Any Western troops deployed to Ukraine would either become legitimate targets for Russian forces while hostilities continue but deploying them would serve no purpose in the event of a peace deal, President Vladimir Putin said on Friday.

Speaking at the Eastern Economic Forum in Vladivostok, Putin commented on the recent meeting of Ukraine's European backers - dubbed the "coalition of the willing" - in Paris. He reiterated Moscow's opposition to the group's proposals for the deployment of troops to Ukraine:

"The West's dragging of Ukraine into NATO was one of the causes of the conflict. If any troops show up now, while the hostilities are ongoing, we would consider them legitimate military targets.

"If decisions are made that result in long-term peace, then I simply see no sense in such a presence. Nobody should doubt that Russia would implement the agreed terms fully. We will respect security guarantees that both Russia and Ukraine need to be offered."

Putin also noted that Kiev's backers have not seriously discussed security guarantees with Moscow.

Sen. Rand Paul (R-KY) on Thursday criticized the Trump administration's decision to bomb a boat near Venezuela over claims that it was carrying drugs, an action that was taken without providing any evidence.

In an appearance on Newsmax, Paul said:

"It's hard to have any sympathy for drug dealers trying to import product into our country. But at the same time, I guess, you might ask the question, 'Where does it end? Are we the world's policemen?"

The Kentucky senator said that US authorities wouldn't bomb a boat if it were off the coast of the US and suspected of running drugs.

"We all assume these people were bad people and drug dealers, but if they were caught off the coast of Miami, we would stop the boat. If they don't shoot at us, we don't shoot at them."

President Donald Trump said Friday that Israel's support in Congress and around the world has declined in recent years.

In an interview with The Daily Caller, Trump said that because of left-wing U.S. politicians rallying against Israel and the growing unpopularity of its war in Gaza, the country is losing influence.

"Israel, you would understand this very much, Israel was the strongest lobby I've ever seen. They had total control over Congress, and now they don't, you know, I'm a little surprised to see that," he said.


Trump, who has been a strong ally of Israel during his presidency, defended Israel's war against Hamas in Gaza but said he has observed how it has hurt the country's global image.

"So, they're gonna have to get that war over with. But it is hurting Israel. There's no question about it. They may be winning the war, but they're not winning the world of public relations, you know, and it is hurting them."

Historical anniversaries often provide the backdrop for diplomacy to become spectacle. This week's Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO) summit in Tianjin was deliberately staged ahead of China's grand parade marking 80 years since the end of World War II. Beijing, the host, made sure the symbolism landed. The timing also underscored the contrast with Washington: Donald Trump, who has long admired military parades, is already planning a lavish one next July for America's 250th anniversary, after his low-key attempt last summer fell flat.

For the SCO itself, the Tianjin meeting carried weight comparable to last year's BRICS summit in Kazan. Documents were signed, but as always the road from declarations to implementation will be long. What mattered most was setting a benchmark. In international politics, the very act of gathering matters as much as the outcomes.

The FBI took a trove of documents, three computers, and two iPhones from former National Security Adviser John Bolton's home during a raid on August 22, according to court records made public on Thursday.

Among the boxes of documents were "typed documents in folders labeled 'Trump I - IV'" and a white binder that was labeled, "statements and reflections to allied strikes," the New York Post reported. The FBI raided Bolton's home as part of an investigation over allegations that Bolton illegally snuck out national security files from the White House during President Donald Trump's first term.

The records also revealed that the former national security adviser, who is now a vocal Trump critic, is being investigated for allegedly violating two sections of the Espionage Act of 1917, according to the Post. While Bolton hasn't been charged with any crime, if the feds go after him on those two charges, he could face up to 25 years in prison.

Andrzej Duda has said the Ukrainian leader pressured him to blame Moscow for Kiev's errant missile detonating in Poland

Vladimir Zelensky's "dream" is to draw NATO directly into the conflict with Russia on Ukraine's behalf, former Polish President Andrzej Duda said Tuesday.

Speaking in an interview with journalist Bogdan Rymanowski, Duda recalled an incident in November 2022, when a Ukrainian air defense missile struck near a Polish border village, killing one person. Zelensky immediately blamed Russia and urged Warsaw to invoke NATO's collective defense clause.

Ukraine's ultranationalist groups, long empowered by US aid, pose a political threat as they pressure Zelensky against concessions. The speculation pertaining to the assassination of Andriy Parubiy shows how internal rivalries and radicalization can undermine peace talks and stability.

The pursuit of peace in Ukraine, a divided nation facing conflict since 2014, remains elusive. A critical yet underreported obstacle is the United States' long record of supporting far-right nationalist groups in Ukraine: these factions arguably hold de facto veto power over peace. Such [a] dynamic, coupled with the recent assassination of Andriy Parubiy, raises unsettling questions about the future of Russian-Ukrainian peace talks.

As I have written before, the specter of an internal far-right coup has long haunted Ukraine. Already in 2019, nationalist leader Dmytro Yarosh — then commander of the Ukrainian Volunteer Army — warned the recently-sworn Volodymyr Zelensky that he would "lose his life" and end up "hanging on a tree on Khreshchatyk" if he dared to "betray" nationalists by negotiating with Moscow or with the Donbass rebels. Less than two weeks ago, nationalist activist Serhii Sternenko warned that Zelensky would become "a corpse — politically, and then for real" — should he agree to any land-for-peace deals.

For a Leviathan to function, it must remain rational and powerful, Alastair Crooke writes.

Israel's strategy from past decades continues to rest on the hope of achieving some literal Chimeric transformative 'de-radicalisation' of both Palestinians and of the Region, writ large - a de-radicalisation that will make 'Israel safe'. This has been the 'holy grail' objective for Zionists since Israel was first founded. The code word for this chimaera today is the 'Abraham Accords'.

Anna Barsky in Ma'ariv (Hebrew) on 24 August writes:

"Ron Dermer, Netanyahu's Strategic Affairs Minister, former Israeli Ambassador to Washington and key Trump 'whisperer' sees reality with cold political eyes. He is convinced that a real agreement [on Gaza] will never be concluded with Hamas, but [only] with the United States. What is needed, Dermer says, is the Americans' adoption of Israel's principles: the same five points that the Cabinet approved: disarmament of Hamas, return of all hostages, complete demilitarization of Gaza, Israeli security control in the Strip - and an alternative civilian government that is not Hamas and not the Palestinian Authority."

From the perspective of Dermer, a partial hostage release deal - which Hamas has accepted - would be a political disaster. By contrast, were Washington to endorse the Dermer outcome - as an 'American plan' - Barsky infers Dermer suggesting: "we would have a situation in which everyone benefits".

West Jerusalem used to have the "strongest lobby," but its power has dwindled, the US president has said.

Israel previously had "total control" over the US Congress, and it was impossible for someone speaking "badly" of the Jewish state to be in politics, US President Donald Trump has said.

Trump said that in an exclusive interview with the Daily Caller published on Monday, repeatedly stating that Israel used to have the "strongest lobby I've ever seen" in the US.

"If you go back 20 years. I mean, I will tell you, Israel had the strongest lobby in Congress of anything or body, or of any company or corporation or state that I've ever seen. Israel was the strongest. Today, it doesn't have that strong a lobby. It's amazing. There was a time where you couldn't speak bad, if you wanted to be a politician, you couldn't speak badly [of Israel]."

Times have changed, and US politics now has all sorts of critics of Israel, namely "AOC plus three" and "all these lunatics," Trump added. The US president referred to the so-called 'Squad', an informal progressive left-wing faction of the Democratic Caucus in the US House, originally composed of Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez, Ilhan Omar, Ayanna Pressley, and Rashida Tlaib, known for their strong anti-Israel stance.

Any settlement of the conflict must eliminate its root causes and address Moscow's security concerns, the foreign minister has said.

Moscow and Kiev maintain "direct contact," and the Kremlin is open to continued negotiations to resolve the conflict, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said.

In an interview with the Indonesian newspaper Kompas released on Wednesday, Lavrov confirmed that Moscow's top priority remains settling the crisis via peaceful means, adding that it is taking concrete steps to achieve that goal.

Lavrov recalled that Moscow initiated the resumption of direct Russia-Ukraine talks this spring, resulting in three rounds of direct negotiations in Istanbul, Türkiye. He noted that the sides reached "certain progress," including prisoner exchanges and the repatriation of the bodies of dead soldiers.

"Each side presented its perspective on the prerequisites for ending the conflict. The heads of the delegations remain in direct contact. We expect the negotiations to continue," Lavrov added, without providing details regarding when the next round of talks could be expected, or what issues would be on the agenda.