A deputy Russian defense minister said during peace talks with a Ukrainian delegation in Istanbul on Tuesday that Russia would “by multiples, reduce military activity” near Kyiv and the northern city of Chernihiv. The news came as diplomats from both sides met in Turkey to discuss a potential ceasefire, more …

Russian and Ukrainian delegations are in Istanbul for the first face-to-face talks in more than two weeks after President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said Ukraine was prepared to declare its neutrality and consider a compromise on contested areas in the country’s east to secure peace. Earlier talks between the sides, both in-person …

About 240 sailors and six Navy EA-18G Growlers will arrive in Germany on Monday as Russia’s war in nearby Ukraine drags on, chief Pentagon spokesman John Kirby said. The troops and electronic attack aircraft will deploy from Naval Air Station Whidbey Island, Wash., to Spangdahlem Air Base in Germany, Kirby …

Turkey on Monday found a mine floating off of its coast near Bulgaria and Turkish defense officials were working to defuse it. It is the second mine deployed by Ukraine in the Black Sea to halt the advance of Russian troops to be discovered floating off of Turkey’s coast in …

Israel’s Foreign Minister Yair Lapid on Monday announced that cooperation between Israel, the United States, Morocco, Egypt, Bahrain, and the United Arab Emirates will continue on a regular basis in order to stoke fear in Iran. Speaking at the historic two-day Negev Summit that was held with his counterparts from …

Since the radical Islamic State-affiliate Wilayat Sinai pledged allegiance to the new IS leader Abu al-Hassan al-Hashimi al-Qurashi, it intensified its operations in northern Sinai, where they are confronting local tribes. Egypt’s security authorities are closely following up on the situation in the Sinai Peninsula following the appointment of Abu …

Iraq is building a concrete wall along part of its border with Syria to stop ISIS fighters from infiltrating, a military source said Sunday. In the first section, a wall of about “a dozen kilometres, 3.5 metres high, was built in Nineveh province”, in the Sinjar area of north-west Iraq, …

A Ukrainian mayor who was abducted by Russian forces was released after a mass protest by the town’s residents, reports say. Russian forces entered the northern Ukrainian city of Slavutych, near the Chernobyl power plant, on Saturday and seized a hospital, and took the mayor Yuri Fomichov hostage, Ukrainian officials …

With its aspirations for a quick victory dashed by a stiff Ukrainian resistance, Russia has increasingly focused on grinding down Ukraine’s military in the east in the hope of forcing Kyiv into surrendering part of the country’s territory to possibly end the war. The bulk of the Ukrainian army is …

The risk of war in the Baltic states is real, General Sir Richard Shirreff, former deputy head of NATO in Europe, told the Swedish broadcaster SVT in an exclusive interview on Sunday. Shirreff, who was in Sweden to give a lecture at the Royal Academy of War Sciences, gave a …