The twin blasts that rocked Damascus during French President Emmanuel Macron’s visit to Syria this week underscore the fragility of President Ahmed al-Sharaa’s authority and the security challenges he faces. They also undermine the message of stability that Damascus is striving to convey to the int»»»

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump on Wednesday claimed that a lot of progress has been over the past week in solving the Russia-Ukraine conflict. "I think we've made a lot of progress in the last couple of weeks, and we'll see how it all goes." Trump said ahead of his meeting with Vl»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - European Parliament lawmakers on Wednesday condemned Ukraine for naming a military unit after the Ukrainian Insurgent Army (UPA, banned in Russia as an extremist organization), arguing that this move disregarded Poland's "sensitivities" as the UPA had committed multiple crimes ag»»»

US President Donald Trump said Wednesday that Washington would give Kyiv the "the right to make" Patriot air-defence missiles as he met Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky at NATO's summit. "So one of the things we're going to be talking about is we're going to give a licence to you to make Patriots. That»»»

ZAGREB: Croatia’s most successful football coach, Zlatko Dalic, resigned on Wednesday, ending a tenure that included taking the team to the 2018 World Cup final. “As much as I still feel the ambition and desire to achieve new successes with Croatia, I feel that this is the right moment to bring thi»»»

BRUSSELS - EU ambassadors debated on Wednesday an European Commission (EC) non-paper recommending opening Cluster 3 in Serbia's EU accession talks, with eight member states opposing the move. The group, comprised of the three Baltic states, Belgium, the Netherlands, Sweden, Bulgaria and Croatia, ci»»»

Flamingo cruise missiles have a 3k km range and a 1.1T warhead – enough to deliver a powerful blow beyond the Urals. That makes their systematic destruction imperative, says air defense expert Yuri Knutov, commenting on the latest Russian strikes on a Flamingo assembly plant in Kiev. Flamingos heav»»»

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday said he was “very upset with NATO” after alliance members continued their resistance to his desire to acquire Greenland for the United States from member state Denmark. Speaking to reporters alongside NATO chief Mark Rutte at the summit in Ankara, he also repe»»»

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday insisted he still wanted Greenland, calling European resistance to his stance a "big problem". He added that he considered Spain a "terrible partner in NATO". The comments come on the final day of a two-day summit in Ankara.  US President Donald Trum»»»

ANKARA: Denmark’s Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen on Wednesday rejected President Donald Trump’s renewed demands that the US should take control of Greenland from NATO ally Denmark, saying that “Greenland is of course not for sale.” “We hope that all, including all allies, will respect the Greenla»»»

Something unusual happened in Berlin recently. Executives from some of Europe's oldest financial institutions sat in a room and listened — carefully, and with something approaching humility — to people from Kazakhstan, Azerbaijan and Uzbekistan explain how business gets done. Not as a charitable ex»»»

Europe is “playing with fire” as it assists Ukraine in strikes deep into Russia, RT editor-in-chief Margarita Simonyan has said, warning Kiev’s Western backers that Moscow may have no other choice other than to respond with force. In a lengthy interview with Swiss magazine Die Weltwoche on Wednesda»»»

KYIV: Three people were killed across Ukraine on Wednesday in overnight Russian drone and missile attacks, including one in Kyiv, where powerful explosions hit for the second night in a row. Several explosions were heard shortly after midnight in the capital, before authorities issued an air raid a»»»

Zagreb: Croatia's most successful football coach, Zlatko Dalic, resigned on Wednesday, ending a tenure that included taking the team to the 2018 World Cup final. "As much as I still feel the ambition and desire to achieve new successes with Croatia, I feel that this is the right moment to bring thi»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Kiev constantly demonstrates a propensity for terrorist attacks against objects of the critical international energy system, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Wednesday. "We believe that the Kiev regime is constantly demonstrating aggressiveness and a propensity for terrori»»»

On the eve of the NATO summit in Ankara, Ukraine and Russia seemed to be locked in a competition to see who can torch more of the opponent’s capital. Russia won. On the night of July 7, Kiev launched over 430 UAVs at Moscow and the Moscow region – the biggest such attack in the past two years. Acco»»»

The Netherlands has run out of options for continued direct military assistance to Ukraine, Defense Minister Dilan Yesilgoz-Zegerius has said. The EU and NATO member has been an active supporter of Kiev in its conflict with Moscow, including by supplying US-made F-16 fighter jets as part of a schem»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar has revealed that he and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy have agreed to meet in the near future, with the talks potentially taking place in either Budapest or Kyiv before the two leaders travel together to Transcarpathia. Speaking in a Facebook video ah»»»

US President Donald Trump on Tuesday announced his willingness to sell Turkey F-35 fighter jets, a move which is likely to face strong resistance in Congress and which Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said would "destroy" the balance of power in the Middle East. Trump on Tuesday became the»»»

This photo, provided by Seoul's foreign ministry, shows South Korean Foreign Minister Cho Hyun (C), U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio (L) and Japanese Foreign Minister Toshimitsu Motegi on the sidelines of the NATO summit in Ankara on Tuesday. Photo courtesy of South Korea Foreign Ministry SEOUL,»»»

Romania has joined the founding group behind the Defence, Security and Resilience Bank, a Canada-led multilateral financial institution designed to mobilise public and private capital for defence, security and resilience projects. The joint declaration was signed on the sidelines of the NATO Summit»»»

Ankara: US President Donald Trump on Tuesday threatened to cut off trade with Spain and insisted he still wanted Greenland, as NATO leaders met for their summit in Ankara. "I'm very upset with NATO," he told reporters as he met alliance chief Mark Rutte ahead of the main summit session. "I'm not ha»»»

Russian Ambassador to Bulgaria Eleonora Mitrofanova said Bulgarian defense factories are continuing to operate at full capacity, with large quantities of military equipment, particularly artillery shells and ammunition, being exported to NATO and EU countries. In an interview with Russian state med»»»

Hungarian Prime Minister Péter Magyar delivered one of his clearest statements yet on Russia’s invasion of Ukraine during the second day of the NATO summit in Ankara, declaring that “Ukraine is the victim, Russia the brutal aggressor.” Speaking alongside other NATO leaders, Magyar stressed that Hun»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump said on Wednesday that the ceasefire with Iran is no longer valid. "It is a very interesting question to me. I think it is over. I do not want to deal with them," Trump told reporters in Ankara, when asked if the ceasefire is in effect after the recent e»»»

For much of the past decade, Uzbekistan's economic story has been one of domestic transformation. The government liberalised the currency, opened previously closed sectors to foreign investment, modernised state institutions, reduced trade barriers and launched one of the region's most ambitious pr»»»

In response to Ukraine's attacks, the Russian armed forces launched a strike on defense industry facilities in Kiev overnight, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Wednesday. Targets Hit:Samsung-Ukraine industrial plant — used for producing and storing components for FP-5 Flamingo cruise missilesA »»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The topic of terrorism threat emanating from the Ukrainian government on global scale will certainly be raised behind closed doors at the NATO summit in Ankara, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Wednesday. "Behind closed doors, during bilateral meetings»»»

ZAPORIZHZHIA REGION: Russian forces are trying to counter Ukrainian “mid-strike” drone attacks by camouflaging cargoes and installing powerful jamming systems to disrupt Elon Musk’s Starlink satellite Internet system, Ukrainian drone commanders and pilots told Reuters. Kyiv’s ​development of “mid-s»»»

Ukraine signed three new agreements with Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands to share its battlefield-tested drone expertise, President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Tuesday, as Kyiv seeks to strengthen defence cooperation with NATO allies amid continued Russian missile attacks. President Volodymyr Z»»»

Prime Minister Rumen Radev said Bulgaria will continue strengthening its defense capabilities and expanding its defense industry, describing the country's role in the Black Sea region as increasingly important during the NATO summit in Ankara. Radev welcomed the growing commitment of European NATO »»»

Doha: Portugal superstar Cristiano Ronaldo said he wouldn’t make any decisions about his international future in the heat of the moment, but Portugal’s exit from the FIFA World Cup 2026 seems to have made things clear about his career. A stoppage-time strike from substitute Mikel Merino sent Spain »»»

ANKARA: President Donald Trump surprised NATO leaders he is meeting with in Turkiye by launching a series of strikes on Iran late Tuesday and revoking a license that allowed Tehran to sell its oil on the world market, a major twist for a summit that had been aimed at showcasing how alliance members»»»

A coalition of 12 countries, led by the UK, is launching a more than £37 billion ($50 billion/€43 billion) programme to develop a new long-range precision missile system aimed at strengthening Nato's defenses against emerging threats across Europe. The Deep Precision Strike initiative is expected t»»»

It is crucial for Western nations to engage with Afghanistan to prevent the country from sliding back into instability that could have repercussions far beyond its borders, two top United Nations officials said. “The lesson of (the) recent past is that ignoring Afghanistan is not a good thing to do»»»

The International Olympic Committee provisionally lifted its suspension of the Russian Olympic Committee on Tuesday, paving the way for Russian athletes and teams to move closer to competing under their flag and anthem at the 2028 Los Angeles Olympics, despite strong objections from Ukraine. Russia»»»

A series of explosions rocked Kyiv early Wednesday, AFP journalists heard, as Russia keeps up its barrage of attacks on the Ukrainian capital while NATO leaders meet for a summit in Turkey. A first large blast was heard even before the city's air alert sirens sounded, followed by four more, AFP jou»»»

ANKARA: President Volodymyr Zelensky ‌said on Tuesday that Ukraine had signed three more “drone deals” with Denmark, Estonia and the Netherlands, making ​available its expertise gained from more than four years of war with Russia. Zelensky announced the deals in posts on social media on the sidelin»»»

CAIRO: As Egypt bowed out of the World Cup with a dramatic 3-2 defeat to a Lionel Messi-inspired Argentina in the last 16 on Tuesday, supporters in Cairo rose to applaud a team that had taken the country further than ever before. “We’re heartbroken because we believed we could go even further,” sai»»»

Holidaymakers can breathe a sigh of relief after the EU hit the pause button on its new Entry/Exit System (EES) that swaps passports with biometrics. “When there are situations of exceptionally high pressure on a certain border crossing point, there is the possibility to suspend temporarily the reg»»»

Russia “currently has greater capabilities than Ukraine” in the production of a broad array of strike weapons, from precision cruise missiles to hypersonic systems like Kinzhal and Zircon, to attack UAVs used for strikes on military and energy infrastructure targets, says Russian military expert Al»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - Russia is too large and too responsible a country to initiate a third world war, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Tuesday. "Russia is too big and too responsible a country to be an initiator of a third world war. The United States knows the possible consequences of that wa»»»

In targeting Russian energy infrastructure, the Zelensky regime is merely “implementing plans developed with the active participation of the UK and NATO headquarters,” veteran Russian military analyst and National Defense Magazine editor-in-chief Igor Korotchenko told Sputnik. London is playing a s»»»

A parcel bomb exploded in Monaco on June 30 seriously injuring three people. On Tuesday, police in Ukraine announced they found the suspect dead and arrested two other people. Photo by Sebastien Nogier/EPA July 7 (UPI) -- The main suspect in a Monaco bombing was found dead Tuesday in Ukraine. The p»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The International Olympic Committee (IOC) has decided on Tuesday to temporarily restore the membership of the Russian Olympic Committee in the organization. "The International Olympic Committee (IOC) Executive Board (EB) has provisionally lifted the suspension of the Russian Olym»»»

Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari made a historic visit to Bishkek on July 6 — the first presidential trip from Pakistan to Kyrgyzstan in two decades — signaling a renewed push for regional connectivity and energy cooperation. During talks with Kyrgyz President Sadyr Japarov, the two leaders foc»»»

MOSCOW (Sputnik) - The Russian armed forces destroyed four locomotives and more than 10 trucks in the Dnepropetrovsk (Dnipropetrovsk) region and Kharkov (Kharkiv) using Geran strike drones, the Russian Ministry of Defense said on Tuesday. The ministry published several videos showing footage of the»»»

WASHINGTON (Sputnik) - US President Donald Trump on Tuesday said that Turkiye's ownership of Russian S-400 air defense systems are not a source of concern amid renewed interest in the potential sale of US-made F-35 fighter jets to Ankara. Earlier in the day, the US president said that selling the f»»»