Donald Trump is trying to close the peace deal for the war in Ukraine that he promised during his campaign and that has so far crashed against reality. The U.S. president is once again pressuring Zelenski with a clear message in an interview published this Wednesday in 'Time'. "Crimea will stay in Russia," he emphasizes, as he did two days ago, highlighting that this is the current reality but without mentioning that it is thanks to a unilateral annexation launched by Putin in 2014.
With the intention of pushing forward this agreement - of which Russia's concessions are known so far - Trump's special envoy was received by the Russian president this Friday. In this context, the question is how far Ukraine can resist the war with Russia and the peace that the U.S. is trying to impose. Vitali Klitschko, the mayor of Kiev, has admitted that his country may be forced to cede territory as part of a peace agreement with Russia. "One of the scenarios is to cede territory. It's not fair, but peace, a temporary peace, may be a temporary solution," he told the BBC.
Ukraine stops a foreign ship accused of exporting stolen grain
Ukraine has detained a foreign ship in its territorial waters allegedly involved in the illegal trade of stolen Ukrainian grain, as reported on Friday by the State Security Service (SBU). Kiev has accused Russia of trading with stolen Ukrainian grain since the 2022 war in Ukraine began, accusations that Russia denies.
"The investigation determined that the detained ship was part of Russia's 'shadow' fleet, which the Kremlin uses to sell looted Ukrainian grain to third countries," the SBU said in the Telegram messaging service. It detailed that at the end of 2024, the same ship had exported 5,000 metric tons of stolen wheat from the occupied territory in southern Ukraine from the Crimean port of Sevastopol. The SBU accuses the ship of carrying out an illegal raid under the flag of an Asian country to export the grain.
Ukrainian Bishop Nowakowski: "Francis always supported Ukraine"
Pope Francis was one of the first world leaders to call the conflict in Ukraine a war, a country he continuously supported and had a "special" relationship with, defended on Friday the bishop of the Ukrainian Catholic Church in London, Kenneth Nowakowski, in statements to EFE. "Francis prayed every day at the Angelus for Ukraine. When Crimea was annexed (by Russia) and Donbass was invaded, he went to the Russian Embassy and asked for this to stop," Nowakowski said.
For the eparch (equivalent to bishop) of the Ukrainian Greek Catholic Church in London, the late pontiff was "one of the first world leaders to refer to it not as a civil conflict, but as a war."
"He continuously supported Ukraine and advocated for peace," emphasized the Catholic hierarch, recalling Francis' mediation to have Russia release two Ukrainian priests and his closeness to the patriarch of the Catholic Church in that country, Sviatoslav Shevchuk, when he was bishop of Buenos Aires.
Putin receives Trump's envoy for the fourth time as Ukraine seeks alternatives to the "surrender" proposed by the U.S.
Russian President Vladimir Putin received in the Kremlin the special envoy of the U.S. President, Steve Witkoff, as reported by the Russian presidential press secretary, Dmitri Peskov, to RIA Novosti. The plane of Trump's special envoy landed in Moscow at noon. This is Witkoff's fourth visit to Russia, continuing negotiations to end the war.
More details about the U.S. plan, in this information by Xavier Colás.
Trump, to 'Time' magazine: "Crimea will remain in Russia"
Donald Trump said in an interview published this Friday that "Crimea will stay in Russia," in a recent example of the U.S. president's pressure on Ukraine to make concessions to end the war. "Zelenski understands this," he added, referring to his Ukrainian counterpart. "And everyone understands that it has been a long time with them," he insisted.
Trump made these comments in an interview with Time on Tuesday. The president has repeatedly accused Zelenski of prolonging the war by resisting negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Crimea is a strategic peninsula located in the Black Sea, south of Ukraine. It was unilaterally taken and outside of international law by Russia in 2014, with Barack Obama in the White House, years before the Kremlin's large-scale invasion launched in 2022.
Putin receives Trump's envoy to discuss the peace plan for Ukraine
Russian President Vladimir Putin received today in the Kremlin the U.S. envoy, Steve Witkoff, with whom he discussed the White House's peace plan for Ukraine, as reported by the Kremlin, according to Efe.
The meeting, the fourth in the last three months, took place in the Kremlin, stated Dmitry Peskov, presidential spokesperson, in statements to the local press.
Son of a CIA deputy director dies on the Ukrainian front fighting for Russia
American Michael Gloss, 21, son of a deputy director of the U.S. Central Intelligence Agency (CIA), died in the Ukrainian war fighting on the Russian side, reported the Important Stories portal, according to Efe.
"When I was informed of his death, I didn't believe it, because he was always against the war," said one of his close friends to the media.
On August 13, 2023, Gloss communicated through a chat with friends that he was in Russia, specifically in Vladikavkaz - the capital of North Ossetia - less than a month later, on September 5, his name was already in the Moscow healthcare system database.
Ukrainian ambassador warns against commemorating Nazi surrender with Russian representatives
The Ukrainian ambassador to Germany, Olekí Makeyev, warned German cities against commemorating the 80th anniversary of the Wehrmacht's surrender to the four Allied powers that ended World War II with Russian representatives, reported Efe.
"For the Russians, it is not about remembering the dead, for the Russians, in eastern Germany, it is a phantom limb imperialist pain," he said in statements published on Friday by 'Spiegel'.
Makeyev referred to the ongoing war against his country in which Russia bombs Ukrainian cities, tortures civilians in occupied territories, deports Ukrainian children, kills Ukrainian Holocaust survivors, and calls this "liberation from the Nazis," he added.
Russian general killed in Moscow by a car bomb
The Deputy Chief of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces, General Yaroslav Moskalik, died in a car explosion in Moscow. The explosion shattered the windows of a nearby house in the residential neighborhood of Balashikha.
Russian media reported during the morning of the explosion, which killed the driver and the passenger exiting the car. The deceased passenger is Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, known for his role as deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff.