The Trump administration’s latest initiative to end the war is creating heartburn in Europe.
“We have to pressure the aggressor to stop the war, not the victim to surrender,” said European Union High Representative Kaja Kallas. “Squeezing Ukraine is not the right approach, and that’s why Europe is standing by Ukraine.” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, meanwhile, insists Russia has no genuine desire for peace, pointing in particular to Russian strikes on Ukrainian civilians.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has warned that a planned meeting between Russia, China and the United States next month could present the three participants with an opportunity to redraw global spheres of influence.
“We really don’t want this to turn into ‘Yalta 2, 3, 4’ with a redistribution of influence,” he said in comments to journalists on Wednesday, referring to the 1945 Yalta Conference in Crimea , where Allied powers redrew the world map in the wake of the Second World War.
Ukraine’s Ministry of Economy has unveiled a draft resolution designed to cushion the country’s wartime economic strain by pulling in qualified global talent to fill severe workforce deficits. The legislative framework outlines a structured method for evaluating international credentials and establishes a rolling registry of undermanned industries requiring immediate staffing relief.
In May of 2025, my Ukrainian business partner passed along a warning: If I didn’t stop pitching our proposed infrastructure security contract, we would both be killed.
This was not my first death threat. Attempts at intimidation are to only be expected in my line of work, which includes providing security in war zones. When your business involves protecting nuclear material near ongoing combat, you expect to live with a certain level of danger. But the corruption and mob-style skullduggery in Ukraine are an absolute disgrace: This is a European country engaged in a war for its very survival — and the beneficiary of well over $100 billion in American aid.
After crossing with his army into Asia, Alexander the Great stopped at Gordium (in modern-day Turkey). He approached the famous Gordian knot—a tangled mass of bark tying an ox cart to a pole, so intricate and tight that no one could unravel it. When told that anyone who could untie the mess would rule all of Asia, Alexander simply pulled out his sword and cut through it—solving the problem and fulfilling the prophecy.
The Ukraine war may be our Gordian knot, but—in our current nuclear age—it is dangerous to cut rather than unravel it.
Support is eroding.
🚨BREAKING: Finland’s President Alexander Stubb and Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Støre held a joint call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin today as part of international efforts to secure an end to the war in Ukraine.
Full story: https://t.co/kcZO3pPVy5 https://t.co/BOWOBOr3Vf
— POLITICOEurope (@POLITICOEurope) October 27, 2026
It has been a bewildering period in US-Ukraine relations, after US President Donald Trump slammed his Ukrainian counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky for failing to negotiate an end to the war and Kyiv accused Washington of withholding key military support.
Trump then sent his envoy to Norway and Russia to try to advance the peace process – but Washington walked away with only a plan to resume trilateral talks.
Meanwhile, deadly Russian attacks continue, as Ukraine raises concerns about cracks in support from the US.
Elon Musk has just delivered a clarifying statement on X platform, outlining what many suspected.
Ukraine was using Starlink to attack Russia, that was never allowed. Ukraine was authorized to use Starlink to defend itself inside Ukraine and communicate on the front lines of battle. However, Ukraine military leadership weaponized their access to Starlink and began using it as an offensive missile/drone guidance system. That was stopped.
Victor Davis Hanson: Ukraine Is Becoming Another Verdun
h/t Mauser
In recent days, both Russia and Ukraine have expressed support for resuming negotiations over a prospective peace deal. While limited in detail, these are promising signals. But this can only be true if Brussels and Kyiv are prepared to make a joint offer based on reasonable terms. That might encourage Russia to abandon its unreasonable terms. One reason for Moscow’s intransigence is the belief that European governments are not interested in a peace settlement and will do everything possible to block one.
President Donald Trump has made a decision that deserves serious examination by Canadians and our NATO allies. His agreement with Vladimir Putin to facilitate Russian diesel exports, combined with pressure on Ukraine to stop attacking Russian refineries, raises an uncomfortable question: Is Washington advancing peace or strengthening Russia while weakening Ukraine?
U.S. President Donald Trump has disgraced himself by openly siding with Vladimir Putin in Russia’s war of terror and conquest in Ukraine. The sanctions-relief lifelines he’s thrown to Moscow and everything else over the past few days show that the moral squalor of the president’s various interventions can’t be described any other way, so the time has come for some serious decision-making in the NATO capitals.
Careful what you wish for.
Ukraine is still recording issues with the Starlink network, sources within the defence ministry say, after Donald Trump said limits on the satellite uplink had been reversed by Elon Musk.
The sources told the BBC that instances of drones experiencing connection loss at speeds of 161km/h (100mph) were being recorded, hampering military operations.
The US president had denied instructing the tech billionaire to restrict connectivity to Starlink’s military-grade counterpart, Starshield, before saying on Thursday that Musk had “put it back”.
At the start of the year, Russian troops began infiltrating deep behind Ukrainian lines several miles and a river away from their own positions.
They hadn’t crossed through minefields or through treelines stalked by drones. They had gone under them.
It wasn’t the first time Russian soldiers had used hundreds of miles of Soviet-era gas pipelines to crawl behind Ukrainian positions to cut their way through to the surface and stage surprise attacks. But near the city of Kupyansk, Ukraine is now fighting back underground, leading to pitched battles in the dark to stem the Russians’ subterranean advance.
United States Special Envoy Steve Witkoff said that there will soon be trilateral conversations between Russia, Ukraine, and the U.S. in hopes of getting the war to end.
Witkoff and Special Envoy Jared Kushner have been holding conversations with both Ukrainian and Russian representatives, including Russian president Vladimir Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, even though tensions have recently strained between Trump and Zelensky in light of a recent U.S.-Russia diesel agreement.
No Country for Free Money:
The Begging Stops Here https://t.co/9xNJbeZo04— The United Spot (@TheUnitedSpot__) October 20, 2026
Ukrainians have died because Kyiv is still not receiving reliable US warnings of incoming Russian attacks, according to a key adviser to President Volodymyr Zelensky.
Serhii “Flash” Beskrestnov told the BBC that lives had been lost because there had not been time to warn citizens about ballistic missile strikes, saying: “It’s dangerous… I think it’s really very bad… People [have] already died.”
The adviser also said restrictions to Ukraine’s use of the Starlink internet network were ongoing.
Donald Trump warned Volodymyr Zelensky to “remember” their Oval Office fallout as he repeated calls for the Ukrainian leader to resign.
Mr Trump continued his attacks against Mr Zelensky on Monday, suggesting he should “step aside” from negotiations to end the war.
Tensions between Mr Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart have worsened in recent weeks. On Sunday, Ukraine defied Mr Trump’s demand to stop bombing Russian energy infrastructure.
