Putin warns ‘western elites’ undermining Russia-US peace talks

Vladimir Putinpresident

We realise that not everyone is happy with the resumption of the Russian-American contacts,

Putin told a meeting of the board of his Federal Security Service, successor to the feared Soviet KGB

We need to take this into account and use all possibilities of diplomacy and special services to disrupt such attempts.

He vowed

The FSB needs to continue its systematic work in all relevant areas.

He told his counterintelligence chiefs

We're very pleased with Prime Minister Starmer's announcement to increase spending to 2.5 per cent of the UK is GDP

A senior Trump administration official said this afternoon

We're going to have Europe do that,

Trump told reporters as he held the first cabinet meeting of his second term on Wednesday

The first contacts with the new US administration give some hope

Speaking after a series of meetings between US and Russian officials in recent weeks, Putin told a meeting of intelligence chiefs today

Alexander Lukashenkobelarusian President

I don't know if Trump managed to persuade them to move towards peace and peace talks during his talks with Macron and Starmer, but you can see that they are taking a very aggressive stance on the war between Russia and Ukraine,

Lukashenko said

We, the Europeans, have a lot in our hands to put pressure on Russia in the negotiations,

said Tsahkna

I think the difficulty is with the Russians, because Russians are the ones who want to weaken U.S. power, and who want to weaken the U.S. in the world overall,

she said

We are investing in our own capability,

she said

We will be guided very much by the needs of Ukraine,

she said

For any security force, we need military guidance,

Latvia's top diplomat said

We strongly believe that a rushed ceasefire will not lead to sustainable peace; instead, it will only embolden Russia, encouraging further expansion and putting global security at grave risk,

she said