European leaders race to respond after US policy shift on Ukraine

Twenty-four hours in Ukraine’s Kharkiv, where life goes on despite the war

Kharkiv, eastern Ukraine’s largest city, is resolutely entering its fourth year of war, with residents stoically coping with emergency laws, night curfews and incessant air alerts. Underground schools have been built, and the city still offers a few leisure activities to ward off fear and help ov...

A model in crisis: Germans head to polls amid economic downturn

The economy is a top concern for voters in Germany as they go to the polls on Sunday to elect a new government. The country has seen two consecutive years of economic contraction and this stagnation could very well continue for a third year. Its post-Covid recovery was completely stunted by Russia...

Press conference between Zelensky and Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy is canceled by US

A news conference after talks between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and President Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy was canceled at the request of U.S. officials, a Kyiv official said. More information with FRANCE 24 correspondent in Kyiv, Gulliver Cragg....

Putin using Trump ties as 'legitimisation' in Russia, exiled opponent Khodorkovsky says

FRANCE 24 spoke to exiled Russian opponent Mikhail Khodorkovsky, who was jailed for a decade until he was pardoned by President Vladimir Putin in 2013. Over the past few weeks, Putin and his US counterpart Donald Trump have spoke to each other and agreed to work toward ending the war in Ukraine –...

EU says 'Ukraine a democracy, Putin's Russia not' after Trump comments

In an extraordinary rift, Trump said that Zelensky was a "dictator without elections" who should act quickly or lose his country. The European Union hit back by saying that "President Zelensky was legitimately elected in free, fair and democratic elections." Analysis by FRANCE 24 Chief Foreign Edit...

Denmark boosts its defence spending by $7 billion, as Nordic countries fear Russian rearmament

A mood of panic is spreading across Europe after the dramatic foreign policy shift in Washington. Several Nordic countries today reacted - and took action: Denmark announced an increase in military spending to 3 percent of its GDP over the next two years, as the prime minister cited fears over Russ...

Russia agrees to resume dialogue with US ‘on all parameters’ of Ukraine war

Russia is going to resume dialogue with the United States “on all parameters” of the war in Ukraine, the Kremlin said Thursday. The announcement comes just two days after Moscow and Washington held a meeting on Ukraine in Saudi Arabia without inviting neither Kyiv, nor any representatives of i...

DR Congo : UN warns of regional conflict, as M23 advances in strategic zones

The M23 armed group is advancing on "strategic zones" in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo after taking two key cities, the United Nations warned, underscoring the threat of a regional conflict. Story by Emerald Maxwell....

Germany: final face off before the legislative elections, Scholz promises to ward off AfD

German voters will go to the polls Sunday to elect a new parliament that will determine how the country is run for the next four years. Conservative Friedrich Merz is the strong favourite to become the next chancellor after a bitterly fought campaign roiled by the rise of the AfD, a far-right party...

Crowfunding weaponry for Ukraine: activist and comedian raises €200 million in 3 years

In Ukraine, a spirit of defiance is growing, particularly among the many civil society organisations that have been helping the war effort over the past three years - crowdfunding drones and other weaponry for the army. Our correspondent Gulliver Cragg has been to meet the head of one of the bigges...

'Magnifique': Papers react to Mbappé's stunning Champions League hat-trick

PRESS REVIEW – Thursday, February 20: Papers around the world react with outrage to US President Donald Trump labelling Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator" and blaming Ukraine for starting the war. Elsewhere, a worrying study indicates that glaciers are melting at a rapid rate. A...

Trump blames Ukraine war on 'dictator' Zelensky

After the US held bilateral talks with Russian delegates in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday, breaking from US policy on the Ukraine war, US President Donald Trump chided Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in a social media post, calling him a "dictator" and baselessly faulting him for causing the war....

Ukrainians dismiss Trump's broadside against Zelensky

US President, Donald Trump, has branded Volodymyr Zelensky a 'dictator' who 'refused to have elections'. Defiant Ukrainians are dismissing the extraordinary broadside, saying they have to fight on, even as their key ally engages in talks with the enemy. They're also rejecting the idea of holding el...

Fact-checking Trump's statements on Ukraine

US President Donald Trump has launched a flurry of controversial claims about the war in Ukraine and President Volodymyr Zelensky, while addressing reporters at his Mar-a-Lago resort. Many of these claims were made without providing any evidence. We fact-check these claims in this edition of Truth...

Kenya slammed for hosting Sudan rebels' government declaration

In tonight's edition: Sudan condemns Kenya for hosting the war-torn country's paramilitary rebels. Also, the M23 continues its advance in eastern DR Congo, with fighting reported around the town of Uvira. Plus, Malian director Souleymane Cissé, one of the fathers of African cinema, dies aged 84....

Why Europe’s leadership is skeptical of negotiating with Putin

The idea that US President Donald Trump’s negotiations with Russian President Vladimir Putin will bring about lasting peace in Ukraine has been met with scepticism across Europe. FRANCE 24 spoke to political scientist Anton Shekhovtsov about what the US can learn from earlier attempts to end Russ...

Trump "is very interested in doing business with Russia": analyst

President Zelensky said he will meet US envoy Kellogg on Thursday and that he hopes for "constructive" work with the US. The meeting comes as Trump used an extended social media post on his Truth Social platform to lash out at Zelensky and call the Ukrainian a “dictator without elections." Michae...

Trump calls Ukranian president "dictator", Zelensky says Trump living in "disinformation space"

Relations between Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and U.S. President Donald Trump deteriorated rapidly Wednesday as Zelenskyy said Trump was living in a Russian-made “disinformation space" and Trump called Zelenskyy “a dictator without elections” in comments that were sure to complica...

Andrey Kurkov: 'You can't write fiction when your houses, cities are shelled with missiles, drones'

As we approach the third anniversary of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine, FRANCE 24's Erin Ogunkeye welcomes celebrated Ukrainian novelist and author Andrey Kurkov to share his very powerful and personal accounts of a veritable proxy war, an unprovoked war of attrition as seen from his war d...

Baltic region prepares for war as Russia and US debate Ukraine's fate

As Russia and the US debate Ukraine’s future, countries on the Baltic Sea are ramping up preparations for a military conflict amid fears that Russia is preparing for a future war with NATO....

🔴 Follow live: Trump brands Zelensky 'a dictator'

Berlin International film festival 2025: Film explores life after war trauma

The Berlin international film festival is underway in the German capital until Sunday. It closes on the same day as the German snap elections. Timely given that this 75th edition has featured quite a bit of politics - with films covering the themes of immigrant identity as well as the wars in Gaza...

'I lost it all in the war': Gaza’s fishermen struggle to rebuild livelihoods

Despite the ceasefire, now a month old, there's no business as usual in the Gaza strip. Homes are destroyed, and livelihoods too. After the destruction the war left behind, fishermen struggle to make a living as they once did....

Emmanuel Macron to host second emergency talks on war in Ukraine

French President Emmanuel Macron is hosting a new meeting on Ukraine in a bid to coordinate a European response to what he called an "existential threat" from Russia after a shock policy shift in Washington. Macron planned to speak to leaders of around 15 countries, who were reportedly aghast at no...

'We are all now different people' says Andrey Kurkov on FRANCE 24

In just a few days, it will have been three years since the beginning of Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine. FRANCE 24's invites Andrey Kurkov, one of Ukraine's best known writers. Last year he published 'our daily war', a second volume of his war diaries documenting the daily realities of lif...

Trump brands Zelensky 'a dictator'

US President Donald Trump on Wednesday called Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky a "dictator without elections" who "better move fast or he is not going to have a country left". The comments risk widening a personal rift between the two leaders, with possibly major implications on efforts to end t...

The Berlinale's 75th selection of hard-hitting films

The Berlin Film Festival is known for its political nature and this year's edition is no exception, with elections in Germany casting a shadow over proceedings and calls for a boycott over the event's attitude towards Palestinians in Gaza. Film critic Emma Jones takes us through some of the highly...

Volodymyr Zelensky says Donald Trump 'trapped in disinformation bubble'

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday accused Donald Trump of succumbing to Russian "disinformation", deepening a rift between Kyiv and the new US administration. For more, FRANCE 24's international affairs editor, Rob Parsons....

Trump hit back at Zelensky after Washington received pushback from Kyiv

US President Donald Trump hit back at Ukraine's Vlodymir Zelensky after Washington received pushback from Kyiv for being left out of talks with Russia in Riyadh. Trump launched a series of attacks on Zelensky, as he confirmed a probable face to face meeting with Vladimir Putin by the end of the mon...

Rwanda-backed M23 moves in on Congo border city

While the rest of the world focuses on the US, Ukraine, and the Middle East, is Rwanda’s Paul Kagame on the quiet staking out a land grab in eastern Congo? Former UN advisor on DRC Gregory MTHEMBU-SALTER, Director of Phuzumoya Consulting, joins François Picard to offer in-depth analysis and a de...