Police in Washington are investigating the shooting of a man Sunday by U.S. Secret Service personnel near the White House.

A Secret Service spokesperson said a day before the shooting, police had shared information about “a suicidal individual” who may have been traveling to Washington from the state of Indiana.

Secret Service personnel spotted the person’s car near the White House and someone matching the person’s description walking in the area.

The spokesperson said the person brandished a firearm as officers approached, and that Secret Service personnel fired shots during “an armed confrontation.”

Authorities have not identified the person who was taken to a local hospital after being shot.

No Secret Service personnel were injured, the agency said.

President Donald Trump was in Florida at the time of the shooting.

Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters

 

 
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Panama City — After weeks of lawsuits and human rights criticism, Panama on Saturday released dozens of migrants who were held for weeks in a remote camp after being deported from the United States, telling them they have 30 days to leave the Central American nation.

It thrust many like Hayatullah Omagh, a 29-year-old who fled Afghanistan in 2022 after the Taliban took control, into a legal limbo, scrambling to find a path forward.

“We are refugees. We do not have money. We cannot pay for a hotel in Panama City, we do not have relatives,” Omagh told the Associated Press in an interview. “I can’t go back to Afghanistan under any circumstances … It is under the control of the Taliban, and they want to kill me. How can I go back?”

Authorities have said deportees will have the option of extending their stay by 60 days if they need it, but after that many like Omagh don’t know what they will do.

Omagh climbed off a bus in Panama City alongside 65 migrants from China, Russia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Iran, Nepal and other nations after spending weeks detained in poor conditions by the Panamanian government, which has said it wants to work with the Trump administration “to send a signal of deterrence” to people hoping to migrate.

Human rights groups and lawyers advocating for the migrants were waiting at the bus terminal, and scrambled to find the released migrants shelter and other resources.

Dozens of other people remained in the camp.

Among those getting off buses were migrants fleeing violence and repression in Pakistan and Iran, and 27-year-old Nikita Gaponov, who fled Russia due to repression for being part of the LGBTQ+ community and who said he was detained at the U.S. border but not allowed to make an asylum claim.

“Once I get off the bus, I’ll be sleeping on the ground tonight,” Gaponov said.

Others turned their eyes north once again, saying that even though they had already been deported, they had no other option than to continue after crossing the world to reach the U.S.

The deportees, largely from Asian countries, were part of a deal stuck between the Trump administration and Panama and Costa Rica as the U.S. government attempts to speed up deportations. The administration sent hundreds of people, many families with children, to the two Central American countries as a stopover while authorities organize a way to send them back to their countries of origin.

Critics described it as a way for the U.S. to export its deportation process.

The agreement fueled human rights concerns when hundreds of deportees detained in a hotel in Panama City held up notes to their windows pleading for help and saying they were scared to return to their own countries.

Under international refugee law, people have the right to apply for asylum when they are fleeing conflict or persecution.

Those that refused to return home were later sent to a remote camp near Panama’s border with Colombia, where they spent weeks in poor conditions, were stripped of their phones, unable to access legal council and were not told where they were going next.

Lawyers and human rights defenders warned that Panama and Costa Rica were turning into “black holes” for deportees, and said their release was a way for Panamanian authorities to wash their hands of the deportees amid mounting human rights criticism.

Upon being released Saturday night, human rights lawyers identified at least three people who required medical attention. One has been vomiting for over a week, another deportee had diabetes and hadn’t had access to insulin in the camp and another person had HIV and also didn’t have access to medicine in detention.

Those who were released, like Omagh, said they could not return home.

As an atheist and member of an ethnic minority group in Afghanistan known as the Hazara, he said returning home under the rule of the Taliban — which swept back into power after the Biden administration pulled out of the country — would mean he would be killed. He only went to the U.S. after trying for years to live in Pakistan, Iran and other countries but being denied visas.

Omagh was deported after presenting himself to American authorities and asking to seek asylum in the U.S., which he was denied.

“My hope was freedom. Just freedom,” he said. “They didn’t give me the chance. I asked many times to speak to an asylum officer and they told me ‘No, no, no, no, no.’”

Still, he said that leaving the camp was a relief. Omagh and other migrants who spoke to the AP detailed scarce food, sweltering heat with little relief and aggressive Panamanian authorities.

In one case, Omagh and others said, a Chinese man went on a weeklong hunger strike. In another, a small riot broke out because guards refused to give a migrant their phone. The riot, they said, was suppressed by armed guards.

Panamanian authorities denied accusations about camp conditions, but blocked journalists from accessing the camp and canceled a planned press visit last week.

While international aid organizations said they would organize travel to a third country for people who didn’t want to return home, Panamanian authorities said the people released had already refused help.

Omagh said he was told in the camp he could be sent to a third country if it gives people from Afghanistan visas. He said that would be incredibly difficult because few nations open their doors to people with an Afghan passport.

He said he asked authorities in the camp multiple times if he could seek asylum in Panama, and said he was told that “we do not accept asylum.”

“None of them wants to stay in Panama. They want to go to the U.S.,” said Carlos Ruiz-Hernandez, Panama’s deputy foreign minister, in an interview with the AP last month.

That was the case for some, like one Chinese woman who spoke to the AP on condition of anonymity, fearing repercussions from Panamanian authorities.

Upon getting off the bus, the first thing she wanted to do was find a Coca-Cola. Then, she’d find a way back to the U.S.

“I still want to continue to go to the United States and fulfill my American dream,” she said.
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Washington — U..S Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday condemned the “radical Islamist terrorists” behind “massacres” of minorities in Syria and demanded that the interim administration hold those responsible to account.

“The United States condemns the radical Islamist terrorists, including foreign jihadis, that murdered people in western Syria in recent days,” Rubio said in a statement.

“The United States stands with Syria’s religious and ethnic minorities, including its Christian, Druze, Alawite, and Kurdish communities, and offers its condolences to the victims and their families,” he said.

“Syria’s interim authorities must hold the perpetrators of these massacres against Syria’s minority communities accountable.”

The violence against minorities erupted after gunmen loyal to ousted leader Bashar al-Assad, a member of the Alawite minority, attacked the new security forces.

War monitor the Syrian Observatory for Human Rights later reported that security forces and allied groups killed at least 745 Alawite civilians in Latakia and Tartus provinces.

Interim President Ahmad al-Sharaa, who led the Sunni Islamist group Hayat Tahrir al-Sham that spearheaded the lightning offensive that toppled Assad, called for national coexistence after the killings.

The United States under former president Joe Biden engaged with Sharaa after he came to power but said that any greater normalization would depend on meeting conditions including the protection of minorities.

Donald Trump, then president-elect, said at the time that the United States had little interest in Syria and should stay out, and he has previously spoken of removing U.S. troops in the country to fight the Islamic State movement.

Since taking office, the Trump administration has said little about Syria but has severely slashed assistance to groups assisting civilians in the war-ravaged country.

The United States did not join Britain on Thursday in announcing an easing of Assad-era sanctions on Syria.
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NEW YORK — Fast-moving brush fires burned through a large swath of land on New York’s Long Island on Saturday fanned by high winds, spewing gray smoke and prompting the evacuation of a military base and the closure of a major highway. 

Officials said three of the four fires were fully contained while the other one, in Westhampton, was 50% contained. Two commercial buildings were partially burned, but officials said homes were not in the line of fire. One firefighter was flown to a hospital to be treated for burns to the face. 

“Our biggest problem is the wind,” Suffolk County Executive Ed Romaine said. “It is driving this fire.” 

New York Governor Kathy Hochul declared a state of emergency and said state agencies were responding to the fires around the Pine Barrens, a wooded area that is home to commuter towns east of New York City. 

“This is still out of control at this moment,” Hochul told Long Island TV station News 12. 

“We’re seeing people having to be evacuated from the Westhampton area,” she said, adding that more evacuations may be needed. 

Hochul said homes, a chemical factory and an Amazon warehouse were at risk. 

Videos posted to social media showed flames shooting into the air and columns of black smoke rising above roads. 

Air National Guard helicopters dropped water on the flames. 

The Town of Southampton issued a warning in the afternoon against starting recreational fires due to the wildfire risk. That came around the time that the videos began appearing. 

In a statement, Hochul said the National Guard was providing support by helicopter and working with local law enforcement. 

“Public safety is my top priority, and I’m committed to doing everything possible to keep Long Islanders safe,” she said. 

In her comments to News 12, Hochul declined to estimate the extent of the flames, saying only that they were growing rapidly. 

Rough satellite data indicated that fire and smoke stretched roughly 3 kilometers (2.5 miles) along Sunrise Highway, according to NASA’s Fire Information for Resource Management System. 

Police closed a section of the highway, which is a thoroughfare to the East End of Long Island. 

The fires raged near the Francis S. Gabreski Airport, from which the National Guard launched at least one helicopter. One of the commercial buildings that partially burned was near the airport. 

Personnel at the base evacuated as a precautionary measure starting around 1:45 p.m., spokesman Cheran Cambell said in a statement. 
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TEHRAN, IRAN — Iranian Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei said he rejects a U.S. push for talks between the two countries because they would be aimed at imposing restrictions on Iranian missile range and its influence in the region.

Speaking to a group of officials on Saturday, Khamenei did not identify the United States by name but said a “bullying government” was being persistent in its push for talks.

“Their talks are not aimed at solving problems, it is for … let’s talk to impose what we want on the other party that is sitting on the opposite side of the table,” he said.

Khamenei’s remarks came a day after President Donald Trump acknowledged sending a letter to Khamenei seeking a new deal with Tehran to restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program and replace the nuclear deal he withdrew America from during his first term in office.

Khamenei said U.S. demands would be military and related to the regional influence of Iran.

“They will be about defense capabilities, about international capabilities of the country,” he said. They will urge Iran “not to do things, not to meet some certain people, not to go to a certain place, not to produce some items, your missile range should not be more than a certain distance. Is it possible for anybody to accept these?”

Khamenei, who has final say on all state matters, said such talks would not address solving problems between Iran and the West. Although Khamenei did not name any person or country, he said the push for talks creates pressure on Iran in public opinion.

“It is not negotiation. It is commanding and imposition,” he said.

Trump, in comments to reporters in the Oval Office on Friday, did not mention the letter directly. But he made a veiled reference to possible military action, saying, “We have a situation with Iran that, something’s going to happen very soon. Very, very soon.”

Trump’s overture comes as Israel and the United States have warned they will never let Iran acquire a nuclear weapon, leading to fears of a military confrontation as Tehran enriches uranium at near-weapons-grade levels — something done only by atomic-armed nations.

Tehran has long maintained its program is for peaceful purposes, even as its officials increasingly threaten to pursue the bomb as tensions are high with the U.S. over its sanctions and with Israel as a shaky ceasefire holds in its war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.

Iran’s accelerated production of near-weapons-grade uranium puts more pressure on Trump. He has repeatedly said he’s open to negotiations with the Islamic Republic while also increasingly targeting Iran’s oil sales with sanctions as part of his reimposed “maximum pressure” policy.

Late in August, Khamenei in a speech opened the door to possible talks with the U.S., saying there is “no harm” in engaging with the “enemy.” However, more recently the supreme leader tempered that, saying that negotiations with America “are not intelligent, wise or honorable,” after Trump floated the possibility of nuclear talks with Tehran.
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WASHINGTON — Calls to revoke China’s Permanent Normal Trade Relations (PNTR) status have grown louder in recent months.

In a memo released on the first day of his second term, President Donald Trump asked his Cabinet members to “assess legislative proposals regarding PNTR.” Three days later, Republican Representative John Moolenaar, the chairman of the House Select Committee on the Chinese Communist Party, and Democratic lawmaker Tom Suozzi introduced the first bipartisan bill that would revoke China’s PNTR status.

China has held PNTR status since 2000, when Congress first passed legislation on the matter. Prior to that, Beijing’s trade status was reviewed annually.

VOA recently sat down with Republican Representative Tom Tiffany of Wisconsin, who also proposed legislation, along with Republican lawmaker Chris Smith, to revoke China’s PNTR status. He said China is stealing American technology, setting up police stations in various cities across the U.S. and engaging in unfair trade practices. “One of the most important things we can do is to revoke China’s PNTR and have it renewed on an annual basis,” he said.

This interview has been edited for clarity and brevity.

VOA: The relationship between the U.S. and China has gone through dramatic changes since China entered the WTO in 2001. How do you describe the current state of U.S.-China relations? How did we get here?

 

U.S. Representative Tom Tiffany: I think the goodwill of the American people has been abused. When you look at the theft of intellectual property — I just mentioned the police stations, something that is anathema to American society — I believe this goes back to when most favored nation status was given to Communist China and that’s why I’ve introduced legislation with Representative Chris Smith from New Jersey to revoke that permanent status and have it be renewed annually. I believe we will get much greater accountability by the Communist Chinese government. I think this is one of the most important things that we can do. We have the largest consumer base, and that has led to prosperity for China over the last few decades. I believe they should respect that, and they have not. One way in which we can deal with this is to have an annual renewal for most favored nation status.

VOA: You represent Wisconsin’s 7th congressional district. How have the actions taken by China affected people in your district, especially on the trade front?

Tiffany: I’ll give you one example. We grow almost all the ginseng in my district, in northern Wisconsin, and the Communist Chinese have used this as a weapon in trade negotiations. Because Wisconsin is such an important state, in terms of elections, they’ve tried to turn the ginseng growers against Republicans, against President Trump, by saying we’re not going to take your ginseng anymore. Because China took a lot of America’s ginseng — it’s the best that is produced in the world — they’ve used trade, specifically in regard to ginseng, as a political weapon and that should not be the case. I’m hoping that the Communist Chinese will relent on this now and allow ginseng to be imported into their country once again in the same volumes that they did a decade ago.

VOA: Do you support imposing tariffs on Chinese goods coming to the U.S., and what are the other urgent steps that the U.S. should be taking to deal with China’s unfair trade practices?

Tiffany: I do agree with tariffs, and I like the president’s idea of having reciprocal tariffs. If you’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product, then we’re going to tariff 25% on a particular product. We would prefer to just see free trade, but it has to be fair trade.

I think there’s a couple other things that we watch very closely here in America. We see the abuse of the Uyghur people in Western China. That is unacceptable in a free society. We do not want companies importing goods that are using slave labor. We haven’t had a full accounting of what happened in the Wuhan lab with the coronavirus … it appears almost certain that it came from that lab and caused incredible damage to not just America, but countries around the world. We need a full accounting in regard to those things and China needs to provide that.

VOA: Where do you see U.S.-China relations heading in the next decade?

Tiffany: If we continue with the policies of President Trump, I think we have the potential to have good relations. You know, maybe [Chinese President] Xi Jinping chooses not to give up communism, and that’s how he wants to rule his country, and that would be very unfortunate. But I think we’d end up with better relations when we have a strong America.
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WHITE HOUSE — U.S. President Donald Trump on Friday appeared to signal that he is ready to take military action on Iran, unless the country agrees to a new deal that would restrain its rapidly advancing nuclear program.

“There’ll be some interesting days ahead. That’s all I can tell you,” he told reporters in the Oval Office Friday.

Trump announced during a Fox Business News interview recorded Thursday night and aired Friday morning that he had sent a letter to Ali Khamenei, telling the Iranian supreme leader that it will be “a lot better for Iran” if they are willing to negotiate a nuclear deal.

“If we have to go in militarily, it’s going to be a terrible thing for them,” he said during the interview.

Trump said the U.S. is “down to final strokes with Iran,” and signaled he has his sights on the country’s “nice oil wells.”

“We have a situation with Iran that something’s going to happen very soon, very, very soon,” he said. “I’m just saying I’d rather see a peace deal than the other, but the other will solve the problem.”

The deal Trump is referring to would replace the 2015 Iran nuclear deal, also known as the Joint Comprehensive Plan of Action on Iran. The JCPOA is a signature foreign policy achievement of his predecessor, former President Barack Obama. In 2018, during in his first term in office, Trump withdrew the U.S. from the deal.

Details of Trump’s new Iran deal are unclear. The White House has not responded to VOA’s request to provide the letter or further describe its contents.

The Permanent Mission of the Islamic Republic of Iran to the United Nations said there has been no confirmation from Khamenei’s office that any letter had been received.

“We have not received such a letter so far,” the mission said in a statement sent to VOA Friday.

Brinkmanship

Trump is engaging in a “classic case of brinkmanship,” said Farzin Nadimi, a senior fellow with The Washington Institute. “He’s trying to raise the stakes with Iran, to compel its leadership to do deals with him.”

Early steps that Trump could take might include interdicting Iranian oil tankers to disrupt the country’s remaining lifeline amid crippling sanctions, but that could escalate the situation and trigger an Iranian tit-for-tat response, Nadimi told VOA.

“I don’t think at this moment the U.S. government is thinking it wants to bomb Iranian oil installations,” he added. “Initially, I think every focus will be on Iranian air defenses, long-range missile capabilities and the nuclear sites.”

On Thursday, Israel’s military said it performed a joint air force exercise with the U.S. this week involving Israeli F-15I and F-35I fighter jets flying alongside a U.S. B-52 bomber, in an apparent message to Iran. Israel said the exercise aims to practice “operational coordination between the two militaries to enhance their ability to address various regional threats.”

Trump campaigned on renewing “maximum pressure” on Iran, saying that his administration will not tolerate Iran obtaining a nuclear weapon or their support of terrorism in the Middle East and around the world. During his first term, Trump ordered the 2020 airstrike that killed Iran’s most powerful military commander, Qassem Soleimani.

However, it’s unclear why he is ramping up pressure on Tehran now, amid other rapid developments on Washington’s positions in various conflicts, including the wars in Gaza and Ukraine, said Seth Jones, president of the Defense and Security Department at the Center for Strategic and International Studies.

“This was bound to be a much more aggressive policy than what we’ve seen,” Jones told VOA. “But I don’t know if there’s a clear strategy going forward.”

No negotiations under sanctions

Iran’s Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi dismissed the prospect of nuclear negotiations with the U.S. while Tehran remains under heavy sanctions from Washington.

“We will not enter any direct negotiations with the U.S. so long as they continue their maximum pressure policy and their threats,” Araghchi said in an interview with AFP on Friday. He added that Tehran is speaking with “three European countries,” along with “Russia and China, [and] other members of the JCPOA.”

Trump has spoken more broadly about his desire to eliminate their nuclear weapons, signaling he wants to negotiate denuclearization efforts with China and Russia as well.

“It would great if everybody would get rid of their nuclear weapons,” he told reporters in the Oval Office Thursday.

Michael Lipin contributed to this report.
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In a win for Elon Musk’s X corporation, the U.S. state of California will no longer require social media companies to report about their content moderation practices. VOA’s Matt Dibble has more from Silicon Valley.
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pentagon — On a windy Thursday outside Washington at the Pentagon, U.S. Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth welcomed his British counterpart to discuss how best to quickly end Russia’s war in Ukraine.

“European leadership of NATO, led by the U.K., led by others, is, we believe, the future of defense on the continent,” Hegseth said.

British Defense Secretary John Healey said the United Kingdom had increased its defense spending and would continue to do so.

“You challenged us to step up on Ukraine, on defense spending, on European security. And I say to you that we have, we are, and we will further,” Healey said.

On the possibility of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia, Healey said the U.K. believes Kyiv is ready to make the most of a “unique opportunity.”

But as to whether the U.S. has seen enough to resume intelligence sharing with Ukraine, that is up to President Donald Trump, the U.S. defense secretary said.

“We’re very encouraged by the signs we’re seeing. Ultimately, he will make the determination. But it is a pause for now,” Hegseth said.

Hegseth added that Trump is “laser focused” on ending the bloodshed.

In a joint address to Congress on Tuesday evening, Trump said he was working to end the war in Ukraine.

“It’s time to stop this madness,” he said.

Trump’s comments came the day after the United States paused military aid to Ukraine and a few days after an acrimonious Oval Office meeting on Feb. 28 concluded with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy leaving the White House without an agreement.

In his address, Trump said he received a letter Tuesday from Zelenskyy that said Kyiv was “ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible.”

VOA National Security Correspondent Jeff Seldin contributed to this report.
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STATE DEPARTMENT — The U.S. State Department held a flag-raising ceremony on Thursday for hostages and wrongful detainees, reaffirming the U.S. government’s commitment to securing the return of American citizens and lawful permanent residents detained abroad.

“Our policies are 100% focused on returning people home,” said Adam Boehler, President Donald Trump’s special envoy for hostages. He added, “You’ll see some announcements in the coming days,” without providing further details.

“President Trump is committed to bringing home all Americans held hostage or wrongfully detained overseas.  This includes the Americans and all other hostages that Hamas is still holding hostage in Gaza,” a State Department spokesperson told VOA.

“Efforts to bring them home are ongoing and sensitive – we do not have any meetings to announce or readout at this time,” the spokesperson said.

March 9 marks 18 years since former FBI agent Robert Levinson was abducted in Iran.

In recognition of this, Congress, with bipartisan support, designated the Hostage and Wrongful Detainee Flag in the National Defense Authorization Act for Fiscal Year 2024.

On Thursday, FBI Director Kash Patel said Washington is determined to “zero out” hostage cases and wrongful detentions, as well as repatriating the remains of those who could not be brought home, through diplomatic and intelligence efforts.

The ceremony came a day after Trump welcomed eight former hostages who had been held by U.S.-designated terror group Hamas to the White House.

On Wednesday, the White House also confirmed that U.S. officials have engaged in ongoing discussions with Hamas. The talks, held in Doha, Qatar, mark the first known direct engagement between the United States and Hamas since the State Department designated the group as a foreign terrorist organization in 1997.

Boehler led the direct talks with Hamas, which were reportedly focused on securing the release of U.S. hostages and exploring a potential end of the war without Hamas in power in Gaza.

Among the hostages still held by Hamas, five are U.S. citizens, including 21-year-old Edan Alexander, who is believed to be the last American-Israeli hostage still alive in Gaza.

His mother, Yael Alexander, recently spoke at Hostages Square in Tel Aviv. “This is the simple truth: The situation with the hostages becomes more urgent every day,” she said.

“They are working on Phase 2 now. We don’t see it as a phase — we see it as the way to bring our son home. It doesn’t matter what you call it; what matters is that there is an agreement to bring the remaining hostages home as soon as possible,” she said.

This week, Israeli officials said that Israel is ready to move forward with the second phase of a Gaza ceasefire deal, provided Hamas agrees to release more of the 59 hostages it is still holding.

Some information was provided by The Associated Press and Reuters.
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French Defense Minister Sebastien Lecornu said Thursday that France is sharing intelligence with Ukraine, a move that followed the United States saying it was cutting off intelligence-sharing with Ukraine.

The move comes as European Union leaders gathered Thursday in Brussels, along with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, for a summit to discuss boosting defense spending and bolstering pledges of support for Ukraine in its battle against Russia’s invasion.

French President Emmanuel Macron said ahead of the talks that EU members would “take decisive steps forward,” while he expressed concerns about shifts in U.S. support for Ukraine under new President Donald Trump.

“The future of Europe does not have to be decided in Washington or Moscow,” Macron said.

Trump earlier in the week ordered the U.S. to suspend military aid to Kyiv’s fighters after his contentious meeting last week with Zelenskyy at the White House.

CIA Director John Ratcliffe said Wednesday that the United States had also, for the moment, ended sharing its intelligence with Kyiv, although it could be short-lived after Zelenskyy said the exchanges with Trump in the Oval Office had been “regrettable” and that Ukraine was ready for peace talks with Russia.

“I think on the military front and the intelligence front, the pause [that prompted Ukraine’s president to respond], I think will go away,” Ratcliffe told the Fox Business Network.

“I think we’ll work shoulder to shoulder with Ukraine as we have to push back on the aggression that’s there, but to put the world in a better place for these peace negotiations to move forward,” he said.

Since the start of the war in 2022, the United States has provided Ukraine with significant intelligence, including critical information its military needs for targeting Russian forces.

Mike Waltz, Trump’s national security adviser, told reporters Wednesday that the U.S. “had taken a step back” and that the administration was “reviewing all aspects” of its intelligence relationship with Ukraine.

Meanwhile, Waltz told CBS News that the U.S. is moving quickly to start peace negotiations to end the war and sign a mineral rights deal with Kyiv.

“I think we’re going to see movement in very short order,” Waltz said.

He said Trump officials will meet with Ukrainian officials as they conduct shuttle diplomacy with Russia.

“I have literally just been on the phone with my counterpart, the Ukrainian national security adviser, talking about times, locations, delegations,” Waltz said.

Reaching a peace deal could prove difficult. Ukraine has long demanded a restoration of its internationally recognized 2014 borders before Moscow unilaterally seized Ukraine’s Crimean Peninsula. Overall, Russia now holds about a fifth of Ukrainian territory, including much of eastern Ukraine, and has vowed to not return any of it to the Kyiv government.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters. 
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As European Union leaders prepare for emergency talks to ramp up military spending after the Trump administration suspended aid to Ukraine, several Russia experts say Moscow is trying to capitalize on fragmenting Western cohesion.

Following last week’s televised Oval Office clash between U.S. and Ukrainian leaders, Kremlin press secretary Dmitry Peskov on Monday accused Europe of seeking to prolong the war, adding that changes in U.S. “foreign policy configurations” largely coincide with Moscow’s vision.

The comments came before an EU financial summit planned for Thursday that aims to grapple with stabilizing continental security and helping Ukraine after decades of dependence on the U.S. defense umbrella.

In a recent interview with the military newspaper Krasnaya Zvezda, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov called President Donald Trump a “pragmatist” whose motto is “common sense.” He also said, “All tragedies in the world” over the past 500 years “originated in Europe or occurred owing to European policies,” while “the Americans played no seditious, let alone ‘inflammatory,’ role.”

Calling Europe Enemy No. 1 is “becoming the main trend in the Kremlin’s policy,” said exiled independent Russian political analyst Dmitry Oreshkin. “Therefore, having changed his tune … [Lavrov] explained to the audience that the U.S. is, if not a friend, then a reliable partner, and that means Britain and France are always to blame for everything.”

Oreshkin also said the relatively positive U.S. depiction shows the Kremlin is hoping for an “aggravation of contradictions” between Europe and America.

But Novaya Gazeta columnist Andrei Kolesnikov said it was premature for Russian authorities to assume Trump is taking Russia’s side in the war.

Trump’s “interest, which he equates with the interests of the United States, is to end the conflict,” Kolesnikov told VOA. “But there are two sides to the conflict. And if during future negotiations … [Trump] remains dissatisfied with the intransigence of the Russian side, no one will stand on ceremony. New [U.S.] sanctions and measures to reduce oil prices will follow with the same decisiveness and speed as [Ukrainian President Volodymyr] Zelenskyy’s ‘punishment.’”

Kolesnikov was referring to the contentious Feb. 28 Oval Office meeting between Trump and Zelenskyy, in which top U.S. officials accused him of being insufficiently grateful for U.S. military support.

The meeting concluded without the signing of an expected defense deal involving Ukrainian rare-earth minerals.

With long-held certainties about U.S. reliability as a security partner suddenly in doubt, EU and NATO leaders gathered Sunday in London to map out a path forward.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer called for uniting “around a new plan for a just and enduring peace,” while French President Emmanuel Macron said his country and Britain had agreed on an alternative peace plan envisaging a one-month partial ceasefire to end mutual attacks on energy infrastructure, followed by a second stage involving sending peacekeepers to Ukraine.

The White House on Monday announced temporary suspension of all U.S. military aid to Kyiv, although Trump during an address to Congress on Tuesday said Zelenskyy had signaled renewed interest in inking the U.S.-proposed defense deal.

According to U.S. Central Intelligence Agency Director John Ratcliffe, Trump on Wednesday halted intelligence cooperation with Ukraine.

Against this unclear backdrop, Russian officials have refrained from criticizing the U.S. administration and Trump personally while shifting their line of attack from the United States toward Europe.

Thursday’s summit in Brussels comes as the EU is arguably at its weakest point, fragmented by the steady rise of a hard right that is often pro-Russian.

EU leaders are also expected to discuss whether to place more arms contracts with Ukraine’s defense industry, and to help integrate it into the European industrial network.

The Trump administration has demanded that Europeans spend as much as 5% of GDP on defense, well beyond the NATO benchmark of at least 2%. Seven European allies still fall short of even that target. The U.S. spends around 3.4%, according to NATO figures, and a Pentagon audit that could reduce that is pending.

Some information for this report came from The Associated Press.
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