trump – just as it won’t in Gaza.

Conveniently discarding the multiple promises that he could deliver a Russia-Ukraine ceasefire in a day, the White House now says that Mr Trump is simply going to wait until Volodymyr Zelensky and Putin are ready to talk before wading into the intractable conflict again. Maybe then he’ll convene the trilateral meeting that seemed imminent last week.

It will be a long wait – but, on balance, this is just as well. The basic contours of an agreement did become clearer in recent weeks, and they were problematic. The terms could be summarised as Ukraine giving up significant amounts of its sovereign lands, and thus defensive capability, in return for very little. Mr Zelensky did not fancy a “constitutional” commitment from Russia, nor some equally woolly “security guarantees” from the US and, tragically, from the so-called “coalition of the willing”, thus far united only in timidity.

As Kaja Kallas, the EU’s high representative for foreign affairs and security policy, points out, the Putin-Trump peace deal was a “trap” set by the Kremlin for Mr Zelensky. Had the Ukrainian leader carried on with his tactic of constructively engaging with the peace initiative sponsored by Mr Trump, he might well have found himself under irresistible pressure to capitulate and “swap territories”, a euphemism for surrendering millions of free Ukrainians to their grisly fate of brutal Russification. That, at least, has been avoided.

Ms Kallas is right to point out some salient basic facts about the war and the recent moves to end it: “We are forgetting that Russia has not made one single concession, and they are the ones who are the aggressor here. Putin is just laughing – not stopping the killing, but increasing the killing.”

So the war in Ukraine goes on; if anything, with more intensity. As if to show open contempt for his interlocutors, Putin’s forces bombed civilian targets as far west as Lviv, close to Poland, and destroyed a US-owned factory in the area. There’s been no let-up in the activities of Russia’s “shadow fleet”, ferrying contraband oil and conducting espionage – hardly the acts of a nation intent on peaceful cohabitation.

One hopeful sign is that President Trump is openly criticising his predecessor, Joe Biden, for not allowing Ukraine to “fight back” by striking targets in the Russian Federation. He also, in typical Trump style, took to social media to talk up Ukraine’s military prospects: “It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invader’s country. It’s like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offense. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia. Crooked and grossly incompetent Joe Biden would not let Ukraine FIGHT BACK, only DEFEND. How did that work out? … Interesting times ahead!”

Interesting indeed – and while Mr Trump has not quite switched sides again to the extent that he will send hi-tech weaponry directly to Ukraine, he is content for the coalition of the willing to buy arms and pass them on to Kyiv’s forces. Mr Trump has also shown himself ready to sanction countries such as India, who are propping up the Russian war machine by buying Putin’s oil – and there may be some more pressure in that respect to come with China.

Through bitter experience, Ukraine has itself already emerged as a formidable military player, pioneering the use of battlefield drones, for example, and missile strikes on strategic Russian infrastructure. The new, improbably named Flamingo cruise missile developed by Ukrainian engineers is said to have a range of 3,000km (1,900 miles) and will soon be in mass production.

Also on Mr Zelensky’s side is the parlous state of the Russian economy. In such a secretive state, no one knows for sure how long Russia can support such a hungry war machine. Much depends on the world price of oil, Russia’s ability to dodge sanctions, and the willingness of China to lend it money. But some sort of financial crisis feels more likely than not, and particularly if Mr Trump turns frostier with the Kremlin.

WAR IS ECOCIDE

Ukraine is stepping up attacks on Russian energy - and it’s working

Tim Lister and Daria Tarasova-Markina, 

CNN
Sun 24 August 2025

A dramatic rise in Ukrainian attacks on Russian oil refineries has sent gasoline prices in Russia to record highs, despite the government banning petrol exports to cope with the crunch.

Ukraine is focusing drone attacks on refineries, pumping stations and fuel trains in an effort to hurt the Russian war machine - but also to disrupt daily life in Russia. Summer sees peak demand among Russia’s drivers and farmers for petrol.

Ukrainian drones have struck at least ten key Russian energy facilities this month alone, according to a CNN tally of attacks.

The latest, on Sunday, targeted a complex near St. Petersburg, setting off an extensive fire, according to geolocated video. The regional governor, Alexander Drozdenko, said fuel tanks at a port nearby had not been affected.

The strategy seems to be working. The refineries struck account for more than 44 million tons of products annually – more than 10% of Russia’s capacity - according to Ukraine’s intelligence service.

Among the targets - the giant Lukoil refinery in Volgograd, the largest in southern Russia. CNN geolocated clouds of smoke billowing from the plant, which was struck in the early hours of August 14. The Russian defense ministry acknowledged damage to the plant, which was attacked again on August 19.

A large refinery in Saratov, also in southern Russia, was attacked earlier this month. And fires continued to burn Saturday at another refinery – in Rostov region – more than two days after it was hit, according to Robert Brovdi, Commander of Ukraine’s Unmanned Systems.

Gasoline shortages are reported in several Russian regions and in annexed Crimea. Its Russia-appointed governor, Sergey Aksyonov attributed gasoline shortages to “logistics issues,” and said the government was “taking all possible measures to purchase the necessary volumes of fuel and stabilize prices.”

An activist with a pro-Ukrainian group in Crimea, – Yellow Ribbon, - said on Telegram that the most popular grade of petrol had disappeared, and “the understanding that this is the result of the good drones work on the Russian economy does not allow me to be sad.”

Despite government subsidies, Russian consumers are paying more at the pump. Wholesale petrol prices on the St Petersburg exchange have risen by nearly 10% this month alone, and by about 50% since the beginning of the year.

A satellite image of an oil pumping station, part of Druzhba pipeline, struck by drones according to Ukraine's military, in the Tambov region of Russia on August 19, 2025. - Maxar Technologies/Reuters

Much of that increase is being passed on to consumers, with the Russian far east especially impacted. Analysts expect no relief for at least a month, even though the Russian government imposed a ban on exporting petrol in late July - which in turn contributed to a rise in exports of crude oil instead.

“Unfortunately, our forecast is unfavorable for now — we will most likely have to wait at least another month for prices to fall,” Sergey Frolov, managing partner at NEFT Research, told the Russian newspaper Kommersant. Kommersant said that the surge in prices this month was “due to accidents at oil refineries.”

The military is less affected because its demand is mainly for diesel, supplies of which are less impacted.
A new focus

The Ukrainian military and intelligence services have developed long-range warfare using drones, missiles and sabotage even as a very different conflict unfolds on the ground. The military claimed this month that long-range attacks this year have caused $74 billion in damage, with nearly 40% of strikes at least 500 kilometers inside Russia.

It’s not possible to verify such claims, but there is plenty of visual evidence of the damage done to refineries, storage tanks and pumping stations in recent months. Repairing such infrastructure is complicated by European and US sanctions

In a report on Thursday, Ukraine’s foreign intelligence service said that Russian companies were urgently purchasing petroleum from Belarus to address domestic shortages. The state-owned refiner in Belarus, Belneftekhim, says that in the last week “interest in Belarusian oil products on the Russian market has surged.”

Ukraine is also trying to impede Russian exports of oil. Last week its drones struck the Druzhba pipeline that supplies Russian oil to Hungary and Slovakia – two EU countries whose governments remain on good terms with Moscow.

Both complained to the EU, saying that “with these attacks Ukraine is not primarily hurting Russia, but Hungary and Slovakia.”

US President Donald Trump also intervened, saying in a hand-written note to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban that he was “very angry” about the disruption.

But for Ukraine, under pressure on the frontlines, attacks on Russia’s vital energy industry are a way to counter Moscow’s narrative that its victory is ultimately inevitable.

Ukraine is trying to add to its arsenal of long-range weapons and last week unveiled a domestically produced cruise missile called the Flamingo. The manufacturer aims to produce 200 a month.

Missile expert Fabian Hoffman says that for a soft target such as distillation columns of Russian refineries, for example, the Flamingo’s lethal radius would be upwards of 38 meters. That would cause substantial damage.

Workers inspect a Flamingo cruise missile at Fire Point's secret factory in Ukraine on August 18, 2025. - Efrem Lukatsky/AP

“Each missile that successfully hits its target will cause much more damage [than existing Ukrainian weapons] with its 1,150-kilogram warhead,” says Mick Ryan, author of the blog Futura Doctrina.

“While I would not call it a silver bullet, it will have a significant impact on Ukraine’s capacity to hurt Russia,” not least because it’s hard to defend every oil refinery.

In the meantime, analysts do not expect thousands of Russian gas stations to run dry but believe the disruption will aggravate already high inflation and likely mean an extension of the ban on gasoline exports into the autumn, as the Kremlin tries to tamp down prices and ensure supply.

CNN’s Annoa Abekah-Mensah contributed to this report

WAIT, WHAT?!

Canada's Carney talks security guarantees with Zelenskyy in Kyiv, reiterates possibly providing Canadian troops

CBC
Sat 23 August 2025 

Prime Minister Mark Carney delivers a speech alongside Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy during a ceremony on Independence Day in Sophia Square in Kyiv Ukraine, on Sunday. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press - image credit)

With the prospects for peace appearing as distant as ever — despite attempts by the Trump administration to broker a settlement in the war between Ukraine and Russia — Prime Minister Mark Carney on Sunday unveiled details of Canada's $2 billion in additional military aid.

Carney also publicly committed to reintroducing troops to the war-torn country in some capacity should there ever be a ceasefire.

It's Carney's first official visit to the war-torn country. He met with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelenskyy at a time when the prospects for peace appear as distant as ever despite attempts by the administration of U.S. President Donald Trump to broker a Ukraine-Russia settlement.

In a speech in historic Sophia Square in Kyiv on Ukraine's Independence Day, Carney said more than $1 billion of the aid package will be used to finance the purchase of high-priority equipment from the United States, through NATO, as well as ammunition, and advance drone and armoured vehicle production from Canadian suppliers.

Another $220 million will be set aside to purchase drone, counter-drone, and electronic warfare capabilities, which will include investments in joint ventures between Ukrainian and Canadian industry. The two countries signed a Letter of Intent on Canada-Ukraine Joint Production of Defence Material.

During his visit Sunday to Kyiv, Prime Minister Mark Carney reiterated Canada's commitment to providing military and other aid to Ukraine. (Sean Kilpatrick/The Canadian Press)

Carney reiterated his support for Canada's participation in the "coalition of the willing," and did not rule out providing boots on the ground in Ukraine, but it's not clear whether that would be in a training capacity or as part of a peacekeeping force.

Canada had troops in Ukraine to conduct military training up to the full Russian invasion in February 2022. It has continued the training program, known as Operation Unifier, in other countries, including the United Kingdom and Poland.

The additional $2 billion in defence aid was announced at the G7 leaders' summit in Kananaskis, Alta., in June.

Ukraine marks Independence Day celebrations

Carney's trip was made under a strict news blackout and amid tight security as the Ukrainian capital is a frequent target for Russian missile and drone strikes.

The prime minister's visit coincides with Ukraine's Independence Day celebrations. He was invited as a "special guest," according to Canadian officials who briefed journalists about the journey. Ukraine, which has always had its own distinct cultural identity, declared its independence on Aug. 24, 1991, heralding the collapse of the Soviet Union less than six months later.

Carney said the lessons of history are obvious.

"We know that Putin can never be trusted," he said in his speech. "We know that true peace and security will require security guarantees for Ukraine."
In search of security guarantees

As a hedge against Russia using a possible ceasefire — or peace settlement — as simply a pause between wars, Ukraine is asking allies for concrete guarantees and measures of support.

"Putin has broken his word repeatedly from Minsk to this morning," Carney said in reference to the two failed attempts at peace brokered in Minsk, Belarus, prior to Russia's full invasion.

U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio recently led a delegation to discuss what allies are prepared to offer in terms of postwar guarantees. He was accompanied by senior American generals and top national security advisers from the U.K., France, Germany, Italy and Finland, and met with Andriy Yermak, the top adviser to Zelenskyy, according to local media reports.

At the same time, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte was also in Kyiv. At a recent news conference, he spoke with Zelenskyy and said the postwar guarantees would consist of two distinct elements — further strengthening the Ukrainian army and deterrence commitments from the U.S. and other allies, including Canada, to prevent future aggression by Russia.

Carney praised Trump's desire to push for peace, but cautioned the allies need to be prepared for the postwar world.

"When that peace comes, we cannot simply trust and verify — we must deter and fortify," the prime minister said.

Obstacles to peace

One of the major stumbling blocks toward peace is the Kremlin's continued, outright refusal to accept U.S.-backed security guarantees.

In an English-language social media post last week, Dmitry Medvedev, deputy head of Russia's security council and the former president, wrote that Russia has categorically stated there should be no NATO involvement in any potential peacekeeping force inside of Ukraine.

Medvedev insisted there's no need for postwar security guarantees.

Other Russian lawmakers, also last week, suggested Ukraine should follow the Second World War example of Finland, which was invaded by the Soviet Union, and simply ceded territory and became a neutral country, according to the Washington-based Institute for the Study of War, which tracks political and military developments in regular reports.

Russia is demanding Ukraine cede Kherson, Zaporizhzhia, Donetsk and Luhansk provinces in the south and east of the country.

Carney said it's not up to Russia to dictate Ukraine's future security arrangements.

Canada in strategic agreement with EU

As well as support for continued armament of Ukraine, Canada has signed a strategic defence agreement with the European Union, which will facilitate joint purchases and production among allies, including Ukraine.

At the time of the signing, drones were mentioned as a possible area of co-operation between Canada and Ukraine, given that country's stunning and innovative use of the remotely controlled technology.

Last week, the United States and Ukraine announced a $50-billion drone co-operation initiative, one of the largest strategic commitments between the two nations.

Because Ukraine needs every piece of military equipment at the front, the country prohibits defence exports to other countries.

Ukraine's Arms Monitor, an online digest that tracks equipment related to the war, reported last week that Ukrainian officials, under pressure from the domestic industry, are considering slightly relaxing the restriction, but only for the most trusted allies — likely NATO members — who have the capacity to safeguard sensitive technology.

Canadian PM Carney, in Ukraine, says he can't rule out sending peacekeepers

Max Hunder
Sun 24 August 2025  

REUTERS

Canadian PM Carney, in Ukraine, says he can't rule out sending peacekeepers

KYIV (Reuters) -Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney told Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Sunday he backed Ukraine's calls for robust security guarantees as part of any peace deal, saying Canada would not rule out sending troops under such a framework.

Three and a half years since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, U.S. President Donald Trump is leading peace efforts and Ukraine is working with its European allies to draft potential frameworks for post-war security guarantees for Kyiv, which Trump has also expressed openness towards.

Carney, making his first visit to Ukraine since taking office in March, joined Zelenskiy for a ceremony in central Kyiv to mark Ukrainian Independence Day, which was also attended by Trump's special envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg.

"We are all working to ensure that the end of this war would mean the guarantee of peace for Ukraine, so that neither war nor the threat of war are left for our children to inherit," Zelenskiy told a crowd of dignitaries in Kyiv's Sophia Square, against the backdrop of an 11th century cathedral.

Zelenskiy has said he wants future security guarantees as part of a potential peace deal to be as close as possible to NATO's Article 5, which considers an attack on one member state as an attack against all.

Carney backed Ukraine's calls for potential international participation.

"In Canada's judgment, it is not realistic that the only security guarantee could be the strength of the Ukrainian Armed Forces ... that needs to be buttressed and reinforced," Carney told a joint press conference.

The two leaders also signed an agreement on drone co-production, and Carney said Ukraine would receive more than C$1 billion ($723 million) in military aid from a previously announced package next month.

'WE NEED PEACE'

Zelenskiy presented Kellogg with a state honour during Sunday's ceremony, telling him "we need peace" as he gave him a medal in a leather case.

Later in the day, Kellogg met Ukrainian Prime Minister Yuliia Svyrydenko, who said they had discussed the Ukraine-U.S. minerals agreement as well as the security guarantees issue.

During the press conference with Carney, Zelenskiy was asked about a story in the Wall Street Journal which said the Pentagon had for months been quietly blocking Ukraine's use of the U.S.-supplied ATACMS missile to hit targets in Russia.

A source familiar with the matter said while there was never a formal suspension in long-range attacks, the Pentagon had created a review process that has so far not authorized a strike with the ATACMS deep inside Russia.

In response, Zelenskiy said Kyiv has of late been using its own domestically produced long-range weapons to hit targets inside Russia, which are not cleared with Washington.

"Lately we have not been discussing this issue with the United States," he said.

Ukraine has said it conducted overnight strikes on an oil refinery in Russia's Samara region, as well as a gas fractionation facility at Ust-Luga, a Russian port which is a key energy export node.

($1 = 1.3826 Canadian dollars)

Carney Pushes Energy, Defense Deals in Europe in Pivot From US

Laura Dhillon Kane
Sat 23 August 2025

BLOOMBERG

Mark Carney during a news conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada, on Aug. 22.

(Bloomberg) -- Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney is visiting Poland, Germany and Latvia to strengthen defense and industrial partnerships, with a particular focus on growing his country’s nuclear and critical minerals sectors.

Carney arrived in Poland on Saturday and intends to meet with Prime Minister Donald Tusk on Monday, government officials said at a background briefing with reporters. He’ll meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday, and Latvian Prime Minister Evika Siliņa in Riga on Wednesday.

The Canadian leader has been pushing hard to diversify the country’s trading relationships and reduce its security reliance on the US, often calling Canada “the most European of non-European countries.”

The trip comes a day after Carney announced he would remove many retaliatory tariffs against US products in an olive branch to President Donald Trump, after Canada blew past an Aug. 1 deadline without reaching a trade deal.

In Warsaw, Carney and Tusk plan to finalize a bilateral strategic partnership on energy and security, and the Canadian prime minister will also meet with business leaders to discuss nuclear and other clean power sectors. In Berlin, he and Merz will announce an agreement to cooperate on critical minerals and he’ll meet with investors in the industry.

Carney also intends to emphasize Canada’s commitment to the long-term security of Ukraine and Europe, with his final stop in Riga focused on the Canadian Armed Forces’ largest overseas mission, known as Operation Reassurance. The prime minister will visit a military base and meet with deployed members.

Carney's trip to Europe aims to encourage trade, defence and energy co-operation

CBC
Sat 23 August 2025 


Prime Minister Mark Carney speaks to reporters at the National Press Theatre in Ottawa on Friday. He'll be travelling to Germany, Poland and Latvia next week. (Spencer Colby/The Canadian Press - image credit)

Economic and security ties are front and centre as Prime Minister Mark Carney meets allies over the next few days in eastern and central Europe.

The prime minister will be travelling not only to Germany but also Poland and Latvia, where he'll meet with key business and political leaders, as well as Canadian troops deployed throughout the region.

The German portion of the trip was acknowledged on Friday by Carney as he answered questions about the removal of some reciprocal tariffs on the United States.

"Canada has a good partnership with Germany. It's been built up over the years, but it can be much, much better, and I'm confident that with this chancellor, and the focus of our government, that it will," he said.

Carney said he will meet with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz in Berlin on Tuesday. Following his remarks, a senior government official expanded on the itinerary, saying there will be meetings with key German business leaders.

The German government in a statement announced the planned meeting ahead of Carney's news conference on Friday.

In Poland, Canada is expected to finalize a bilateral strategic partnership focused on energy and security. Carney will also meet with Canadian troops deployed in the country.

In Latvia, Carney will get a first-hand look at the Canadian-led NATO brigade and is scheduled to meet with the Baltic nation's prime minister, Evika Siliņa.

"This visit to Europe is an opportunity to strengthen relations with European allies, and to progress co-operation in key areas, including trade, energy, critical minerals and defence," said the senior official who was authorized to speak on background only.

Energy and Natural Resources Minister Tim Hodgson and Defence Minister David McGuinty will accompany the prime minister on different legs of the trip

Canada can play 'important role' in Ukraine peace deal

The meetings with allies come as uncertainty hangs over the bid by U.S. President Donald Trump to broker a peace settlement between Russia and Ukraine.

Russia has stepped up its bombing campaign — launching one of its heaviest missile and drone assaults since it invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — following last week's summit between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Russian Foreign Affairs Minister Sergei Lavrov said in an interview with NBC News on Friday that there is currently no plan for Putin to meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy.

Putin would meet Zelenskyy "when the agenda is ready for a summit," he said, noting that "this agenda is not ready at all."

Lavrov also accused Zelenskyy of failing to accept Russia's demanded preconditions for negotiation, namely discussion about "territorial issues."

At the same time, Ukraine is looking for concrete security guarantees from allies, including the U.S., before agreeing to a potential peace deal. Carney said he spoke with Trump about the subject.

U.S. President Donald Trump, left, greets Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as he arrives at the White House, in Washington, D.C., on Monday. (Alex Brandon/The Associated Press)

As a member of the "coalition of the willing" led by France and Britain, Carney said Canada will have a role to play in security guarantees. But precisely what that will look like is uncertain.

"Canada has the potential to have an important role," the prime minister said. "So, we're very engaged in these sets of issues."

Appearing last week on CBC Radio's The House, Canada's top military commander, Gen. Jennie Carignan, said she's had a number of discussions with other allied defence chiefs and that the shape of each country's involvement is still being determined.

Much will depend on what the ceasefire or the potential peace deal will look like: "There's a lot of unknown at the moment, but one thing is for sure is that they will need a requirement for training and development for Ukrainian forces to assume their own security," Carignan, chief of the defence staff, said.

In Kyiv, meanwhile, the secretary general of the North Atlantic Treaty Organization met with top Ukrainian officials.

"We are now working together — Ukraine, the Europeans, the United States — to make sure that these security guarantees are of such a level that Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin sitting in Moscow will never try to attack Ukraine again," Mark Rutte said.

Trump is making it harder than ever to have an American holiday – and tourists are taking note

Robert Jackman
Sun 24 August 2025 

THE INDEPENDENT

trump tourism

Donald Trump loves a bit of American exceptionalism. But here’s one accolade that we won’t be hearing from the mouth of the president: the US is set to be the only major economy to suffer a decline in tourism spending this year.

The verdict comes from the World Travel and Tourism Council, which presumably knows its stuff. And while it is just a projection, it isn’t exactly out of line with some of the things that we know are happening, with foreign visitors to the States down by 12 per cent year on year.

Given the pugilistic state of American politics, arguing over whether Mr Trump should share part of the blame or not is always a risky exercise. But the Maga hardcore would have to admit that this administration hasn’t helped itself when it comes to international tourism, showing, at best, a cavalier attitude towards America’s image abroad.

Of course, the president isn’t exactly anti-tourism. He’s repeatedly talked up events like the 2026 World Cup and the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, which are expected to draw more than 50 million visitors between them. But all too often, tourism seems to take second billing to other, more Trumpian goals.

Border security would be the obvious one. But while Trump may have triumphed in last year’s election by promising to secure the border, did anyone really cast their vote on the basis that more tourists would end up shackled and deported for minor infractions, as we’ve seen with cases like Rebecca Burke – the young woman from Wales detained for 19 days?

Earlier this month, Donald Trump signed an executive order creating a White House task force to help coordinate the 2028 Olympic Games - Getty

Some in the administration have suggested that one potential problem with foreign visitors is the possibility that some “overstayers” will slip through the net and end up abusing their visa to work in the grey economy. Already, the Trump administration has shaken up the rules around student visas with that concern in mind.

Now the US government is set to do similar with tourism, hence the requirement for certain nationals (currently those from Zambia and Malawi) to cough up a $15,000 (£11,300) security deposit in order to obtain a tourist visa. The administration has suggested that the pilot programme could be extended to other nations too, in time.

To be fair, Britons should be safe either way, given that US government numbers suggest that only a tiny fraction of us take liberties with our ESTA visa-waiver permits. Though those travellers who need a full visa may end up having to cough up for the new $250 visa integrity fee, included within Trump’s signature “One Big Beautiful Bill”.

In any event, arguing over the exact details is only part of the picture. The bigger point is that this bombardment of tougher rules will have already sent a signal around the world that the US is becoming less welcoming to tourism.

And that’s before we get to the increased fixation with vetting travellers’ social media, like the French researcher refused entry in the spring after border officials found messages and memes that were seen as anti-Trump.
‘Anti-American attitudes’

Again, the underlying issue is nothing new: US border agents have long had the right to ask to see your phone. But the Trump administration appears to be pursuing the policy with a new ferocity, stretching the definition of national security to include what many of us would consider legitimate political opinions.

“If you look at the memo from the US Citizenship and Immigration Services this month, you can see this administration is taking a hard stance on what they perceive as anti-American attitudes,” says Christi Jackson, a partner with immigration lawyers Laura Devine. “That is always going to be difficult to define in reality, particularly when people are criticising the US government in ways that would be considered freedom of speech elsewhere.”


Could this chilling effect be contributing to the reported 10 per cent decline in tourism from some European countries? While it’s impossible to say for sure, it is worth noting that surveys do suggest that some travellers (including Britons) are less likely to visit the US under the current administration.

Still, we Europeans are a tiny drop in the ocean compared with the Canadians, who make up nearly one quarter of foreign tourists. But thanks to Trump’s aggressive rhetoric towards their country, many have been voting with their feet: Canadian visitors to the US were down 33 per cent in June compared with the previous year.

Maybe some Maga hardliners will take pride in the fact that the lily-livered liberals are staying away. But for now, the situation doesn’t appear to have dented the political consensus that tourism is a good thing for the States. In Congress, some Republican and Democrat politicians have put aside their differences to lobby for tourism.

In March, the Democratic congresswoman Dina Titus – whose seat contains part of the Las Vegas Strip – coordinated a bipartisan letter, calling on the Trump administration to nominate a tourism secretary within the commerce department. Despite being signed by some Republican lawmakers, the plea has so far been ignored.
Trade concerns

Others have made the case that a huge tourism push would help the president in achieving another of his perennial obsessions – the trade deficit. During the first Trump administration, the economist and former Trump adviser Stephen Moore authored a paper arguing that tourism generates the biggest trade surplus for the US outside of financial services.

The administration has already found one way to increase the money flowing in from foreign visitors, with provisions in the One Big Beautiful Bill to increase the ESTA charge from $21 to $40 at some point in the future. The higher charges won’t be popular with families heading to Orlando or New York, but they will bring in more revenue for US government coffers.

In the end, though, perhaps the best way to convince the president would be the obvious one. From rip-roaring stock markets to huge investment deals from oil-rich Gulf monarchies, Donald J Trump loves to tout his bombastic statistics about how America is doing better than ever. Surely it wouldn’t be too difficult to add tourism to that list?

Right now, though, it seems like tourism is pretty low on the pecking order in Maga-town. If current trends persist – and that bombshell World Travel and Tourism Council prediction comes true – maybe that will change. Particularly if some of Trump’s political adversaries start making mileage out of the situation.

If that fails, we can opt for the one gambit that will definitely get his attention: let’s all holiday in Canada instead.

Trump’s tariff salvo blindsides UK manufacturers

Saskia Koopman
Sun 24 August 2025 

Conservative shadow trade secretary Andrew Griffith accused ministers of failing to protect exporters, saying: “When it comes to protecting UK businesses from US tariffs, Starmer is ‘all hat, no cattle’."

Donald Trump has blindsided UK manufacturers by slapping fresh tariffs of up to 25 per cent on more than 400 categories of British goods, from shampoo and children’s highchairs to motorcycles and diggers.

Conservative shadow trade secretary Andrew Griffith accused ministers of failing to protect exporters, saying: “When it comes to protecting UK businesses from US tariffs, Starmer is ‘all hat, no cattle’.”


“His ‘tiny tariff’ agreement turns out to have more holes than one of Donald Trump’s golf courses and the trade secretary doesn’t even know what tariffs apply where. Downing Street need to spend less time on negotiating away Chagos and more sweating the detail on US trade.”

The move, which UK officials say took them by surprise, comes just months after London and Washington hailed a “breakthrough” deal on steel and aluminium.

That agreement was supposed to cut the 25 per cent tariff on UK metals to zero – but implementation has stalled amid US concerns over the origins of some British exports.

Manufacturers warn of a ‘very damaging’ impact

Industry leaders have described the latest measures as “very damaging to British industry”.

JCB chief executive Graeme Macdonald, whose firm exports £2bn worth of diggers and machinery to the US, said the sudden changes have created chaos in American ports.

“This has blindsided everybody … there’s a huge backlog of imported goods in every port now in the US”,he warned, urging ministers to strike a deal quickly.


Motorbike maker Triumph, which sold over 100,000 bikes last year, also said the tariffs came as a shock.

Chief executive Nick Bloor said the decision was “a surprise, especially given the recently negotiated trade agreements”.

Peter Brennan of UK Steel added: “Orders are being cancelled or delayed – sometimes costing firms millions of pounds – because this trade negotiation is still ongoing.”
Trade talks and political pressure

The expanded tariff list, which includes items as varied as tableware, washing machines and even condensed milk in aluminium packaging, followed lobbying from US steel companies urging the White House to prioritise domestic production.

While Downing Street insists the UK remains the only country to have avoided Trump’s 50 per cent metals tariff, the government admitted the timing of the latest announcement was unexpected.

Officials have said they would continue working with Washington to “give industry the security they need, protect vital jobs, and put more money in people’s pockets”.

Trump, meanwhile, on his Truth Social platform, has trumpeted new Congressional Budget Office estimates that tariffs will cut America’s budget deficit by $4trn over the next decade.