Ukraine has every reason to be worried after Trump’s comments
You should always give peace a chance. That US President Donald Trump “thinks out of the box” is already the cliche of the moment.
And he may bring a fresh way of thinking and a new energy to ending Russia’s war in Ukraine where others have failed.
But there are some ominous signs already, bolstering fears Ukraine has been betrayed before the talks have even started.
Mr Trump could not bring himself on Wednesday even to say Ukraine and Russia were equal partners in any future negotiations.
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President Trump and Vladimir Putin shake hands in Helsinki in 2018. Pic: Kevin Lamarque/Reuters
Asked if they were, he said: “Hmm, that’s an interesting question.”
The Ukrainians, he said, “will have to make peace”.
“Their people are being killed, and I think they should make peace,” he added.
More worryingly, he seems as prepared as ever to trust Vladimir Putin.
He seems happy to take the word of a man who sent agents to Britain to kill with chemical weapons, who lied repeatedly about his plans to invade Ukraine, and who has murdered in cold blood every rival who dared to challenge him.
“He insisted that if it (the conflict) ends, he wants it to end,” Mr Trump said, as if that was all there is to it.
“He does not want to end it and then go back to war in six months.”
In the same way, Neville Chamberlain returned from Munich in 1938 waving a piece of paper declaring “peace in our time” after winning what he thought were similar assurances from Adolf Hitler.
For Ukrainians, the parallels with 1938 do not end there.
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Will Trump’s call with Putin bring peace closer?
They are being told even before negotiations start that they will have to give up some of their land that has been taken by brutal force.
Ukrainians compare that with Czechoslovakia being forced to hand over the Sudetenland to Hitler. Chamberlain believed that would be enough to appease Hitler. We all know what followed.
They have every reason to be worried.
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There is nothing in what the Russian president has said to make anyone believe giving him a fifth of Ukraine will be enough to appease him either.
In fact, in speeches, he has been emphatically and explicitly clear time and time again. He wants all of Ukraine because he believes it is part of Russia.
And then he wants the security architecture of Europe refashioned.
And Mr Trump seems to be caving into Mr Putin on that as well, giving into one of the key pre-war demands he made in 2021 before invading his neighbour, the reduction of America’s footprint in NATO in Europe that was declared by US Secretary of Defence Pete Hegseth in Brussels yesterday.
Trump is surrendering much of the leverage he had over the Russians before talks have even begun. This is from a man who declared in his book The Art of the Deal that leverage is everything in negotiations.
“Don’t make deals without it.”
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Ukraine getting all land back ‘not realistic’
It is curious and inexplicable. Except that Mr Putin has always appeared to have some kind of hold over Mr Trump.
When they last met in Helsinki, the president sided with Mr Putin over his own spies on the question of Russian election interference.
As a spy in east Germany, Mr Putin was trained in KGB techniques of understanding your enemy and deceiving them.
He has used those skills all his career, not least with George W Bush who famously naively said: “I looked into his eyes and I saw a soul. I trusted him.”
If Mr Trump is persuaded to side with Mr Putin over Ukraine, a dictator will have been rewarded for invading his neighbour. Aggression will have prevailed.
A precedent will have been set that has alarming implications for other countries neighbouring Russia and further afield.
In the east, as he ponders how to seize Taiwan by force, China’s Xi Jinping will be learning lessons too.
The outcome of all this may well not be peace in our time. Quite the opposite.
A second fatal bombing on the streets of Moscow in the space of three days.
We do not know the full details of this latest explosion but the fact these incidents keep happening will be highly embarrassing for the Kremlin.
Pic: Reuters
Monday’s car bomb that killed Lieutenant General Fanil Sarvarov was the latest in a long line of high-profile hits on Russian soil since the Kremlin’s invasion of Ukraine.
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When a top military official was killed in similar circumstances this time last year, by a bomb hidden in a scooter, Vladimir Putin criticised Russia’s security services and told them they should learn from their mistakes.
It does not look like they have. Since then, there have been many more assassinations of senior officials – both in Moscow and further afield.
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
This latest killing of two police officers in the same area as Monday’s attack only makes things worse.
It doesn’t just look complacent. It’s starting to appear incompetent.
Although Ukraine has been behind some of the attacks, in this case, it has not commented.
But could this have been Kyiv’s way of trying to change the narrative in the peace talks? To show Donald Trump that Russia doesn’t ‘hold all the cards’?
Pic: Investigative Committee of Moscow/AP
The timing has certainly been helpful for Ukraine, coinciding with the latest negotiations. So perhaps it’s no coincidence that Kyiv has seemingly made progress in convincing Washington to agree to a less punishing peace proposal.
Article 5-style security guarantees are a big win for Ukraine, as is an allowance to retain the strength of its armed forces.
They are yet to convince the US on territory, but it’s still progress nonetheless.
Will Moscow agree to the other points? Don’t hold your breath.
Russia’s position “is well known”, the Kremlin said, when asked for its reaction to the latest proposals, suggesting it remains unmoved in its opposition to a security guarantee involving foreign troops.
But even so, it seems the spotlight is back on Moscow.
Families in Nigeria were reunited with more than a hundred schoolchildren and teachers abducted in November.
The tearful reunions happened just in time for Christmas.
“This Christmas, since we are celebrating Christmas with our children, we are so glad. And this Christmas will be different from the others,” said Yusuf Timothy, whose daughter, Rejoice, was among those freed.
The hostages were abducted in November. Pic: AP
Loved ones of the kidnapped children had an emotional reunion. Pic: AP
Mr Timothy said his family had to put their life on hold since the attack.
“Sometimes, even though I’m asleep with my wife, if we wake up, we will start thinking. We will start crying. When are we going to see our child?” he said.
The group of children and teachers were the last to be freed after the 21 November attack on St Mary’s Catholic School in Papiri.
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“I am happy, I am happy,” said Rita Marcus, who was reunited with her son, tears flowing down her face.
“This happiness, it is too much.”
The attack on the Papiri school was one of Nigeria’s biggest mass kidnappings. Pic: AP
The children’s loved ones checked them for injuries and lifted them high in the air as they celebrated the hostages coming home.
Most of the children were between 10 and 17, according to the school.
Nigerian authorities initially said 303 schoolchildren and 12 teachers had been kidnapped but later revised the number to 230.
They say all of the hostages have now been released.
Although school kidnappings in Nigeria have become a major security issue, the November attack was one of the country’s biggest mass kidnappings in recent years.
A trove of newly released Epstein files include emails that appear to involve Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor, while another suggests Donald Trump travelled on the billionaire’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
The US Department of Justice released at least 11,000 more files on Tuesday.
It went on to claim that some of them “contain untrue and sensationalist claims” about President Trump.
Here are some of the latest news lines from this release of Epstein files. Being named in these papers does not suggest wrongdoing.
Who is ‘The Invisible Man’?
Among the documents released is an email sent to Ghislaine Maxwell that speaks about “the girls” being “completely shattered” at a Royal Family summer camp at Balmoral.
It is dated 16 August 2001 and sent by a person referred to only as “The Invisible Man”, but whom Sky News is reporting appears to be the former prince, Andrew.
We have come to that conclusion from reviewing the email address used, which is assigned to the Duke of York in Epstein’s contacts book and the chain of correspondence.
In the correspondence, “The Invisible Man” asks Maxwell: “How’s LA? Have you found me some new inappropriate friends?”
Andrew Mountbatten-Windsor has previously denied any allegations against him.
The Peru trip
Another email appears to show Maxwell arranging “two-legged sight seeing” for “The Invisible Man” during a trip to Peru.
She appears to forward to “The Invisible Man” part of a conversation between herself and another person.
The email says: “I just gave Andrew your telephone no. He is interested in seeing the Nazca lines. He can ride but it is not his favorite sport ie pass on the horses.”
“Some sight seeing some 2 legged sight seeing (read intelligent pretty fun and from good families) and he will be very happy. I know I can rely on you to show him a wonderful time and will only introduce him to friends that you can trust,” Maxwell said.
The context of the email is unclear and there is no suggestion of any wrongdoing.
Trump on Epstein’s jet?
The latest bunch of files also includes an email from an unidentified prosecutor dated 7 January, 2020, in which President Trump is mentioned.
The email accuses him of travelling on Epstein’s private jet “many more times than previously has been reported”.
It adds that President Trump “is listed as a passenger on at least eight flights between 1993 and 1996, including at least four flights on which Maxwell was also present”.
The email’s sender and receiver have been redacted. However, at the bottom of the email it says assistant US attorney, Southern District of New York. The name has also been redacted.
President Trump has denied any wrongdoing in relation to his relationship with Epstein, and being on any of Epstein’s flights does not indicate any wrongdoing.
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Limousine driver report about Trump
One of the documents in the release shows a report made to the FBI that was recorded on 27 October 2020.
It includes an unverified claim by a limousine driver that he overheard the US president discussing “abusing some girl” in 1995.
The driver also mentions Trump said “Jeffrey” while on the phone during a journey to Dallas Fort Worth Airport in Texas.
A significant part of the statement, along with the driver’s identity, has been redacted.
The US justice department has said that some of the documents in the latest Epstein files release “contain untrue and sensationalist claims made against President Trump that were submitted to the FBI right before the 2020 election”.
“To be clear: the claims are unfounded and false, and if they had a shred of credibility, they certainly would have been weaponized against President Trump already,” it said.
Postcard mentions ‘our president’
Also among the documents is a postcard that claims to have been sent by Jeffrey Epstein, but has been refuted by the justice department.
In it, the sender tells the recipient: “Our president also shares our love of young, nubile girls.”
It’s not clear who “our president” refers to and the context of the postcard is also unclear.
The US justice department initially said it was “looking into the validity” of the postcard but later said on X that the “FBI has confirmed” the postcard is “FAKE”.
It cited reasons including a claim that the writing does not appear to match Epstein’s and another that the letter was postmarked three days after his death.
Row over unreleased documents
It is believed that many files relating to Epstein are yet to be made public.
There has been anger at the justice department’s slow release of the files, with politicians threatening to launch legal action against Attorney General Pam Bondi.
The deadline for the release of all the documents has passed.
“The DOJ needs to quit protecting the rich, powerful, and politically connected,” Republican congressman Thomas Massie said.
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