Russian authorities must increase the number of people who identify as Russian and speak Russian in the parts of Ukraine incorporated into the country since Moscow's 2022 invasion, according to a document signed by President Vladimir Putin.

Dmitriev’s lack of formal diplomatic credentials may work in his favor, said Boris Bondarev, a former Russian diplomat who quit in protest after Russia's 2022 invasion. In sending Dmitriev to talk with Steve Witkoff, Trump's special envoy, the Kremlin has found someone with whom the real estate magnate can feel at ease, he said.

Beijing now stands as Moscow’s economic lifeline, diplomatic shield, and technological supplier. In return, Russia provides cheap energy, discounted raw materials, and geopolitical obedience. The shift has created an inversion of the Cold War hierarchy: a weakened Russia orbiting a confident, globally ascendant China.

The deep issue in the Russia-Ukraine war is how to end an aggressive 21st-century war while avoiding nuclear devastation and multimillion casualties. Unfortunately, raw casualties in Ukraine have reached the multimillions.

From the front-line city of Pokrovsk in eastern Donetsk, to Zaporizhzhia in the south, there is little doubt that Russia is making advances. But, battlefield monitors suggest the picture is not quite so bleak for Ukraine as Trump and Putin suggest.

Russia is remaking Mariupol, which was devastated by a brutal siege in 2022. Ukrainians seeking to move back are finding it hard to recognize the city, or to reclaim their property.

Marco Rubio said the talks were “very worthwhile” and constituted the most productive day in “a very long time.”

Volunteers and soldiers in eastern Ukraine are rescuing medieval “stone babas”—800-year-old statues—from the frontline. What are they and why do they matter?