During a press briefing on Tuesday, after U.S. and Russian officials held talks in Saudi Arabia, Trump strongly suggested that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy was responsible for Russia’s invasion.
He also brushed aside concerns about Ukraine not being included in discussions aimed at ending the war.
“I think I have the power to end this war, and I think it’s going very well. But today, I heard, ‘Oh, well, we weren’t invited.’ Well, you’ve been there for three years. You should have ended it…,” Trump said at a news conference at his Mar-a-Lago estate in Palm Beach, Florida.
“You should have never started it. You could have made a deal. I could have made a deal for Ukraine.”
Trump said that he was “much more confident” of reaching an agreement following the talks in Riyadh led by US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
“They were very good. Russia wants to do something, they want to stop the savage barbarism,” he said.
Asked if his administration would support Russia’s calls for elections in Ukraine as part of any peace deal, Trump claimed without evidence that Zelenskyy had an approval rating of just 4 percent and noted that the country’s elections had been suspended under martial law.
In an opinion poll carried out by the Kyiv International Institute of Sociology in December, 52 percent of respondents said they trusted Zelenskyy, down 12 percentage points from February.
“Yeah, I would say that, you know, when you want a seat at the table… Wouldn’t the people of Ukraine have to say like, ‘It’s been a long time since we’ve had an election?’” Trump said.
“That’s not a Russia thing, that’s something coming from me, and coming from many other countries also.”
Hungary’s Prime Minister Viktor Orban visited Moscow for discussions with Russian President Vladimir Putinregarding the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.
The trip has sparked condemnation from European Union leaders, who have underscored that Orban’s actions do not represent the unified stance of the bloc. Among EU national leaders, Orban remains distinct as the only one maintaining significant ties with the Kremlin since Russia’s extensive invasion of Ukraine in 2022.
He described the trip as a “peace mission” in a post on X. It comes days after he visited Kyiv, where he spent three hours with Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday.
Both legs of the trip were carefully choreographed to emphasise Mr Orban as a global statesman, rather than an outsider. Hungary has just taken over the presidency of the Council of the European Union, and will hold it to the end of the year. Viktor Orban, speaking in Moscow, said: “Hungary will slowly become the last European country that can talk to everyone.”
The Kremlin said on Friday that talks between the two leaders would last at least two or three hours, but could go on “as long as needed”.
Officials are accompanying them, but there is a possibility they could speak one to one. In footage of the meeting, Mr Putin said Mr Orban was visiting “not just as a long-time partner” but as a European Union representative.
However, European leaders openly condemned the Moscow trip and emphasised he was not representing the EU. “The EU rotating presidency has no mandate to engage with Russia on behalf of the EU,” Charles Michel, President of the European Council, wrote on X.
“The European Council is clear: Russia is the aggressor, Ukraine is the victim. No discussions about Ukraine can take place without Ukraine.” “Appeasement will not stop Putin,” European Commission head Ursula von der Leyen wrote on X.
Who is Viktor Orban, Hungarian PM with 14-year grip on power?
Russian President Vladimir Putin extended an invitation to Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban to discuss his recent proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine. Orban’s plan includes talks on the condition that Ukraine withdraws from four regions claimed by Russia, which encompass territory currently outside Russian control.
President Volodymyr Zelensky has consistently maintained that Ukraine will not engage in negotiations with Moscow until all Russian forces withdraw from Ukrainian soil, including Crimea. The Kremlin has set forth stringent conditions for talks, which Kyiv and its Western allies view as tantamount to Ukraine surrendering.
Earlier this week, Viktor Orban visited Kyiv, suggesting that a swift ceasefire could expedite peace negotiations.
President Zelensky, who has had strained relations with Orban, did not publicly respond to the proposal. Before Ukraine’s offensive last summer, Orban had warned that Ukraine faced significant challenges in any military confrontation. Since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, Orban has highlighted Russia’s substantial military resources and manpower, indicating a formidable advantage.
Despite these developments, many Ukrainians fear that agreeing to a ceasefire could entrench Russia’s grip over seized territories. They insist that any negotiations should be conducted from a position of strength, rather than under duress.
Orban’s stance on Western aid to Ukraine has been critical, as evidenced by his prior efforts to delay a €50 billion EU assistance package aimed at bolstering Ukraine’s defense against Russia.
His visit to Kyiv this week was his first in 12 years, in stark contrast to his frequent meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin during that period.
During a joint appearance with President Zelensky, the atmosphere was noticeably formal, with both leaders refraining from taking questions from the media after delivering their statements.
However, Orban’s recent appointment as head of the Council of the European Union positions him as a significant European leader for the next six months.
In his inaugural days in this role, Orban emphasized the importance of resolving past conflicts and focusing on a constructive path forward.
Putin’s landslide win, with 87.8% of the vote according to exit polls, solidifies his already firm control over the country.
Putin’s triumph was underscored by his assertion that the outcome sends a clear message to the West, affirming Russia’s resolve to stand up against perceived threats and assert its influence, whether through military action or diplomatic channels.
At 71 years old, Putin is poised to extend his tenure with a new six-year term, surpassing Josef Stalin to become Russia’s longest-serving leader in over two centuries, if he completes the term.
However, international observers, including those from the United States, Germany, and the United Kingdom, have criticised the election, citing concerns over the imprisonment of political opponents and restrictions on free speech.
Despite the overwhelming victory for Putin, other candidates, such as Communist nominee Nikolai Kharitonov, newcomer Vladislav Davankov, and ultra-nationalist Leonid Slutsky, trailed far behind in the polls. These partia
l results confirm Putin’s continued dominance in Russian politics.
“We have many tasks ahead. But when we are consolidated—no matter who wants to intimidate us or suppress us—nobody has ever succeeded in history; they have not succeeded now, and they will not succeed ever in the future,” said Putin. Supporters chanted “Putin, Putin, Putin” when he appeared on stage and “Russia, Russia, Russia” after he had delivered his acceptance speech.
Following the death of opposition leader Alexei Navalny in a prison in the Arctic last month, thousands of his supporters took to the streets, both within Russia and abroad, to protest against President Vladimir Putin at polling stations. Putin, however, maintained that the election process in Russia was democratic and dismissed the impact of the protests inspired by Navalny on the election’s outcome.
In his first public remarks on Navalny’s death, Putin expressed condolences, describing it as a “sad event,” and acknowledged that he had been open to the idea of a prisoner exchange involving the opposition figure. When questioned by NBC, a U.S. television network, about the democratic nature of his re-election, Putin criticized the political and judicial systems of the United States.
“The whole world is laughing at what is happening (in the United States),” he said. “This is just a disaster, not a democracy.” “Is it democratic to use administrative resources to attack one of the candidates for the presidency of the United States, using the judiciary, among other things?” he asked, making an apparent reference to four criminal cases against Republican candidate Donald Trump.
The Russian election comes just over two years afterPutin triggered the deadliest European conflict since World War Two by ordering the invasion of Ukraine.
Ghanaian politician Vicky Hammah has been listed alongside heavyweights like Russian President, Vladimir Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un in the controversial compendium “The Fat Boy with the Bomb and 299 of the World’s Craziest Politicians”.
Authored by Brian O’Connell and Norman H. Chung and released in 2015, the book throws the spotlight on a variety of global political figures famed for their outlandish behaviour and statements.
The National Democratic Congress’ (NDC) Vicky Hammah, did not shy away from acknowledging her unexpected feature.
According to a series of screenshots from a post she made on social media, Vicky, in a seeming response to this revelation wrote, “My name made it into this book among some of the most powerful leader[s] yeeey 🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾🙌🏾 😂😂😂. Number 10 in Africa 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾. I’m a great ☺️”.
Characterised on Amazon as an “illustrated international dossier of lunatic statesmen and insane leaders,” the book profiles 300 politicians in a range of political and mental hues. It’s an anthology of the peculiar, ranging from benign eccentrics to those with more severe delusions. With caricatures and brief accounts from across the political spectrum, it delves into the lives of those who have made absurd claims and taken extreme actions.
The write-up on Hammah dubs her a “Goddess of beauty”, highlighting her tenure as Deputy Minister of Communications and her notorious dismissal following the emergence of a tape wherein she claimed she would not exit politics until amassing at least a million dollars.
Additionally, the book recounts an incident with her alleged former boyfriend, Richard Frimpong Dardo, who was arrested for purportedly assaulting her in a dispute over sexual matters.
Vicky Hammah, unfazed by the uncomplimentary aspects of her depiction, optimistically wrote, “In darkness light shines brightest😁😃,” accompanied by smiling emojis.
Notable figures such as Teodoro Obiang Mbasogo of Equatorial Guinea, Robert Mugabe of Zimbabwe, and Goodluck Jonathan of Nigeria, also find mention in this controversial ‘register’.
The UK defence chief, Ben Wallace, has hinted that Ukraine needs to say thank you more often to the west for its help after Volodymyr Zelensky’s frustration on Tuesday that his country had not been given a clear roadmap or criteria for joining Nato.
“People want to see a bit of gratitude,” Wallace said at a briefing on the sidelines of the Nato summit in the Lithuanian capital, Vilnius, when asked about the Ukrainian president’s comments that it was “absurd” for Kyiv to be told it would be welcome in the alliance but not given a date or exact conditions.
He said that sometimes the west had to give up its own weapons or persuade lawmakers in the US to support Ukraine. “You know, we’re not Amazon,” he said. “I told them that last year, when I drove 11 hours to be given a list.”
The US national security adviser, Jake Sullivan, also said that “the American people do deserve a degree of gratitude” for their willingness to provide Ukraine with military aid to defend itself against Russia’s aggression.
He said: “The United States of America has stepped up to provide an enormous amount of capacity to help ensure that Ukraine’s brave soldiers have the ammunition, air defence, the infantry, fighting vehicles, the mine clearing equipment and so much else to be able to effectively defend against Russia’s onslaught and to take territory back as well.”
Zelenskiy, speaking in Vilnius on Wednesday, said he understood that “Ukraine cannot join Nato when at war” but he wished there had been an invitation for Kyiv to join the alliance.
He welcomed the results of the Nato summit, especially the recognition that Ukraine did not need to follow a membership action plan, as well as the positive news on defence packages announced during the summit, but warned that, in the face of Russian invasion, this would be no substitute foreventual Nato membership.
Wallace said he understood Zelenskiy was speaking to his own public and that, despite his complaint on Tuesday, the final summit deal was a good one for Ukraine. He said there was an acceptance that “Ukraine belongs at Nato” and that amounted to an effective invitation for membership once the conflict had died down.
Britain, the US and global allies were due to unveil new security assurances for Ukraine on Wednesday. A declaration by the G7 industrialised countries “will set out how allies will support Ukraine over the coming years to end the war and deter and respond to any future attack”, a British government statement said.
In practice, this would come as bilateral agreements with Kyiv on long-term military and financial aid to keep Ukraine’s army and economy running. A White House official said the US would start such talks with Kyiv soon.
This was enough to draw a furious condemnation from the Kremlin, but not sufficient for Zelenskiy, who came to the Lithuanian capital seeking an invitation and clear timetable for Ukraine to join the alliance.
“The best guarantee for Ukraine is to be in Nato,” Zelenskiy said, expressing confidence that once the war is over Ukraine would be welcomed but warning that the G7 guarantees should be seen “not instead of Nato, but as security guarantees on our way to integration.”
Russia, which says Nato’s eastward expansion is an existential threat to its own security, swiftly lashed out at the military assistance.
Dmitry Medvedev, the deputy secretary of Russia’s powerful security council and an anti-western hawk, said increased military assistance to Ukraine from Nato was bringing a third world war a step closer.
Vladimir Putin’s spokesman, Dmitry Peskov, said that the step “will make Europe much more dangerous” for years and years. “By giving security guarantees to Ukraine, they are undermining the security of the Russian Federation,” he said.
The Nato secretary general, Jens Stoltenberg, was sympathetic to Zelenskiy’s position but stressed the importance of the progress he said Ukraine had made at the summit held under tight security on Nato’s eastern flank, 16 months after Russia’s all-out invasion of Ukraine.
Sullivan told CNN Ukraine could not join Nato right away because it would be “an inescapable fact” that the treaty’s mutual defence clause would mean that the allies would be immediately in a direct war with Russia.
It has come to light that a Russian opposition politician who spoke out against the conflict in Ukraine was poisoned with a highly toxic substance.
An outspoken Kremlin critic, Elvira Vikhareva, 32, revealed tests showing she had potassium dichromate in her blood to Russia’s Sota news channel.
Miss Vikhareva claimed that she started experiencing symptoms of being ill in November of last year, including hair loss, muscle spasms, and severe stomach pains that persisted until February 2023.
It comes after a number of Moscow’s detractors have been poisoned in recent years, most notably Alexei Navalny, the de facto opposition leader of Russia, who nearly died in August 2020 after FSB agents smeared novichock on his pants.
She told TV Rain she had not appealed to police for help as it was clear anyone in Russia who took an ‘anti-war position’ quickly became ‘enemy number one’.
Miss Vikhareva said: ‘When the test results came back the only phrase that was heard was: “How did you survive?”
‘I don’t have any assumptions but if a person has an anti-war position and is in Russia, and can express their thoughts clearly about what is going on in Russia and Ukraine, then they are enemy number one.’
She said she didn’t appeal to police for help as that would be like going to a ‘bloody executioner’.
‘I survived and I want my survival to aggrieve those who were responsible,’ she added.
Potassium dichromate, a compound used in wood treatment and photography, can damage organs and cause cancer, infertility and breathing difficulties. It is harmful when in contact with the skin.
Miss Vikhareva hosts regular political shows on YouTube, which can still be accessed in Russia, but stopped showing her face on camera because the poisoning had taken its ‘toll on her looks’.
She said on social media her body began to ‘give up’ and she had to have constant visits from doctors.
But she has since recovered despite the poisoning leaving her with shaking hands, eyelashes that fall out and nails that ‘look like they’ve been run over by a train’.
Miss Vikhareva – who worked on election campaigns for Dmitry Gudkov, an exiled opposition politician – ran for the Duma in 2021 but lost to a pro-Kremlin candidate amid widespread accusations of vote rigging.
The Kremlin has a history of accusations against it for poisoning its opponents and exiled dissidents.
Bellingcat, a group of investigative journalists, uncovered evidence which alleged Russian agents had poisoned opposition leader Alexei Navalny.
Mr Navalny was rushed to a German hospital on an aeroplane after he fell ill on a domestic Russian flight in August 2020.
He recovered and returned to Russia where he was sentenced and convicted on fraud on contempt of court charges which he described as ‘politically motivated’.
Former KGB agent turned opposition activist Alexander Litvinenko died after he was poisoned with polonium-210 in London in 2006.
In 2021, the European Court of Human Rights found the Kremlin responsible for Mr Litvinenko’s death.
A UK public inquiry also found he was killed in an operation by Russia’s Federal Security Service which was ‘probably’ approved by Putin.
The Kremlin has always denied any involvement in Mr Litvinenko’s death.
Putin stated on Monday that if the Black Sea grain agreement is not extended in May, Russia will give grain to African nations gratis.
Speaking to participants at a Russia-Africa parliamentary conference, Putin noted that only a small portion of the deal’s unblocked grain exports had made it to the continent and that it was in Africa’s best interests if Russia met its conditions for the deal’s renewal.
Moscow further declared that it would not consent to extend the grain agreement past May unless problems with the Swift financial messaging system are fixed and additional restrictions are lifted.
On its website, the Russian foreign ministry said Moscow had decided to limit the deal’s extension to 60 days, until May 18, over what it called “a lack of progress… on normalisation of domestic agricultural exports”.
A government spokesperson stated on Friday that Moscow rejects theInternational Criminal Court’s (ICC) decision to issue an arrest warrant for Russian President Vladimir Putin.
The official at the centre of an alleged plot to forcibly deport thousands of Ukrainian children to Russia, Maria Lvova-Belova, received a warrant from the ICC as well.
Russia views the warrants as having “no meaning,” including from a “legal point of view,” according to Maria Zakharova, a representative for the foreign ministry of Russia.
“Russia is not a member of the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it,” Zakharova said. “Russia does not cooperate with this body, and possible (pretenses) for arrest coming from the International Court of Justice will be legally null and void for us.”
How war crime prosecutions work: Located in The Hague, Netherlands, and created by a treaty called the Rome Statute, the International Criminal Court operates independently.
Most countries on Earth are parties to the treaty, but there are very large and notable exceptions, including — pivotally — Russia, the US and Ukraine.
Anyone accused of a crime in the jurisdiction of the court, which includes countries that are members of the ICC, can be tried. The court tries people, not countries, and focuses on those who hold the most responsibility: leaders and officials.
While Ukraine is not a member of the court, it has previously accepted its jurisdiction.
However, the ICC does not conduct trials in absentia, so Putin or any other Moscow official would either have to be handed over by Russia or arrested outside ofRussia to face ICC proceedings.
Judges order the issuance of an arrest warrant for theRussian president in connection with the alleged kidnapping of Ukrainian children; Moscow rejects this decision.
For alleged war crimes in Ukraine, the International Criminal Court (ICC) has issued an arrest warrant for Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia.
In a statement released on Friday, the Hague-based court said the warrant was issued due to Putin’s alleged involvement in the forcible removal and transfer of children from the occupied territories of Ukraine to Russia.
“There are reasonable grounds to believe that Mr Putin bears individual criminal responsibility for the aforementioned crimes,” added the court, which has no police force of its own to enforce warrants.
The ICC also issued a warrant for the arrest of Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova, the commissioner for children’s rights in the office of the Russian president on similar allegations.
Situation in #Ukraine: #ICC judges issue arrest warrants against Vladimir Vladimirovich Putin and Maria Alekseyevna Lvova-Belova Read more ⤵️ https://t.co/5OMC7Xuuy5
Russia, which denies committing atrocities since it invaded Ukraine in February last year, does not recognise the ICC’s jurisdiction and does not extradite its nationals.
“The decisions of the International Criminal Court have no meaning for our country, including from a legal point of view,” Russian foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on her Telegram channel after the ICC’s announcement.
“Russia is not a party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court and bears no obligations under it.”
But ICC President Piotr Hofmanski told Al Jazeera it was “completely irrelevant” that Russia had not ratified the Rome Statute.
“According to the ICC statute, which has 123 state parties, two-thirds of the whole international community, the court has jurisdiction over crimes committed in the territory of a state party or a state which has accepted its jurisdiction,” he said. “Ukraine has accepted the ICC twice – in 2014 and then in 2015.”
Hofmanski said 43 states had referred “the situation in Ukraine to the court, which means they have formally triggered our jurisdiction.
“The court has jurisdiction over crimes committed on anyone on the territory of Ukraine from November 2013 onwards regardless of nationality of the alleged perpetrators.”
The warrants came a day after a United Nations-backed inquiry accused Russia of committing wide-ranging war crimes in Ukraine, including the forced deportations of children in areas it controls.
Ukraine’s Prosecutor General Andriy Kostin hailed the ICC’s decision.
“The world received a signal that the Russian regime is criminal and its leadership and henchmen will be held accountable,” he said in a statement on social media. “This is a historic decision for Ukraine and the entire system of international law.”
James Bays, Al Jazeera’s diplomatic editor, described the ICC’s move as “very serious”.
He said there were many who welcomed the announcement but there were others who raised questioned whether this would be a problem for diplomacy going forward.
“Now you have the head of state of Russia, a permanent member of the UN Security Council, who is now a wanted man by the ICC,” he said.
“This is going to be a headache for some of those who are going to have to deal with President Putin – how are other countries going to deal with him?” Bays added. “Will President Putin be able to travel?”
Vladimir Putin, the president of Russia, has used a famous World War II victory over the Nazis to inspire his countrymen and declare victory in the conflict in Ukraine.
Putin placed a wreath at the eternal flame of the complex, honouring the fallen members of the Red Army in Volgograd, the city’s current name, to commemorate the 80th anniversary of the Soviet victory over Nazi German forces in the battle of Stalingrad.
“Unfortunately, we see that the ideology of Nazism in its modern form and manifestation again directly threatens the security of our country,” he said in a speech on Thursday. “Again and again we have to repel the aggression of the collective West.”
Putin and other Russian officials frequently characterise Ukraine as a hotbed of neo-Nazi beliefs, although Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy is of Jewish descent.
Putin also lambasted Germany for helping to arm Kyiv and said he was ready to draw on Russia’s entire arsenal, which includes nuclear weapons.
“It’s incredible, but it’s a fact: They are threatening us again with German Leopard tanks with crosses painted on their armour,” Putin said.
“And they are again going to fight Russia on the territory of Ukraine with the hands of Hitler’s followers, the Banderites,” he said, referring to WWII-era Ukrainian nationalist leader Stepan Bandera, who was widely considered to be a Nazi collaborator.
Germany, which for months mulled over its decision to send tanks to Ukraine, aims to deliver them in late March or early April as part of an alliance of countries willing to supply the units to Kyiv.
Battle of Stalingrad
The battle of Stalingrad has deep resonance in Russia.
The five months of fighting between August 1942 and February 1943 is regarded as the bloodiest battle in history, with the death toll for soldiers and civilians reaching as high as two million. Most of the city was reduced to rubble before Nazi forces surrendered on February 2, 1943.
It was a major turning point in WWII and the battle remains an immense source of pride in modern Russia, lauded as a demonstration of military might and moral seriousness.
The city was renamed in 1961 as part of the Soviet Union’s rejection of dictator Joseph Stalin’s personality cult. Calls for the restoration of its old name have not received the Kremlin’s blessing.
In the lead-up to Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, Boris Johnson says Vladimir Putin threatened him with a missile strike during an “extraordinary” phone call.
It “would only take a minute,” according to the then-prime minister, who quoted Mr. Putin.
The remark, according to Mr. Johnson, was made following his warning that the war would be an “utter catastrophe.”
A BBC documentary on Mr. Putin’s interactions with world leaders over the years makes the assertion that this was a “lie,” the Kremlin spokesman declared.
Mr Johnson warned Mr Putin that invading Ukraine would lead to Western sanctions and more Nato troops on Russia’s borders.
He also tried to deter Russian military action by telling Mr Putin that Ukraine would not join Nato “for the foreseeable future”.
But Mr Johnson said: “He threatened me at one point, and he said, ‘Boris, I don’t want to hurt you but, with a missile, it would only take a minute’ or something like that. Jolly.
“But I think from the very relaxed tone that he was taking, the sort of air of detachment that he seemed to have, he was just playing along with my attempts to get him to negotiate.”
President Putin had been “very familiar” during the “most extraordinary call”, Mr Johnson said.
No reference to the exchange appeared in accounts released to the media of the call given by both Downing Street and the Kremlin.
From the 2014 seizure of Crimea to the invasion of Ukraine, this is the inside story of a decade of clashes – as told by the Western leaders who traded blows with Putin’s Russia
It is impossible to know if Mr Putin’s threat was genuine.
However, given previous Russian attacks on the UK – most recently in Salisbury in 2018 – any threat from the Russian leader, however lightly delivered, is probably one Mr Johnson would have had no choice but to take seriously.
Image caption,Boris Johnson received a call from President Putin the day after he met Volodymyr Zelensky in Kyiv
In his response, Mr Putin’s spokesman said the former prime minister’s claim was “either a deliberate falsehood, in which case you need to ask Mr Johnson why he lied, or it was not a deliberate lie. That is, he didn’t understand what President Putin was saying to him”.
“There were no threats to use missiles,” Dmitry Peskov told the BBC.
The Kremlin leader, he said, had simply pointed out that “if Ukraine joined Nato the potential deployment of Nato or US missiles near Russia’s border would mean that any missile could reach Moscow within minutes”.
Since the invasion, President Putin has warned countries that may try to interfere, that Russia’s response would be immediate – even hinting at the use of nuclear weapons.
Nine days after Mr Johnson’s conversation with President Putin, on 11 February, Defence Secretary Ben Wallace flew to Moscow to meet his Russian counterpart, Sergei Shoigu.
The BBC documentary Putin Vs the West reveals Mr Wallace left with assurances that Russia would not invade Ukraine, but he said both sides knew it was a lie.
He described it as a “demonstration of bullying or strength, which is: I’m going to lie to you, you know I’m lying and I know you know I’m lying and I’m still going to lie to you.
“I think it was about saying ‘I’m powerful’,” Mr Wallace said.
He said the “fairly chilling, but direct lie” had confirmed his belief that Russia would invade.
As he left the meeting, he said Gen Valery Gerasimov – Russia’s chief of general staff – told him “never again will we be humiliated”.
Another significant encounter in the months leading up toRussia’s invasion of Ukraine was with CIA director William Burns, who landed in Moscow on 2 November 2021.
Mr Burns had been circling the Russian capital for hours, as heavy fog prevented his landing, but when he finally arrived at the Kremlin he discovered Mr Putin was not there. Instead, he was sheltering in the southern Russian city of Sochi amid a spike in Covid infections.
The pair spoke over the phone.
The CIA director said he was direct in laying out the message President Biden had sent him to deliver: the US knew what Mr Putin was up to and he would pay a heavy price if he launched such an invasion.
He said the Russian president did not deny planning was underway and listed grievances about Ukraine and the West.
“I was troubled before I arrived in Moscow. And I was even more troubled after I left,” Mr Burns added.
Less than a fortnight after theUK defense secretary left Moscow, as tanks rolled over the border on February 24, Mr. Johnson received a phone call in the middle of the night from President Zelensky.
“Zelensky’s very, very calm,” Mr Johnson recalled. “But, he tells me, you know, they’re attacking everywhere.”
Mr Johnson says he offered to help move the president to safety.
“He doesn’t take me up on that offer. He heroically stayed where he was.”
Putin vs. the West will be broadcast on Monday, January 30 on BBC Two at 21:00 and will be available on the iPlayer in the UK.
John Bolton, a formerUS national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, told Sky News the Russian president is in “greater trouble than at any point since the invasion”.
Vladimir Putin’s mounting problems in Ukraine make Russia’s use of a tactical nuclear weapon more likely, a senior US expert has told Sky News.
Tactical nuclear weapons are designed to be used on a battlefield.
John Bolton, a former US national security adviser and ambassador to the United Nations, said that the Russian president is in “greater trouble than at any point since the invasion”.
Discussing the Russian “annexation” of four occupied areas in eastern and southern Ukraine following a series of referendums described by Kyiv and the West as a “sham”, Mr Bolton said: “Obviously he (Putin) thought it would be a morale booster for Russia, (that) it would help lay the groundwork for future borders with Ukraine.
“But the fact is, at least according to Putin’s view of the world, fighting is now taking place on the ‘soil of Russia’ and the Russian militaryis not doing very well.”
Mr Bolton added: “So I think without question that increases Putin’s domestic difficulties in regular Russian politics and makes it somewhat more likely that the use of a tactical nuclear weapon might be possible.
“Because with ‘Russian soil’ itself affected I think Putin could see that as regime-threatening, which would be the circumstance when use of a nuclear weapon would be more likely.”
When asked what the US response might be, Mr Bolton said: “I don’t think it needs to be nuclear, depending on what the Russians actually do.
