U.S. President Donald Trump said late Tuesday he received a letter from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy saying Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table to discuss ending Russia’s three-year war on Ukraine.

“Wouldn’t that be beautiful?” Trump said in an address to the U.S. Congress. “It’s time to stop this madness. It’s time to halt the killing. It’s time to end this senseless war. If you want to end wars, you have to talk to both sides.”

His description of the letter matched what Zelenskyy posted earlier in the day on social media, saying Ukraine was ready to negotiate “as soon as possible” and would “work under” Trump’s “strong leadership” to reach a peace deal.

Zelenskyy said his acrimonious encounter with Trump at the White House last Friday was “regrettable” and that he remains ready to sign a deal that would give the United States substantial, long-term rights to Ukraine’s rare-earth minerals needed for the American manufacture of technology products.

In a post on X, the Ukrainian leader said in a statement that his discussions with Trump and Vice President JD Vance “did not go the way it was supposed to be. It is time to make things right. We would like future cooperation and communication to be constructive.”

Trump ordered Zelenskyy to leave the White House, and the minerals deal was left unsigned.

Trump and Vance, seated close to each other in the Oval Office, assailed Zelenskyy as being ungrateful for the more than $100 billion worth of munitions the United States has sent to Kyiv’s forces to fend off Moscow’s 2022 invasion, even though the Ukrainian leader had on numerous occasions thanked the U.S.

“We do really value how much America has done to help Ukraine maintain its sovereignty and independence,” Zelenskyy said on Tuesday. “And we remember the moment when things changed when President Trump provided Ukraine with Javelins,” an anti-tank missile weapons system. “We are grateful for this.”

“I would like to reiterate Ukraine’s commitment to peace,” Zelenskyy said. “None of us wants an endless war. Ukraine is ready to come to the negotiating table as soon as possible to bring lasting peace closer. Nobody wants peace more than Ukrainians.”

Vance told VOA on Tuesday, “We do believe that it’s in Russia’s best interest, but also Ukraine and the United States’s best interest, to bring this conflict to a close.”

Zelenskyy said the first stage of any truce in the fighting “could be the release of [Russian and Ukrainian] prisoners [each country is holding] and truce in the sky — ban on missiles, long-ranged drones, bombs on energy and other civilian infrastructure — and truce in the sea immediately, if Russia will do the same.”

“Then we want to move very fast through all next stages and to work with the U.S. to agree a strong final deal,” he said.

But 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.

Meanwhile, Zelenskyy has said the U.S. and its allies in Europe need to provide security for Ukraine so that it is protected against another Russian invasion, even if Moscow agrees to a halt in the ground fighting and end its daily aerial bombardment of Ukraine.

Britain, France and “a coalition of the willing” of other European countries agreed last weekend to send troops for a peacekeeping mission in Ukraine to support a ceasefire, but Trump has declined to commit the U.S. to providing a military backstop to enforce a truce against further Russian aggression.

Zelenskyy’s statement came hours after Trump paused further military aid to Ukraine.

“The President has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a senior administration official told VOA in an email. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Monday that his country needs “real, fair peace,” as well as security guarantees to ensure Russia doesn’t threaten Ukraine again in the future.

“It was precisely the lack of security guarantees for Ukraine 11 years ago that allowed Russia to start with the occupation of Crimea and the war in Donbas,” Zelenskyy said. “Then, the absence of security guarantees allowed Russia to launch the full-scale invasion. And now, because there are still no defined security guarantees, it is Russia that is keeping this war going.”

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters Tuesday that the U.S. pausing military aid to Ukraine is the best contribution to the cause of peace, and that it could help push Ukraine to engage in a peace process.

VOA’s Kateryna Lisunova contributed to this report. Some information was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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U.S. President Donald Trump ordered a “pause” Monday to military aid shipments to Ukraine with immediate effect, which his administration said was aimed at forcing all sides to peace talks. As Henry Ridgwell reports from London, European leaders have said it is vital to continue weapons shipments to Kyiv — but there are doubts over how long Ukraine can keep on fighting. Anna Chernikova contributed.
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The clinical condition of Pope Francis remained stable, the Vatican said Tuesday evening, and he was “alert, cooperative with therapies, and oriented.”  

However, the statement also said that Francis’ prognosis “remains guarded,” which means he is not out of danger.   

Francis, the leader of the world’s nearly 1.4 billion Roman Catholics, has been in Rome’s Gemelli Hospital for more than two weeks.   

He was admitted on February 14 with a case of bronchitis that worsened into double pneumonia.   

On Tuesday morning, the 88-year-old pontiff “transitioned to high-flow oxygen therapy and underwent respiratory physiotherapy,” according to a Vatican statement.  

On Tuesday night, the pope was set to resume noninvasive mechanical ventilation throughout the night. 

While Francis’ heart, kidney and blood measurements are stable, “his health situation remains complex,” the Vatican said.   

On Monday, the pope underwent two bronchoscopies to remove “a significant accumulation of endobronchial mucus.”   

The Vatican said Francis remained “alert, oriented and cooperative at all times” during the procedures.  

However, Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Chicago’s Northwestern Medicine, told The Associated Press, said Francis seems to be “taking little steps forward and then steps back.” 

“The fact that they had to go in there and remove [the mucus] manually is concerning, because it means that [the pope] is not clearing the secretions on his own,” said Coleman, who is not part of the pope’s medical team. 

This hospital stay is Francis’ longest during his time as pope. He is prone to lung infections, having had part of a lung removed when he was a young man. 

Francis’ hospital stay is not the record amount of time a pope has been hospitalized. In 1981, Pope John Paul II spent 55 days in Gemelli for a minor operation that resulted in a serious infection that extended the pontiff’s hospital stay.  
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The Kremlin is planning to use current frictions between the United States and European countries on the war in Ukraine to sow lasting divisions between Washington and Europe, regional experts told VOA Russian. 

Click here for the full story in Russian. 

 
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Fourteen militia groups control two-thirds of the Central African Republic (C.A.R.) and parts of the capital city, Bangui. Russian military involvement has been stained with gross human rights violations, corruption and appropriation of natural resources.
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European Union leaders will meet with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy on Thursday in Brussels to discuss boosting defense spending for Ukraine, as well as Europe’s own security in the face of Russia. The meeting comes amid fears that the United States’ longtime support to Europe may end. But does the EU have the leadership, means and public support to go it alone? Lisa Bryant reports from Paris.
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Paris — With Washington’s sudden pause on military aid to Ukraine as a backdrop, worried European Union leaders meet in Brussels Thursday to discuss steps to beef up EU defenses against Russia.

“The question is no longer whether Europe’s security is threatened in a very real way, or whether Europe should shoulder more of its responsibility for its own security,” said European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen ahead of the summit, as she outlined a multipronged, $840 billion defense financing plan for the 27-member bloc.

“The real question in front of us,” she said, “is whether Europe is prepared to act as decisively as the situation dictates — and whether Europe is ready and able to act with speed and ambition that is needed.”

That message has been resonating across multiple emergency summits that gathered European leaders fearful of possible U.S. disengagement, and has resulted in new European defense spending commitments, after years of Washington demands to take on more of the burden.

But EU members also face steep challenges as they move to rearm, from sometimes shaky governments and economies, to skeptical populations and a surging far right that is often more favorable toward Russia.

Especially concerning for many is the Trump administration’s possible pivot from a longstanding transatlantic alliance.

“It raises very big issues for the future of the European Union — and I think people in Europe are very aware of this,” said Ian Lesser, who heads the Brussels office of the German Marshall Fund policy institute. “Is Europe going to address these challenges, whether it’s on trade or defense — in a collective way? Or are countries, member states, going to go their own way?”

Sense of urgency

For many EU leaders, today’s message is unity. During a summit in London, EU countries and nonmember Britain agreed to develop their own peace plan for Ukraine to present to Washington. France and Britain also backed a “coalition of the willing” sending troops to Ukraine to enforce any peace deal.

French President Emmanuel Macron — who has long called for a more militarily autonomous Europe — has also suggested extending France’s nuclear deterrence to other European countries.

“The sense of urgency is finally catching up with European leaders, but it’s not sufficient at the moment,” said Olena Prokopenko, a senior German Marshall Fund fellow. “We see different levels of understanding of the level of threat that Europe is facing at the moment.”

“I see some degree of — I don’t want to say panic — but really alarmed Europeans who realize they need to stick together as much as possible,” said Elie Tenenbaum, director of security studies at the French Institute for International Relations in Paris.

Still, he added, Europe faces a daunting task. “If the Europeans want to step up and make up for the loss of American aid to Ukraine, it needs to happen now,” Tenenbaum said. “They need to put the money on the table; they need to pass on the orders to the defense industry.”

Beyond Ukraine, the Brussels-based Bruegel policy institute estimates Europe would need 300,000 more troops and hundreds of billions more dollars to deter possible Russian aggression without the United States.

Europe is “lacking ammunition, we’re lacking replacement parts, we’re lacking readiness,” Tenenbaum said.

Former French ambassador Michel Duclos, however, points to Europe’s assets. “Yes, we are not in a good situation,” said Duclos, now an analyst at the Montaigne Institute research group in Paris. “But at the same time, in demographic terms, in economic terms, we could be much stronger than Russia, if we are able to put our act together in defense terms.”

Pushback

Europe’s new security ambitions are already facing pushback. France’s powerful far-right National Rally party, for one, has rejected France including Europe in its nuclear deterrence capability, and leader Marine Le Pen describes an independent European defense as “illusory.”

Hungary’s Viktor Orban, noted for his friendly Kremlin ties, has called on Europe to instead enter direct talks to bring about a ceasefire between Ukraine and Russia.

Many European economies are struggling, while public support for Ukraine is fading in some countries. A pair of recent polls, for instance, shows that while two-thirds of French citizens believe Europe should continue supporting Kyiv, three-quarters don’t want French boots on the ground — except to enforce a possible peace.

“So far, European leaders have been trying to be more reassuring than alarming,” says analyst Tenenbaum, of the message many are sending their populations. “But if they want to justify higher defense spending and risk taking, then they will need to be much more vocal” about the dangers the region is facing.

For analyst Duclos, last week’s heated White House meeting between U.S. President Donald Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelenskyy, offered an impetus to prepare Europeans for going it alone.

“What happened in the Oval Office last week was useful to make people understand we disagree not only on the means, instruments and policies, but on something more fundamental: on values, on the threat perception,” he said of growing transatlantic differences. “And for the French public, it was the most powerful of wake-up calls.”
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Rome — Pope Francis rested early Tuesday after he suffered further setbacks in his fight against double pneumonia: two new acute respiratory crises that required him to resume using noninvasive mechanical ventilation to breathe. 

In its early Tuesday update, the Vatican said: “The pope slept through the night, now rest continues.” 

Francis suffered the two crises Monday. Doctors extracted “copious” amounts of mucus that had accumulated in his lungs, the Vatican said in a late update. They performed two bronchoscopies, in which a camera-tipped tube was sent into his airways with a sucker at the tip to suction out fluid. 

The 88-year-old pope, who has chronic lung disease and had part of one lung removed as a young man, was put back on noninvasive mechanical ventilation: a mask that covers his nose and mouth and pumps oxygen into the lungs. 

Francis remained alert, oriented and cooperated with medical personnel, the Vatican said. The prognosis remained guarded, meaning he was not out of danger. Doctors didn’t say if he remained in stable condition, though they referred to the crises in the past tense, suggesting they were over. 

The crises were a new setback in what has become a more than two-week battle by the frail pope to overcome a complex respiratory infection. 

The Vatican said the mucus that had accumulated in Francis’ lungs was his body’s reaction to the original pneumonia infection and not a new infection, given laboratory tests don’t indicate any new bacteria. 

Dr. John Coleman, a pulmonary critical care doctor at Northwestern Medicine in Chicago, said the episodes were more concerning than the last one on Friday, in which Francis had a coughing fit, inhaled some vomit that needed to be extracted and then was put on the noninvasive mechanical ventilation for a day and then didn’t need it anymore. 

The use of bronchoscopies reflects a worrying level of mucus and phlegm in the lungs, Coleman said. “The fact that they had to go in there and remove it manually is concerning, because it means that he is not clearing the secretions on his own,” he said. 

“He’s taking little steps forward and then steps back,” said Coleman, who is not involved in Francis’ care. 

Francis, who is not physically active, uses a wheelchair and is overweight, had been undergoing respiratory physiotherapy to try to improve his lung function. But the accumulation of the secretions in his lungs was a sign that he doesn’t have the muscle tone to cough vigorously enough to expel the fluid. 

Doctors often use noninvasive ventilation to stave off an intubation, or the use of invasive mechanical ventilation. Francis has not been intubated during this hospitalization. It’s not clear if he has provided any advance directives about the limits of his care if he declines or loses consciousness. 

Catholic teaching holds that life must be defended from conception until natural death. It insists that chronically ill patients, including those in vegetative states, must receive “ordinary” care such as hydration and nutrition, but “extraordinary” or disproportionate care can be suspended if it is no longer beneficial or is only prolonging a precarious and painful life. 

Francis articulated that in a 2017 speech to a meeting of the Vatican’s bioethics think tank, the Pontifical Academy for Life. He said there was “no obligation to have recourse in all circumstances to every possible remedy.” He added: “It thus makes possible a decision that is morally qualified as withdrawal of ‘overzealous treatment.’” 

Archbishop Vincenzo Paglia, who heads the academy which helps articulate the Catholic Church’s position on end-of-life care, said Francis is like any other Catholic and would follow church teaching, if it came to that. 

“Today the pope is giving us an extraordinary teaching on fragility,” he told reporters Monday. “Today the pope, not through words but with his body, is reminding all of us, we elderly people to begin with, that we are all fragile and therefore we need to take care of each other.” 

Francis’ hospitalization, which hits 18 nights Tuesday, is by no means reaching the papal record that was set during St. John Paul II’s numerous lengthy hospitalizations over a quarter century. The longest single hospitalization occurred in 1981, when John Paul spent 55 days in Gemelli for a minor operation and then to be treated for a serious infection that followed.
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President Donald Trump has placed a pause on aid to Ukraine, the White House announced late Monday.

“The President has been clear that he is focused on peace,” a senior administration official told VOA in an email. The official is not being named, as is customary when engaging with reporters. “We need our partners to be committed to that goal as well. We are pausing and reviewing our aid to ensure that it is contributing to a solution.”

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said in his nightly address Monday that his country needs “real, fair peace,” as well as security guarantees to ensure Russia does threaten Ukraine again in the future.

“It was precisely the lack of security guarantees for Ukraine 11 years ago that allowed Russia to start with the occupation of Crimea and the war in Donbas,” Zelenskyy said. “Then, the absence of security guarantees allowed Russia to launch the full-scale invasion. And now, because there are still no defined security guarantees, it is Russia that is keeping this war going.”

Earlier Monday, Trump was pointed in saying a deal for rare earth minerals was key to continued U.S. support of Ukraine, and said he would make an announcement on the matter Tuesday when he speaks before a joint session of Congress.

There was fallout on both sides of the Atlantic Monday amid mounting European concerns about Ukraine’s future, as European leaders scrambled after Trump’s contentious Friday exchange with Zelenskyy. That Oval Office blow-up ended a minerals deal that Trump argued was key for continuing U.S. support for Ukraine.

Trump has pushed to end the fighting, but Zelenskyy has expressed fears that Trump is attempting to settle the conflict on terms more favorable to Moscow than Kyiv.

On Monday, the business-minded president hammered his increasingly blunt point: If Ukraine wants to survive, Zelenskyy needs to make a deal.

“It can be made very fast,” Trump said. “Now, maybe somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, and if somebody doesn’t want to make a deal, I think that person won’t be around very long. That person will not be listened to very long, because I believe that Russia wants to make a deal. I believe certainly the people of Ukraine want to make a deal. They’ve suffered more than anybody else.”

Earlier in the day in a social media posting, Trump derided Zelenskyy’s assessment that the end of Russia’s war with his country “is still very, very far away,” calling that “the worst statement.”

“America will not put up with it for much longer!” he added.

Analysts say they understand where Trump lands on major issues like Ukraine’s future membership in NATO and the prospect of U.S. troops on the ground — both hard nos from Trump.

But on this economic deal, they say, they can’t predict the president’s next move.

Even before Zelenskyy landed in Washington, the deal was painted in broad strokes. It was meant to allow U.S. investment in rare-earth mineral exploration in exchange for reinvestment.

But Zelenskyy had insisted on the need for U.S. security guarantees, which were not in the original draft.

“It’s still unclear what Trump’s plan really is,” Anna Borshchevskaya, a senior fellow at the Washington Institute for Near East Policy, told VOA in a Zoom interview. “What we can also see what has emerged over the weekend is that Europe is stepping up to do more to deter Russia.”

After the White House meeting fell apart, Zelenskyy flew across the Atlantic to meet with European allies. He was warmly greeted by Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

At Westminster on Monday, Starmer reiterated Britain’s offer of peacekeepers and announced $2 billion for 5,000 air defense missiles for Ukraine. He echoed the narrative that former President Joe Biden used to justify U.S. support — that the Belfast-made products would feed back into the British economy.

“Britain will play a leading role with, if necessary, and together with others, boots on the ground and planes in the air,” he said, speaking to Parliament. “Mr. Speaker, it is right that Europe do the heavy lifting to support peace on our continent. But to succeed, this effort must also have strong U.S. backing.”

That followed the talks Sunday in London during which Starmer told 18 allies that with the United States wavering in its support for Ukraine, Europe finds itself “at a crossroads in history.”

Kim Lewis contributed to this article. Some information for this story was provided by The Associated Press, Agence France-Presse and Reuters.
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As Ukraine’s war enters its fourth year, 6.8 million Ukrainians remain refugees. Researchers say fewer than half plan to return when the war ends. From Kyiv, Lesia Bakalets reports on what can be done to encourage more of them to return to their homeland.
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