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Russia publishes names of fallen Ukrainian soldiers disowned by Kiev

RT | June 8, 2025

Russian officials have unveiled the identities of nearly 100 fallen Ukrainian soldiers who were among the more than 6,000 Moscow has offered to return to Kiev in a unilateral humanitarian gesture during the latest round of direct talks in Istanbul on Monday.

The governor of Russia’s Zaporozhye Region, Evgeny Balitsky, published the first six pages containing 97 names, identification documents, and places of death on Saturday evening, after Ukraine reportedly refused to receive the remains of thousands of its troops.

“We are beginning to publish lists of identified bodies so that relatives can find their dead,” he wrote. “We understand that Kiev has this data, but they are deliberately hiding it from the public.”

The Istanbul talks resulted in an agreement to exchange at least 1,000 prisoners on both sides, including critically ill and younger detainees. Russia also offered to return over 6,000 fallen Ukrainian soldiers for proper burial as part of a unilateral humanitarian initiative.

The first convoy, carrying the remains of 1,212 troops, arrived at the designated exchange point on Saturday – but the Ukrainian side failed to appear, according to Lieutenant General Alexander Zorin, a member of the Russian negotiating team.

“The Ukrainian side unexpectedly postponed both the acceptance of bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war for an indefinite period,” Zorin said.

Russia’s lead negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, confirmed that Kiev had been handed a list of 640 wounded and young prisoners but did not show up at the exchange site. “The reasons provided were various and rather strange,” he said, urging Kiev to “adhere strictly to the schedule and agreements” and ensure the dead receive a proper burial.

Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters has denied the accusations, claiming that both sides have been preparing for the prisoner and body exchanges. Ukrainian media later reported that the process had been postponed until next week, though no official new date has been confirmed.

Balitsky accused Kiev of deliberately obstructing the return of the bodies, alleging that Ukrainian authorities are trying to conceal the scale of their military losses and avoid paying compensation to the families of the dead.

“As long as a Ukrainian soldier is listed as missing, his family will not receive a single hryvnia in aid,” the governor said. “This is a calculated attempt to hide the losses and save money.”

The refusal to retrieve the bodies is part of a broader pattern of violations by Ukraine, Balitsky argued, claiming Kiev “does not even attempt to honor agreements.” He also blamed Western countries for “derailing peaceful resolution efforts” by continuing to arm Kiev and escalate the conflict.

June 8, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Ukraine halts prisoner swap – Russian MOD

RT | June 7, 2025

Kiev has postponed a previously agreed prisoner swap with Moscow, according to Russian Lt. Gen. Alexander Zorin, speaking for the Defense Ministry. The trade would also include the repatriation of over 6,000 bodies of deceased Ukrainian soldiers, he added in a statement published on Saturday.

“Russia handed over to the Ukrainian side a list of 640 names, but the latter is so far refraining from setting a date for the return of these individuals,” said Zorin, who was a member of Moscow’s negotiating team in Istanbul. He explained that the exchange agreement covers two groups of prisoners – an “all-for-all” swap of wounded and critically ill, and those under 25 years old.

According to Zorin, Moscow began the repatriation on Friday, with a convoy containing 1,212 bodies reaching the exchange point. He added that four other convoys, each carrying 1,200 sets of remains, are ready for transfer.

Russia decided to return the remains of over 6,000 slain Ukrainian soldiers in a unilateral humanitarian gesture during the talks in Istanbul on Monday. Both sides also agreed to exchange 1,200 prisoners each.

“We confirm our full readiness to implement the Istanbul agreements. We are prepared to transfer all bodies and proceed with the prisoner exchange as agreed,” Zorin stressed.

Earlier on Saturday, Moscow’s lead negotiator in the peace talks with Kiev, Vladimir Medinsky, also claimed that Ukraine would not accept the bodies of its fallen troops, and had given “strange reasons” for its decision. According to Medinsky, the Ukrainian team “did not even arrive at the exchange site.”

“We call on Kiev to strictly adhere to the schedule and all agreements that were reached, and to immediately begin the exchange” so that the wounded can return home and the dead receive a proper burial, he urged.

The Ukrainian side has denied Russia’s claims, stating that over the past week, teams from both sides have been working on the repatriation of bodies and the exchange of prisoners. “Unfortunately, instead of a constructive dialogue, we are once again faced with manipulation and attempts to use sensitive humanitarian topics for informational purposes,” Ukraine’s Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said in a statement on Sunday.

June 7, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | 1 Comment

Democratic Candidate Lee Jae-myung Wins South Korea’s Presidential Election

Sputnik – 04.06.2025

The candidate from the opposition Democratic Party of Korea (DP), Lee Jae-myung, has won South Korea’s presidential election after 100% of the ballots were counted, the South Korea’s National Election Commission said on Tuesday.

Lee received 49.42% of the vote, while his rival from the ruling conservative People Power Party (PPP), Kim Moon-soo, won 41.15% of the vote, Lee Jun-seok of the New Reform Party secured 8.34%, Democratic Labor Party candidate Kwon Young-guk received 0.98% of the vote, and independent candidate Song Jin-ho secured 0.1% of the vote.

Lee competed against Yoon Suk-yeol for the presidency in 2022.

He vowed to repair ties with China and North Korea, as well as to stop being “submissive” toward Japan. Lee also warned against South Korea being “dragged” into the proxy war in Ukraine.

June 4, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | | Leave a comment

Poland’s New Prez Nawrocki: Not Your Typical Pro-Ukraine Hero

By Svetlana Ekimenko – Sputnik – 02.06.2025

Opposition candidate Karol Nawrocki has been elected as the president of Poland, according to data published on the official website of the election commission. Nawrocki received 50.9% of the votes, just ahead of Warsaw Mayor Rafal Trzaskowski (49.1%), Prime Minister Donald Tusk’s ally.

Poland’s stance on the Ukrainian crisis may change after the presidential election, as the country’s politicians and ordinary people alike seem increasingly reluctant to support Zelensky’s regime.

Here is a closer look at where Karol Nawrocki stands on Ukraine and other major issues.

No Free Pass for Ukraine

Nawrocki does not see it in either the European Union or NATO until bilateral issues like the 1943 Volyn massacre committed by Ukrainian nationalists during WWII are addressed.

  • While promising support, he blasted Volodymyr Zelensky for “ingratitude”.
  • Accused “European elites” (plus their “butler” Tusk) of fueling the war.
  • Unequivocally will not deploy Polish troops to Ukraine.
  • Accused Ukrainian refugees of taking advantage of Polish generosity, vowed to shield Polish farmers and truckers from unfair Ukrainian competition.
  • Opposes any Ukraine-EU trade liberalization.

On Russia

Karol Nawrocki swerved from telling Radio ZET that maintaining diplomatic ties with Russia was “not good for Poland,” to claiming he was ready to sit down at the negotiating table with Russian President Vladimir Putin.

As former head of the Institute of National Remembrance (IPN), he oversaw demolition of Soviet war monuments—earning himself a spot on the Russian Interior Ministry’s “wanted” list of Polish nationals in 2024.

Skepticism Towards EU

  • Karol Nawrocki called the EU weak and chaotic, citing its exclusion from Ukraine peace talks.
  • He pledged to not allow the liberalization of trade between the EU and Ukraine.
  • Nawrocki vowed to keep Poland on the zloty, not the euro.

June 2, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | Leave a comment

What Did President Trump Know When President Putin’s Helicopter Came Under Ukrainian Drone Attack in Kursk?

By John Helmer | Dances With Bears | May 30, 2025

The first report came from RIA-Novosti, the Russian state news agency, on May 25 at 13:24.

“President Vladimir Putin’s helicopter (lead image, top) was in the epicentre of repelling a large-scale attack by Ukrainian Armed Forces drones during a visit to the Kursk region, said Yury Dashkin [Major General in command of the 32nd Air Defence Division , lead image, below) commander of the air defence division in whose area of responsibility the region is located. According to him, during the president’s visit, the Ukrainian military launched an ‘unprecedented attack,’ with 46 drones destroyed by the air defence system. ‘At the same time, we conducted an anti-aircraft battle and ensured the safety of the president’s helicopter flight in the air. [The helicopter was] actually in the epicentre of repelling a massive drone attack,’ Dashkin said.”

The drone attack on Kursk had taken place five days earlier, on May 20. Putin’s visit to the region, his meetings with local officials, the region governor, engineers and scientists at the Kurchatov nuclear power plant, and local medical, rescue and social welfare volunteers was not reported by the Kremlin website until the following morning. The report of the attack on the helicopter was kept secret at the time. The Kremlin has made no comment on the later press reports.

Note Gen Dashkin’s precise wording: he did not claim the President’s helicopter was targeted directly; he did not say Putin was on board at the time (the President also travelled in Kursk by motorcade); he did not reveal whether there was more than one helicopter in the presidential flight to Kursk; he did not say whether the air defence command was spoofing the electronic tracking technology which the US and the Ukrainians have been using for their drone and missile attacks in recent days.

The Kremlin pool reporter for Kommersant, Andrei Kolesnikov, reported on Putin’s movements and meetings after the 24-hour security delay. Kolesnikov noted in passing: “The situation was not cloudless: when the cortege of the president moved around the region, there were drones of the APU in the sky – they cannot be ignored on the video footage, which I saw. However, the region lives in such an environment not for the first year, as you know — so Vladimir Putin should have recognized how the region is working.”

Pick-up of the May 25 report by Newsweek of the US conceded: “This is the first known instance in which the Russian president is reported to have flown through an active drone attack.”

The magazine then adopted the Ukrainian version of what had happened. “Ukrainian officials haven’t comment on the alleged attack on Putin, but Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that his country has every right to kill Putin if the opportunity arises, if doing so would protect Ukraine and its people. Zelensky told The Sun in Kyiv in November 2023 that he has lost track of the number of times Moscow has attempted to assassinate him since Putin launched a full-scale invasion of his country. ‘That’s war, and Ukraine has all the rights to defend our land,’ the Ukrainian leader said when asked if Kyiv would take a chance to assassinate Putin if such an opportunity arose.”

“Zelensky is no longer in Kiev,” a Moscow source in a position to know commented this week. “He spends much of his time travelling around the world, and then in a command post in Poland. He simulates his presence in country for PR purposes. He only goes to Kiev when foreign government officials visit.” In March 2022 Putin told former Israeli prime minister Naftali Bennett that he would not order an assassination strike on Zelensky.

Five years later, has Zelensky made an attempt against Putin? what role are the US electronic warfare forces playing in tracking Putin’s movements and targeting his position? When Trump tweeted on May 27 that Putin is “playing with fire!” had Trump fired first – and missed?

Since the Kursk incident, the public White House log records that Trump had received his weekly intelligence briefing at 11 am on May 22, and then again at the same time on May 29. There is no record yet that Trump has responded to a reporter’s question on the incident.

What Trump knew in advance and after the Kursk incident, and what message the Kremlin is sending by revealing the details now, are discussed with Chris Cook in this Gorilla Radio broadcast from Victoria, BC, on May 28. Listen from Minute 31:55.

Source: https://gradio.substack.com/p/gorilla-radio-with-chris-cook-dave-73c — Min 31:55

Chris Cook has hosted Gorilla Radio, broadcast/webcasting since 1999. Click on the archive here; The Gorilla Radio blog is at https://gorillaradioblog.blogspot.com/ and on Telegram at https://t.me/gorillaradio2024

May 30, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

U.S. Cancels Contracts Worth $766 Million for Moderna Bird Flu Vaccine After ‘Rigorous Review’

By Michael Nevradakis, Ph.D. | The Defender | May 29, 2025

The Trump administration cancelled two contracts totaling $766 million with Moderna for the development of its mRNA-1018 vaccine for the H5N1 strain of bird flu, citing safety and efficacy concerns identified during its clinical trials, the U.S. Department of Health and Human Services (HHS) has confirmed.

“After a rigorous review, we concluded that continued investment in Moderna’s H5N1 mRNA vaccine was not scientifically or ethically justifiable,” HHS Communications Director Andrew Nixon told The Defender.

“This is not simply about efficacy — it’s about safety, integrity and trust. The reality is that mRNA technology remains under-tested, and we are not going to spend taxpayer dollars repeating the mistakes of the last administration, which concealed legitimate safety concerns from the public,” Nixon said.

Moderna first revealed the cancellation of the two awards in a statement published Wednesday. Moderna also announced “positive interim data” from its Phase 1 and 2 clinical trials for mRNA-1018.

“While the termination of funding from HHS adds uncertainty, we are pleased by the robust immune response and safety profile observed in this interim analysis,” Moderna said in its statement.

Last year, HHS awarded Moderna $176 million for the late-stage development of the mRNA-1018 vaccine. In the final days of the Biden administration in January, HHS granted Moderna $590 million to accelerate the development of its bird flu vaccine and expand clinical studies for vaccines targeting five other flu virus subtypes.

‘A major policy shift away from dangerous mRNA injection programs’

Some scientists criticized the cancellation of the awards. Dr. Ashish Jha, dean of the Brown University School of Public Health and the Biden administration’s COVID-19 response coordinator, told CNN, “The attack on mRNA vaccines is beyond absurd” and that “we will come to regret this” if bird flu starts spreading between humans.

However, epidemiologist Nicolas Hulscher called the news “a very positive development” that “marks a major policy shift away from dangerous mRNA injection programs.”

Vermont-based lawyer and farmer John Klar called it a “sensible decision,” noting the seasonal nature of the virus and its waning virulence.

Dr. Clayton Baker, an internal medicine physician, called the contract cancellation “absolutely the right decision.”

“The mRNA gene therapy platform, as demonstrated by the multiple toxicities of the COVID-19 shots, is fundamentally unsafe and should be removed from use altogether,” Baker said.

Baker suggested that the timing of the January 2025 grant, just days before the start of President Donald Trump’s second term, was likely intended to “promote the bird flu panic that was perpetrated by the outgoing administration, in order to derail the new administration.”

HHS told Reuters earlier this year that it would review agreements the Biden administration made for vaccine production. In March, HHS denied rumors that it was considering cancelling funding for mRNA vaccine research.

In February, the U.S. Department of Agriculture announced a $1 billion plan to combat the spread of bird flu among chickens. The plan included a strategy to develop vaccines for chickens, but not for humans.

According to Reuters, Moderna “has been banking on revenue from newer mRNA shots, including its bird flu vaccine and experimental COVID-flu combination vaccine, to make up for waning post-pandemic demand for its COVID vaccine.” The company “plans to explore alternatives for late-stage development and manufacturing” of its bird flu vaccine.

News of the canceled contracts came just days after Moderna withdrew its application for U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) approval of its mRNA-1083 combination flu and COVID-19 vaccine.

Last week, Reuters reported that Moderna’s decision to withdraw its application came amid “increased regulatory scrutiny of the vaccine approval process since Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took the top U.S. health job earlier this year.”

Markets did not immediately react to news of the grants’ cancellation. Moderna shares remained flat during after-hours trading Wednesday, but were up by over 2.6% by press time Thursday.

No human bird flu cases reported in three months

According to Reuters, bird flu has infected 70 people in the past year, mostly farm workers, but “has spread aggressively among cattle herds and poultry flocks.”

In January, a Louisiana man who was hospitalized with the first severe case of bird flu in the U.S. died — the first bird flu-related death in the U.S. and all of North America. However, the man, who was older than 65, had underlying medical conditions, and it remains unclear whether bird flu directly caused his death.

There have been no new human bird flu cases in three months, The Associated Press (AP) reported May 19.

Dr. Meryl Nass, an expert on biological warfare and founder of Door to Freedom, said, “H5N1 was a dangerous virus if you caught it from a chicken years ago.” But it has never spread person-to-person, and has “mutated to cause extremely mild disease in almost all humans that have caught it over the past five to 10 years.”

Nass said this makes a new bird flu vaccine for humans unnecessary. “There is absolutely no reason why the United States needs another bird flu vaccine, and there is even less reason to develop an mRNA vaccine because the platform itself is dangerous.”

Bird flu scare a ‘propaganda campaign’

Mainstream media outlets and many scientists continue to suggest that bird flu poses an imminent threat to humans, in what Dr. Richard Bartlett, an emergency room director, former Texas Department of Health and Human Services advisory council member, and expert on bird flu, called a “propaganda campaign.”

“The messaging has been that bird flu spread from penguins to sea lions, to a western Minnesota goat, to Texas dairy cattle and finally to a dairy farmer with red eyes. It’s been a two-year marketing campaign,” Bartlett said.

Bartlett said the messaging is intended to “manufacture the perception of a need for new mRNA products — despite the absence of long-term safety data.”

Last year, former FDA Commissioner Robert Califf warned that a potential bird flu pandemic could have a 25% mortality rate. Jeremy Farrar, Ph.D., then the World Health Organization’s chief scientist, warned that bird flu has an “extremely high” mortality rate for humans and could mutate to pass between humans.

In December 2024, Dr. Leana Wen, the former commissioner of the Baltimore City Health Department and a professor of public health at George Washington University, said the outgoing Biden administration had not done enough to address bird flu and criticized the lack of availability of a bird flu vaccine.

After the start of Trump’s second term and the implementation of funding cuts to government health agencies, mainstream media reports suggested the cuts were placing the public at risk of a worsening bird flu outbreak.

In February, Reuters reported the cuts “disrupted the U.S. response to bird flu as the outbreak worsens,” resulting in “anxiety among federal health staff that critical information about bird flu will not be disseminated in a timely manner or at all.”

In April, USA Today reported that cuts affecting the FDA’s Center for Veterinary Medicine “will hamper the FDA’s ability to respond to animal disease outbreaks, including bird flu, and protect public health.”

Also that month, virologists from 40 countries published a report in The Lancet urging the Trump administration to prepare for a bird flu pandemic, according to Gavi, the Vaccine Alliance.

The report was funded by the Bill & Melinda Gates Foundation, which in 1999 established Gavi. The Gates Foundation holds one of the four permanent seats on Gavi’s board and continues to heavily fund the organization.

According to the AP, “experts are puzzling over why reports of new human cases have stopped” in the last three months. The report suggests that infections potentially aren’t being detected, that immigrant farm workers may be afraid to be tested, and that efforts to find bird flu cases were “weakened by government cuts.”

Baker said such scenarios are unlikely to account for the lack of recent bird flu cases. “What does this say about the severity of the illness in humans? It says that the illness is either mild or entirely asymptomatic and that there’s no need for a vaccine for an asymptomatic condition.”

U.S. ‘poured a king’s ransom’ into bird flu vaccine development

Nass said that the FDA has already licensed three vaccines for H5N1 and that “there have been dozens of experimental bird flu vaccines that were never taken to licensure. The U.S. government “has already poured a king’s ransom” into funding these vaccines, even though bird flu has never spread between humans.

Baker said that instead of funding new bird flu vaccines, the U.S. government should “stop the gain-of-function style manipulation of bird flu into a bioweapon, which takes place at the Kawaoka lab at the University of Wisconsin and the Southeast Poultry Research Laboratory in Athens, Georgia, as well as at other labs.”

Gain-of-function research increases the transmissibility or virulence of viruses and is often used in vaccine development. Earlier this month, Trump issued an executive order pausing gain-of-function research in the U.S. for 120 days while a new regulatory framework is developed. The order also ended U.S. funding for such research in some countries.

“Gain-of-function research produces human pathogens, the process is driven by fear in the media, and then proprietary vaccines are presented as the solution,” Baker said. “It needs to end.”

Recently, there have been growing calls among scientists for a moratorium or ban on mRNA vaccines, including a petition pending before the FDA.

This article was originally published by The Defender — Children’s Health Defense’s News & Views Website under Creative Commons license CC BY-NC-ND 4.0. Please consider subscribing to The Defender or donating to Children’s Health Defense.

May 29, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | Leave a comment

Greenland eyes Chinese investment amid ‘new world order’

RT | May 27, 2025

Greenland is weighing the possibility of inviting Chinese investment to develop its mining sector in light of tensions with the US and limited engagement with the EU, the island’s business and mineral resources minister, Naaja Nathanielsen, told the Financial Times on Tuesday.

An autonomous territory of Denmark, Greenland holds vast but hard-to-exploit reserves of minerals such as gold and copper. Foreign capital is essential for developing the resources, yet recent geopolitical tensions have made it difficult to secure reliable partnerships.

“We are trying to figure out what the new world order looks like,” Nathanielsen said, adding that Greenland was “having a difficult time finding [its] footing” in evolving relationships with its Western allies.

The Arctic island signed a memorandum of understanding with the US on mineral development during President Donald Trump’s first term. However, according to Nathanielsen, it’s coming to an end. The government in Nuuk had tried, unsuccessfully, to renew it during the administration of former US President Joe Biden.

Following Trump’s return to office in January, Greenland hoped to revive discussions of renewing the memorandum. Instead, the US president talked about purchasing the island and refused to rule out using military force to assert US sovereignty over it.

Nathanielsen called such statements “disrespectful and distasteful,” adding that Greenland “has no wish to be American.”

China has shown interest in the Arctic’s mineral wealth, including oil, gas, and minerals. It has invested in Russian energy projects and has expressed interest in Greenland’s mining sector. No Chinese companies, however, are currently operating active mines in Greenland, although one firm holds a minority stake in an inactive project.

According to Nathanielsen, Chinese investors might be holding back because they don’t want “to provoke anything.”

“In those terms, Chinese investment is of course problematic, but so, to some extent, is American,” she said.

Greenland would prefer closer cooperation with the EU, which aligns more closely with its environmental priorities, the minister said. However, the bloc’s engagement has been slow, with only one project, led by a Danish-French consortium, currently in development. The mine is expected to begin operations within five years.

At present, Greenland has two functioning mines: one for gold, operated by the Icelandic-Canadian firm Amaroq Minerals, and another for anorthosite, a light-colored industrial rock, managed by a subsidiary of Canada’s Hudson Resources.

May 27, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | 1 Comment

MEPs urge Brussels to cut all funding for Budapest

RT | May 23, 2025

Over 20 members of the European Parliament have urged the European Commission to immediately freeze all EU funding to Hungary as a means of putting pressure on Prime Minister Viktor Orban’s government. The demand comes as the bloc’s foreign ministers prepare to weigh potential sanctions, including a suspension of Budapest’s voting rights.

In a letter sent Tuesday to Budget Commissioner Piotr Serafin and Justice Commissioner Michael McGrath, 26 MEPs accused Hungary of “violating EU values and EU laws.” They cited four specific actions, including a March law that effectively bans pride parades in Hungary, a move consistent with Orban’s rejection of “LGBT ideology.”

The lawmakers also blasted proposed Hungarian legislation that would tighten oversight of political organizations receiving foreign funding, which critics argue would suppress “civil society.”

The MEPs alleged that Budapest’s policies indicate that all EU funding for Hungary risks being misused and that a full freeze would be “proportionate” under the circumstances.

Hungarian MEP Csaba Domotor pushed back against the accusations, arguing that the targeted organizations serve foreign interests with grants they receive from the EU, George Soros’ Open Society Foundation, and the recently defunded US Agency for International Development (USAID).

Hungary has repeatedly faced EU criticism for its conservative social policies, which don’t align with the bloc’s pro-LGBT agenda, and regulations requiring more transparency from foreign-funded organizations.

Budapest has also clashed with Brussels over support for Kiev and anti-Russian sanctions. Orban has warned that admitting Ukraine into the European Union risks drawing the bloc into the ongoing military conflict and called the European Commission’s plans to end all imports of Russian energy by the end of 2027 “absolute insanity.”

Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto has said that such a move would sharply increase energy prices across the EU, seriously undermine member states’ national sovereignty, and harm European businesses.

Some EU officials, including Estonian Foreign Minister Margus Tsahkna, have advocated for stronger action, such as triggering Article 7 of the EU Treaty to strip Hungary of its voting rights. Relevant proceedings against Hungary were launched in 2018.

The EU’s General Affairs Council, which is comprised of foreign and European affairs ministers from member states, is scheduled to discuss Hungary’s Article 7 case for the eighth time next Tuesday, according to the official agenda.

May 23, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

Putin outlines results Moscow seeks in Ukraine

RT | May 18, 2025

Russia is seeking to achieve “lasting and sustainable peace” by eliminating the root causes of the Ukraine conflict, President Vladimir Putin has said, in an extract of an interview released by Russia 1 TV on Sunday.

In a clip posted by journalist Pavel Zarubin on Telegram, Putin stated that Russia has “enough strength and resources to bring what was started in 2022 to its logical conclusion” while accomplishing Moscow’s key goals.

Russia wants to “eliminate the causes that caused this crisis, create conditions for long-term sustainable peace and ensure the security of the Russian state and the interests of our people in those territories that we always talk about,” he added.

The president was apparently referring to Crimea, the Donetsk and Lugansk People’s Republics, and the regions of Kherson and Zaporozhye, which overwhelmingly voted in favor of joining Russia in referendums in 2014 and 2022.

People in these former Ukrainian territories “consider Russian to be their native language” and see Russia as their homeland, he said.

Commenting on the ongoing diplomatic engagement with the US to settle the conflict, Putin acknowledged that “the American people, including their president [Donald Trump] have their own national interests.”

“We respect that, and expect to be treated the same way,” he added.

Putin’s remarks come on the heels of the first direct Russia-Ukraine talks since 2022. As a result of Turkish-mediated negotiations in Istanbul, both sides agreed to exchange lists of conditions for a potential ceasefire, conduct a major prisoner swap, and discuss a follow-up meeting. The Kremlin has not ruled out direct talks between Putin and Ukraine’s Vladimir Zelensky if the ongoing peace efforts result in progress and firm agreements.

Following the talks, US President Donald Trump announced he would hold a phone call with his Russian counterpart on Monday, which would focus on trade and resolving the Russia-Ukraine conflict. Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov discussed the Istanbul negotiations with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who welcomed the results of the talks.

May 18, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , | 2 Comments

Russia, Ukraine prepare for peace by getting ready for war

By M. K. BHADRAKUMAR | Indian Punchline | May 17, 2025 

May 16 will stand out as a turning point, for good or bad, in the Ukraine conflict. The main thing is, Russia-Ukraine ‘peace talks’ have resumed in Istanbul and will hopefully carry forward the threads of the draft agreement negotiated in March 2022. But caveats must be added. The fact that it took Turkish President Recep Erdogan three hours to persuade Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to green light the negotiations speaks for itself. 

On the other hand, Zelensky showed remarkable flexibility by violating his own presidential decree banning any such negotiations on the part of Ukrainian officials other than himself with Russian officials. Turkey showed again that it remains a significant influencer in the Ukraine conflict. 

The result was an extraordinary spectacle. Reports mention that the Russian delegation had not one but three meetings, in fact — with a Turkish-American team followed by a Turkish-American-Ukrainian team and culminating in an exclusive huddle with the Ukrainian team. 

The ‘bilateral’ Russian-Ukrainian negotiations reportedly touched on the topics of ceasefire options in the Ukraine conflict; a major prisoner exchange; a potential meeting between Zelensky and Russian president Vladimir Putin; an agreement in principle to hold a follow-up meeting and so on. 

The Ukrainian media reported that the Russian side repeated their demands for Kiev’s forces to vacate the remaining parts of the four eastern and southern regions that Moscow has annexed. Ukraine of course rejected the demand. Indeed, these talking points at the Istanbul meeting would have been a plateful for a meeting that lasted only for an hour and forty minutes. 

Turkiye has joined as a stakeholder, as the pacemaking in Ukraine provides an opportunity for it to work closely with the US, which could have positive fallouts for the two main discords that put strains on it in the recent years — Syria and the Kurdish problem. The Kurdistan Workers’ Party (PKK) has taken a historic decision on May 12 to give up armed struggle and dissolve itself, which opens the possibility to end decades of political violence in Turkiye. The ‘peacemaker president’ in the White House can help Ankara to mediate a Kurdish settlement. 

Turkiye has promoted the US’ normalisation with the Islamist government in Damascus. Trump’s meeting with Syrian President Ahmed al-Sharaa in Riyadh on Wednesday alongside the lifting of Washington’s sanctions against Syria, which shake up the geopolitics of the Middle East, will bring Turkiye and the US on the same page. 

Notably, all this is happening against the backdrop of a ‘westernist’ tilt in the Turkish foreign policies during the past year following Erdogan’s re-election as president. Traditionally, the equations between Trump and Erdogan remained cordial and friendly. Suffice to say, Trump can expect Erdogan’s cooperation in the peacemaking in Ukraine talks, where the Turkish leader’s excellent equations with Zelensky are an added factor, which was on display in Ankara yesterday. 

Erdogan held Zelensky’s hand through thick and thin. The high-tech Turkish drones supplied to Ukraine, which are to be manufactured locally,  will significantly boost Kiev’s military capability. Turkiye, as the inheritor of the Ottoman legacy, is home away from home for an influential Tatar community. Tatar language is an Oghuz language descended from Ottoman Turkish. In fact, Turkey has refused to recognise Crimea as part of Russia. Ukrainian Defence Minister, a close associate of Zelensky, is an ethnic Tatar.   

Moscow understands all this. Putin hastened to put behind the friction in Russo-Turkish relations in the downstream of the regime change in Syria last December to reach out to Erdogan on May 11 to discuss the direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul. The Kremlin readout said Erdogan “expressed his full support for Russia’s proposal and emphasised his willingness to provide a venue for the talks in Istanbul. The Turkish side will offer all possible assistance in organising and holding talks aimed at achieving sustainable peace… The leaders have also expressed mutual interest in further expanding the bilateral ties in trade and investment and, in particular, implementing joint strategic projects in energy.”

Erdogan is a difficult interlocutor to handle but Putin has been largely successful in keeping the relationship stable and (mostly) predictable. The Turkish factor can be a game changer if at some point Zelensky ceases to be the captive of the CoW4 (the four European musketeers of the so-called ‘coalition of the willing’ — Britain, France, Germany and Poland.) Trust Erdogan to shift gears to an activist role. 

On the whole, Russia has scored a diplomatic victory insofar as its initiative on ‘Ukraine direct talks without preconditions’ has found acceptability with Trump. The format of yesterday’s talks implied a resumption of the Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul in 2022. Putin manoeuvred brilliantly to scatter the game plan of the CoW4 which strove to pull aside Trump incrementally and become party to continuing the war in Ukraine. 

The CoW4 felt encouraged lately by a certain perception that Trump  may impose draconian sanctions if Russia lacked sincerity of purpose. But so far, Trump has remained engaged with Putin. Last week, Trump stated that a breakthrough in the Ukraine conflict will be possible only out of a summit between him and Putin. Suffice to say, the dramatic happenings in Turkey yesterday signify a setback to the CoW4. 

The leader of the Russian delegation and presidential aide Vladimir Medinsky (who also headed the Russian team at the talks in Istanbul in 2022) has told the media that Moscow is “satisfied” with the results of the talks and is ready to “resume contacts” with Kiev. 

That said, Moscow will not let down its guard either. Putin held a briefing session on May 15 with the permanent members of the Security Council, Russia’s highest policymaking body, to deliberate on the upcoming Istanbul talks, which was attended by the members of the Russian negotiating group. The Kremlin readout stated that Putin “set tasks and charted the negotiating position” of the Russian delegation in Istanbul.

On the other hand, the Kremlin also asserted simultaneously that no matter the talks in Istanbul, Russia’s military operations in Ukraine shall continue. With immaculate timing, Putin chose May 15 to also make the stunning announcement of the appointment of Colonel-General Andrey Mordvichev (nicknamed “General Breakthrough”) as the Commander of the Russian Ground Forces. 

Gen. Mordvichev has a tough reputation as the commander of the 8th Guards Combined Arms Army of Russia’s Southern Military District, which was heavily involved in the devastating 2022 siege of Mariupol, and in the Battle of Avdiivka in 2023-2024, a turning point in the conflict in Ukraine. Gen. Mordvichev’s appointment comes amidst reports claiming that Russia is preparing to launch a major new offensive in Ukraine. Ukraine claims that over 600,000 Russian troops are presently deployed in Ukraine.

But then, Zelensky is also moving on a dual track. Ukraine’s Finance Minister Sergeii Marchenko, 43, told a high-level panel at the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development annual meeting on March 14 in London, “To prepare for peace, you have to get ready for war. We have to plan. You may call me a cynic, but actually I’m just a Finance Minister.”  

May 17, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , , , | 1 Comment

Russia-Ukraine talks conclude – media

RT | May 16, 2025

Direct talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul have ended, with the two delegations departing from the venue and press statements being prepared, a TASS source has said.

The head of the Ukrainian delegation, Defense Minister Rustem Umerov, stated that Friday’s talks at Dolmabahce Palace had focused on a prisoner exchange and versions of a potential ceasefire, according to RBK-Ukraine.

A potential meeting between Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin was also reportedly raised, and Umerov added that an update on possible new negotiations would be shared soon.

He also stated that both delegations had agreed to an exchange involving 1,000 prisoners from each side. Russia’s chief negotiator, Vladimir Medinsky, also confirmed that an exchange is being prepared.

Medinsky added that Kiev had requested a meeting between Putin and Zelensky, and that Moscow has taken note of the proposal. He stated that overall, the Russian delegation was satisfied with the outcome of the talks and is ready to continue contacts.

According to Medinsky, Russia and Ukraine will each present their detailed vision of a possible ceasefire, after which the negotiations will continue.

The talks had been expected to begin on Thursday, after Putin suggested resuming the negotiations which had been broken off in Istanbul three years ago.

The Russian team waited for the Ukrainian delegation to arrive for an entire day, although Zelensky only named his delegation on Thursday evening.

Moscow and Ukraine last held direct talks in April 2022. Following initial reports that an agreement had been reached, Kiev unilaterally withdrew from the talks. Putin later blamed Western interference and, in particular, then-UK Prime Minister Boris Johnson, who had reportedly urged Kiev to “just continue fighting,” for derailing the peace process.

Russia, which had withdrawn its forces from the outskirts of Kiev as a goodwill gesture, later accused Ukraine of backtracking, saying it had lost trust in kiev’s negotiators.

May 16, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

‘Travesty of justice’: Iranian student self-deports after weeks in US custody

A file photo of Alireza Doroudi, who was detained by US immigration officials in March 2025.
Press TV – May 9, 2025

An Iranian doctoral student at the University of Alabama has been forced to self-deport after six weeks of detention over unsubstantiated charges as the US administration ramps up pressure on foreign students and immigrants.

Alireza Doroudi was detained by immigration officials in March as part of US President Donald Trump’s widespread immigration crackdown and has been held at a facility in Jena, Louisiana, over 480 kilometers from where he lived with his fiancée, Sama Bajgani, in Alabama.

The State Department accused Doroudi at the time of posing “significant national security concerns,” with Doroudi’s lawyer, David Rozas, saying the US government had not offered any evidence to support the claim.

Rozas said Doroudi, a mechanical engineering student at the University of Alabama who entered the United States legally in January 2023 on a student visa, had decided to self-deport and stop fighting deportation after the judge in the case, Maithe Gonzalez, gave him until the end of May to refile motions and denied Doroudi bond.

Bajgani said he has no criminal record, entered the country legally and was not politically outspoken like other students who have been targeted.

Describing her fiancé as a “nerd” and “a really big thinker” who spent long days in the lab, Bajgani said Doroudi does not deserve what happened to him and now the life they built in Alabama is over.

“I am not happy about the whole thing that happened to us, and I need time to grieve for what I am going to put behind and leave,” she said. “All the dreams, friendships and dreams we had with each other.”

In a letter to Bajgani from behind bars in April, Doroudi called his detention a “pure injustice.”

“I didn’t cause any trouble in this country,” he said. “I didn’t enter illegally. I followed all the legal paths.”

Rozas said he has not seen such a case in his 21 years as an immigration attorney, underlining that the authorities had denied his client due process and forced him to choose between indefinite detention and self-deporting.

“I’m absolutely devastated and I think it’s a travesty of justice,” Rozas said. “The government has provided no evidence in the record that Mr. Doroudi poses any national security threat.”

More than 1,000 international students across the US have had their visas or legal status revoked since late March, according to an Associated Press review of university statements and correspondence with school officials.

They included some who took part in mass rallies across the US academic facilities in support of Palestinians and against Israel’s genocidal war in the besieged Gaza Strip.

Rumeysa Ozturk, a Turkish graduate student at Tufts University in Somerville, Massachusetts, was detained in March over accusations by the Department of Homeland Security of engaging “in activities in support of Hamas” after writing an opinion piece.

The article called on Tufts to “acknowledge the Palestinian genocide,” and to “disclose its investments and divest from companies with direct or indirect ties to Israel.”

Columbia University students Mahmoud Khalil and Mohsen Mahdawi have also been placed under detention in relation to their alleged support for Palestine.

Like in Doroudi and Ozturk’s cases, the federal government has relied on vague claims that Khalil and Mahdawi pose “national security threats” to justify detaining them despite their status as legal residents.

May 9, 2025 Posted by | Aletho News | , | Leave a comment

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