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Russian President Vladimir Putin will visit Belarus on Monday for talks with his counterpart and ally Alexander Lukashenko, the Belarus leader’s office said. The Belarus presidency said Friday the pair will hold discussions at the Independence Palace, Lukashenko’s office, in Minsk during Putin’s “working visit”. -snip- Minsk said the pair will hold one-on-one talks as well as wider negotiations with their ministers on “Belarusian-Russian integration”.

Russia was "ill prepared" for the economic response to the invasion. Western countries have slapped crippling economic sanctions on Russia, and in November, Russia's economy entered a recession. Putin planned for a quick war, but "Russian guns have now been firing for almost 300 days" and "the cupboard is bare," Radakin went on to say, echoing US officials who have pointed out that Russia is running through its munitions faster than it can replenish them. Russia has lost much of the territory it managed to occupy in the early days of the invasion. A Ukrainian counteroffensive that began in recent...

NATO's head said earlier this month that Russia may want the fighting to slow, seeking a "freeze" in the fighting so it can better prepare for a bigger assault next year. "What we see now is Russia is actually trying to have some kind of 'freeze' of this war at least for a short period of time so they can regroup, repair, recover," NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said. "And then try to launch a bigger offensive next spring." The UK Ministry of Defence predicted on Monday that Russian forces will not see any big gains over the winter, even...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) – Russian forces have “destroyed” the eastern Ukrainian city of Bakhmut, President Volodymyr Zelensky said, while Ukraine’s military on Saturday reported missile, rocket and air strikes in multiple parts of the country that Moscow is trying to conquer after months of resistance. The latest battles of Russia’s 9 1/2 month war in Ukraine have centred on four provinces that Russian President Vladimir Putin triumphantly — and illegally — claimed to have annexed in late September. The fighting indicates Russia’s struggle to establish control of those regions and Ukraine’s persistence to reclaim them.

The U.S. Department of Defense announced on Dec. 1 that it had signed a $1.2 billion contract for the production of six NASAMS air defense systems for the county.The production of the systems will be carried out by Raytheon Technologies. The official signing of the contract will be announced on Dec. 6, news agency Reuters reported.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky ventured beyond the relative safety of Kyiv on Wednesday to visit the recently liberated city of Izyum, where he promised to drive Russian forces from all of Ukraine. “Our blue-yellow flag is already flying in de-occupied Izyum. And it will be so in every Ukrainian city and village,” he said on social media during the visit. “We are moving in only one direction — forward and towards victory.” A supply and logistic hub for Russian operations in the eastern Donbas region of Ukraine, the retaking of Izyum represents a strategic win for Ukraine as well as...

MOSCOW (AP) — As the West sounded the alarm about the Kremlin ordering troops into eastern Ukraine and decried it as an invasion, Russian state media painted a completely different picture — of Moscow coming to the rescue of war-torn areas tormented by Ukraine’s aggression and bringing them peace. The fanfare came hours after Vladimir Putin announced Russia’s recognition of the separatist areas in eastern Ukraine as independent states and ordered its troops to “maintain peace” in territory where Russia-backed rebels have been fighting Kyiv’s forces since 2014 — a conflict that has killed over 14,000 people. TV presenters hailed...

KYIV, Ukraine (AP) — The Kremlin says that the rebel leaders in eastern Ukraine have asked Russia for military assistance to fend off the Ukrainian “aggression.” The appeal raises the prospect of Russia’s direct military involvement in eastern Ukraine amid Western fears that Moscow is poised to launch an all-out invasion of its neighbor. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the rebel chiefs wrote to Russian President Vladimir Putin to tell him that shelling by the Ukrainian military has caused civilian deaths and forced many people to flee. The move comes after Putin recognized the independence of Russia-backed rebel regions in...

Fewer than one in six Americans want U.S. soldiers deployed to defend Ukraine if Russia invades the country, according to a new poll published on Friday, as high level talks got underway in Geneva. A poll from Convention of States Action (COSA) in partnership with the Trafalgar Group found that just 15.3 percent of likely general election voters believed the U.S. should provide troops as "boots on the ground" in the event of an invasion. The figures came as Secretary of State Antony Blinken met Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov for talks in Geneva with tensions between Russia and Ukraine...

This afternoon he, Joe Biden and other G7 leaders held an emergency summit, after which the following statement was released: "We reaffirm our steadfast commitment to the people of Afghanistan... We express our grave concern about the situation in Afghanistan... "We call for adherence to obligations under international human rights law, including the rights of women, girls, and minority groups, and that international humanitarian law is upheld in all circumstances. We honour the significant sacrifices made by the Afghan people, people of our own countries, and countless others, who have worked toward a more peaceful, just and secure future for...

WASHINGTON — President Joe Biden on Friday said "significant progress" has been made in getting Americans and allies out of Afghanistan as the White House continued to grapple with fallout from the chaotic mass evacuation. The remarks were to cap a week that brought the biggest foreign policy crisis of Biden’s presidency, as thousands of Americans and Afghans who aided U.S. efforts remain trapped in the country. The crisis abroad threatens to upend Biden’s wider agenda, with criticism coming from allies in Congress, foreign leaders and top national security officials from the Obama administration. Biden has remained defiant in his...

President Joe Biden sought Friday to reassure the United States on the dramatic evacuation from Afghanistan, promising no Americans would be abandoned in one of the "most difficult" airlifts in history. Widely criticized over the chaotic and dangerous exit after a sudden Taliban victory, Biden warned that the frantic effort to fly Americans, other foreigners and Afghan allies out of Taliban-occupied Kabul was dangerous. "This is one of the largest, most difficult airlifts in history," Biden said in a televised address from the White House. "I cannot promise what the final outcome will be." He also said the United States...

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Germany will send two light helicopters to Kabul to evacuate German nationals in Afghanistan at risk or situated in remote regions, a defence ministry's spokesperson in Berlin said Friday. The helicopters are expected to arrive Saturday morning, the spokesperson told reporters. German special forces using these light helicopters and are specially trained to evacuate citizens in crisis situations. The announcement came as German Chancellor Angela Merkel flew to Moscow on Friday for talks with President Vladimir Putin on her final official visit to Russia before stepping down next month.

WASHINGTON — The U.S. military is coordinating with the Taliban while accelerating the airlift of Americans and Afghan allies from the Kabul airport, and also bringing in additional U.S. troops in a scramble to complete the evacuation in two weeks, Pentagon officials said Tuesday. The disclosure by Pentagon spokesman John Kirby that U.S. commanders are speaking with Taliban commanders is an indication that the new rulers of Afghanistan, who swept to power after 20 years of war against the U.S.-supported Kabul government, will not interfere with the evacuation. Kirby would not discuss details of the Taliban arrangement. “There are interactions...

Berlin (AFP) - Allies and critics alike on Monday condemned the United States over the botched end to its 20-year NATO campaign in Afghanistan. Stunned by the Taliban's lightning advance across the country after the departure of Western troops, NATO allies have been left scrambling to evacuate their nationals as well as vulnerable Afghans. In a meeting with her party's top brass, German Chancellor Angela Merkel admitted that developments in the country were "bitter". She said however that once the United States decided to withdraw from Afghanistan, it was clear that Germany and other allies had to follow suit. The...

The UK is talking to the Taliban via a third state to get assurances over the safety of diplomats still in Afghanistan and Afghan nations who helped allied forces; planes are said to be grounded at Kabul airport amid chaos on the tarmac; the Taliban has seized all major cities. We've been reporting live today as nations worldwide rush to bring their nationals and embassy staff home. In the past hour: Qatar said it was doing its "utmost" to evacuate diplomats in international organisations seeking to leave Afghanistan. The Dutch military said it plans to operate "multiple" flights, with one...

As panicked Afghans watched Taliban fighters roll into the capital city of Kabul Sunday, sealing the collapse of the U.S.-backed government there, many Americans were left wondering how top Biden officials could have been so wrong in their recent proclamations that Kabul would not easily fall. Just days ago, a U.S. military analysis reported by ABC News predicted that Kabul could fall within 90 days -- not by the weekend. "This is a crisis of untold proportions," Rep. Jackie Speier (D-Calif.) told NBC News Sunday as Taliban militants swept into Kabul. "This is an intelligence failure. We underestimated the Taliban...

There are scenes of utter panic and chaos at Kabul's Hamid Karzai international airport as tens of thousands of people try to fly out of the country. People have been flocking there since last evening in a last desperate effort to escape the Taliban. There were earlier reports that civilians had been injured on the tarmac as the attempts to flee at times resembled a stampede. The 6,000 US troops tasked for security duty in Kabul will now instead be sent to secure the entire perimeter of the airport, reports say. The US Department of State and Department of Defense...

It is simply dizzying the speed at which events are unfolding – earlier this week US officials were cautioning that it would be months before Kabul might fall. It’s turned out to be days. And now, for all the diplomatic window dressing, this is turning into a scramble by the Americans to get out. Officials at the embassy were told to destroy sensitive documents, helicopters are ferrying staff to the airport. The Ambassador has left, the US flag lowered. And it’s left the Secretary of State, Anthony Blinken, trying to put a brave face on events. Arguments can be made...