Donald Trump is negotiating with European allies to deploy American private military contractors to Ukraine as part of long-term security guarantees, offering a workaround to his campaign promise against stationing US troops in the country, The Telegraph reports.

The contractor plan forms part of a comprehensive European-led security framework involving thousands of troops, air policing missions, and Black Sea naval operations that European officials say cannot proceed without American intelligence, logistics, and command support.

Final details of the comprehensive security framework could be announced as soon as this weekend, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy indicating that specifics are imminent.

Any proposals are likely to face Russian objection, but Trump has reportedly told European leaders that Vladimir Putin is open to Western allies offering Ukraine security guarantees. 

American contractors could build Ukraine’s defensive lines

The Telegraph reported that US contractors would help rebuild Ukraine’s front-line defenses, construct new military bases.

The American president signaled willingness to support what could become one of the most significant overseas missions since the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Front-line fortifications and nearby bases would be built by American private military contractors using methods deployed in Iraq and Afghanistan, The Telegraph reported, citing European officials.

“The principal aim is to demonstrate to the Ukrainians that we would be in the fight with you if Russia re-invades,” one official told the publication.

Multi-layered defense framework takes shape

The Telegraph outlined a comprehensive three-tier security structure under negotiation between Western allies.

The first line of defense would involve Ukrainian soldiers defending a reinforced border at frozen front lines, with discussions ongoing about a demilitarized buffer zone extending 20 kilometers on either side of the contact line. 

US intelligence support for both Ukrainian forces and any peacekeeping mission is considered highly likely, while NATO or US command of peacekeeping operations remains under negotiation.

Behind Ukrainian forces, a European-led peacekeeping force would provide secondary deterrence, with thousands of European troops stationed deeper in Ukraine. 

Ukrainian forces would continue receiving training from British, French, and other European militaries under arrangements considered highly likely to proceed.

The final backstop would involve US fighter jets and missiles positioned in neighboring countries like Poland or Romania to deter Russian attacks against forces in Ukraine. 

American heavy-lift aircraft would transport European equipment into Ukraine, while a staged approach would reopen Ukrainian airports from west to east as confidence in ceasefire arrangements builds.

European peace plan still needs US backing

The contractor deployment forms part of a broader European-led security framework that includes air policing missions, naval operations in the Black Sea, and training programs moved to Ukrainian soil.

European officials said the presence of American contractors would provide a “major boost” because it puts American passport holders on the ground, creating a deterrent effect against Russian attacks due to fear of US retaliation.

A Whitehall source told The Telegraph that private American contractors “puts American ‘boots’ […] on the ground, which is then effectively the deterrent to Putin.”

The European reassurance force was previously discussed as a 30,000-troop deployment but has been scaled back due to resource limitations and concerns it could appear “too muscular” to Putin, sources said.

US support requirements expose European gaps

Despite European leadership of the security framework, American support remains essential for intelligence, logistics, and command structures. 

European nations lack the satellite capabilities needed to monitor any ceasefire and require US heavy-lift aircraft to transport equipment and troops.

The Pentagon has discussed positioning US General Alexus Grynkewich, NATO’s top commander, to oversee deployments under the peace plan. 

The White House has already approved his involvement in military planning, which European allies view as one of the greatest signs of Trump’s support for security guarantees.

European governments have requested Trump station fighter jets and missiles in neighboring Poland or Romania to respond to Russian aggression against their forces in Ukraine. 

“The prospect of an American military response is an entirely different prospect to a European response,” one source said.

Business interests drive contractor discussions

The contractor talks coincide with the signing of a joint US-Ukraine deal to extract Ukraine’s vast rare earth mineral wealth. 

Using private contractors would allow Trump to champion another business deal while addressing concerns among his supporters who oppose foreign military intervention.

Russian opposition threatens framework implementation

Russia dismissed Western security guarantee proposals as “one-sided” and “designed to contain Russia” on Friday, adding to European skepticism about Moscow’s willingness to agree to any ceasefire.

Many European officials believe Putin is misleading Trump and prolonging the war to gain more territory, according to The Telegraph. 

Putin’s reluctance to agree to a ceasefire led Trump to withdraw economic incentives previously offered to Russia, including access to Alaska’s natural resources and sanctions relief.

The comprehensive peace plan details could be announced as soon as this weekend, following weeks of diplomatic activity sparked by Trump’s Alaska talks with Putin.

Two weeks are ticking down. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has reminded that US President Donald Trump’s deadline for Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a trilateral meeting is ending this Monday, on 1 September. 

US, Ukraine, and Russia: Will the meeting happen?

During his Washington visit on 19 August, Trump said his administration was ready to organize talks between Zelenskyy and Putin to reach an agreement on ending the war.

“At that time, the president said, ‘We will be ready in a couple of weeks.’ That means two to three weeks from our conversation. I want to remind that two weeks are up on Monday,” Zelenskyy emphasized.

Meanwhile, Putin refuses to engage in negotiations. According to German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, in this case Russia’s war against Ukraine could continue for “many months.”

Merz: Ukraine war could last “many months” as Putin blocks two-week summit plan

Kyiv under attack: no sign of peace

There is no evidence that Moscow seeks peace. Despite talks of negotiations, Russia continues massive attacks on Ukraine. In the latest strike on Kyiv, all types of weapons were used: Shahed drones, cruise missiles, and ballistic missiles. A total of 629 targets targeted the Ukrainian capital. The strike lasted nine hours and killed 25 people, including four children. 

Moscow’s conditions: ultimatum, not peace

Despite the warm Trump-Putin meeting in Alaska, Russia’s demands regarding Ukraine have not changed. Today, Russian Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Maria Zakharova outlined what Russia calls “peace conditions”:

• Demilitarization of Ukraine,
• Denazification,
• Neutral, non-aligned, and nuclear-free status,
• Recognition of occupied territories,
• Guarantees of rights of the Russian language and the Russian-speaking population, 
• End to persecution of canonical Orthodoxy.

Moscow supposedly offers “security guarantees” only after these conditions are met. In reality, these demands are mutually exclusive and would mean the elimination of an independent Ukraine.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and French President Emmanuel Macron announced plans for secondary sanctions targeting companies from third countries that support Russia’s war effort, as European leaders grow impatient with the stalled peace negotiations.

The initiative emerged from a meeting of German and French cabinet members on 29 August, according to Bloomberg. Both leaders called for measures to undermine Russia’s ability to finance its military operations through oil sales.

“We will continue to exert pressure for additional sanctions to be imposed by ourselves — and we are prepared to do so — but also by the US, to force Russia to return to the negotiating table,” Macron said at a joint press conference with Merz at Fort du Cap Brun near Toulon.

The timing reflects mounting frustration with President Donald Trump’s approach to ending the war. Trump’s latest two-week deadline for progress is close to expiring with little visible advancement toward a peace deal. Instead, the Kremlin launched one of its heaviest drone and missile assaults of the year this week, hitting apartment buildings and killing at least four children.

Merz specifically referenced potential US tariffs as a model for action. “In America, right now they’re discussing further tariffs,” he said. “I would welcome it very much if the American government could make a decision on enforcing those on other nations whose purchases of oil and gas finance a large part of Russia’s war economy.”

The Franco-German statement outlined plans to “further extend and develop effective and robust sanctions” through cooperation within the European Union and with Group of Seven partners. The stated goal is to “exert maximum pressure on Russia.”

The EU has already begun preparing secondary sanctions aimed at Russia’s energy sector. These measures target third countries that help the Kremlin circumvent existing penalties, with additional steps planned for Russia’s oil, gas, and financial sectors.

“We are working on the next package, there are several options on the table,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said. “Of course, what will hurt them the most is any sanctions on energy and secondary sanctions.”

The EU adopted an anti-circumvention tool in 2023 that prohibits exports, supply, or transfers of certain goods to third countries considered to aid sanctions evasion. However, the bloc has not yet deployed this instrument.

The EU has avoided secondary sanctions, particularly given recent criticism from the Trump administration about such policies. The current push suggests European leaders believe they have reached the limits of direct sanctions against Russia.

Merz has become increasingly vocal about the lack of diplomatic progress. The German leader said on 28 Augusthe no longer expects a meeting between Putin and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, despite Trump’s previous suggestions that such talks were possible.

Beyond sanctions, France and Germany agreed to provide Ukraine with “credible security guarantees” that would allow the country to maintain a military “without any limitations” to deter Russia. They also committed to closer defense cooperation and standardizing military equipment between their nations.

The two countries plan to discuss including France’s nuclear weapons in Europe’s overall security architecture, though they postponed a final decision on the troubled FCAS fighter-jet project until year-end.

Kallas indicated broad support among EU defense ministers for expanding the mandate of EU training missions after a ceasefire, allowing training to occur inside Ukraine rather than just outside its borders.

Zelenskyy said he and European leaders will “connect” with Trump next week to discuss security guarantees during meetings where he seeks legally binding commitments from allies as part of peace negotiations.

Macron and Merz plan separate calls with Trump over the weekend, according to Bloomberg.

President Donald Trump moved to cancel nearly $5 billion in congressionally approved foreign aid and peacekeeping spending using a rare “pocket rescission” mechanism not employed for 48 years, The New York Post reported on 29 August.

On 28 August, Trump said Congress of his request to cancel the funds, which had been frozen in a court case until earlier that day. The DC Circuit Court of Appeals lifted an injunction, clearing the path for the first attempted pocket rescission since 1977.

A pocket rescission allows the president to present a cancellation request to Congress so late in the fiscal year that it takes effect regardless of congressional approval. The current fiscal year ends on 30 September.

The cancellation targets $3.2 billion in United States Agency for International Development (USAID) assistance, $322 million from the USAID-State Department Democracy Fund, $521 million in State Department contributions to international organizations, $393 million for peacekeeping activities, and $445 million in separately budgeted peacekeeping aid.

The spending had been designated for nonprofits and foreign governments but was paused earlier this year by the White House Office of Management and Budget, then stuck in legal proceedings following a lawsuit by the Global Health Council.

The Trump administration highlighted what it considers wasteful spending items. These include millions for “climate resilience” in Honduras, for South Africa’s Democracy Works Foundation, and for promotion democracy among LGBT people in the Western Balkans.

The cuts also eliminate $1.5 million designated to market paintings by Ukrainian women.

Steve Witkoff, the United States Special Envoy to the Middle East, said this week that the White House is putting together a “very comprehensive plan” to end the war in Gaza. Donald Trump agreed, claiming that “within the next two to three weeks” there would be a “pretty good, conclusive ending.” In the meantime, though, Israel has expanded its all-out assault on Gaza City, suspending aid operations even as the United Nations declares Gaza to be officially in the grip of a man-made famine. An Israeli spokesman said in Arabic that the evacuation of Gaza City was “inevitable”. The prospect of a ceasefire seems remote, though Qatari mediators have said Hamas has signed up to a ceasefire on terms nearly identical to those proposed by the U.S. and agreed to by Israel. But, as Trump has posted on Truth Social, Israel and the U.S. now believe that only by destroying Hamas and taking over Gaza, can the release of hostages be secured. 

It doesn’t appear to matter how many more civilians die in the meantime. “Israel values the work of journalists, medical staff, and all civilians,” Benjamin Netanyahu claimed this week, responding to global condemnation following the deaths of five journalists in an attack on Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, in the southern Gaza Strip. Since the war in Gaza began in October, 2023, at least 197 journalists have been killed according to the Committee to Protect Journalists which has described Israel’s actions as “the deadliest and most deliberate effort to kill and silence journalists that CPJ has ever documented.” Al Jazeera, the Qatari-based news network, puts the number at over 270. 

Italian prime minister Giorgia Meloni, speaking at a Catholic festival in Rimini, said the killings were “an unacceptable attack on press freedom and on all those who risk their lives to report the tragedy of war.” British prime minister Keir Starmer called the bombing in Khan Yunis “completely indefensible.” On X, the German foreign ministry said it had “repeatedly called on the Israeli government to allow immediate independent foreign media access and afford protection for journalists operating in Gaza.” Spain described it as “a flagrant and unacceptable violation of international humanitarian law.” 

Given the near universal condemnation, will anything be done to hold Israel to account? “More governments are showing a willingness in recent months to call out Israel for its failure to protect journalists and to call for transparent investigations into their killings,” said Jodie Ginsberg, the chief executive of the Committee to Protect Journalists. “But,” she told Coda, “they still stop short on taking any concrete measures - such as sanctions, or conditions on trade agreements or weapons sales - that could force Israel to uphold its obligations under international law.”

Earlier this month, on August 10, Al Jazeera journalist Anas al-Sharif, was killed in Gaza City alongside several of his colleagues. Israel admitted to targeting al-Sharif, describing him as “masquerading” as a journalist. “A terrorist is a terrorist,” Israeli diplomats said, “even if Al Jazeera gave him a press badge.” 

According to intelligence sources who spoke to Israeli publication +972 Magazine, the IDF established a special “Legitimization Cell” after October 7, tasked not with security operations but with gathering intelligence to bolster Israel's media image. The unit specifically sought to identify Gaza-based journalists it could portray as Hamas operatives, driven by anger that Palestinian reporters were “smearing Israel's name in front of the world.” Whenever global criticism intensified over the killing of journalists, the cell was instructed to find intelligence that could publicly counter the narrative. "If the global media is talking about Israel killing innocent journalists, then immediately there's a push to find one journalist who might not be so innocent—as if that somehow makes killing the other 20 acceptable," one intelligence source told +972 Magazine. Intelligence gathered was passed directly to American officials through special channels, with officers told that their work was vital to allowing Israel to continue the war without international pressure.

In its initial inquiry into Monday’s bombing of Nasser Hospital in Khan Yunis, Israel claimed a camera at the hospital was “being used to observe the activity of IDF troops, in order to direct terrorist activities against them.” International journalists have no independent access to Gaza. It would be, Ginsberg said, “one way to help force a change in the narrative being pushed by Israel that all Gazan journalists are terrorist operatives and therefore none can be trusted.” Ginsberg told Coda that of the cases of journalists and media workers killed by Israel, CPJ has so far “deemed 26 to be deliberate targeting… these are the cases where we are clear that Israel would have known the individuals killed were journalists and nevertheless targeted them.”

Journalists, as civilians, are protected under international law. Targeting them is a war crime. Yet, Ginsberg notes, since “international journalists and human rights investigators do not have access to Gaza,” it has “hampered documentation.” And “more disturbingly,” she added, “the dehumanization of Gazan journalists and Gazans more generally means there has not been the collective outrage that should accompany any killing let alone killings of this magnitude.”

Israel has already said that this week's journalist deaths were a "tragic mishap" that resulted from legitimate security operations. The recent UN Security Council vote on an immediate ceasefire (14 out of 15 members supporting, only the U.S. withholding) signals Israel’s growing isolation. But American support is all Israel needs to continue its war. As the killings of journalists continue to be explained away, without evidence, as the killing of terrorists, the window for independent reporting in Gaza has likely closed. The systematic targeting of Gazan journalists isn't collateral damage, it's strategic silencing ahead of what may be the war's final phase.

A version of this story was published in this week’s Coda Currents newsletter. Sign up here.

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The post The Systematic Silencing of Gaza appeared first on Coda Story.

[L'article Une gouverneure de la banque centrale américaine saisit la justice contre Donald Trump  a d'abord été publié dans InfoBref.]

Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg blasted Russia’s assault on Kyiv, as the death toll climbed to 19 in one of the war’s deadliest strikes.

“These outrageous attacks threaten the peace that President Trump seeks,” Kellogg wrote on X after Moscow unleashed nearly 600 drones and 31 missiles overnight.

Peace talks on the brink

The strike comes as diplomacy falters. Earlier this month, Trump’s Alaska summit with Putin ended without agreement, and a planned Zelenskyy–Putin meeting remains stalled. Kellogg warned that the Kremlin’s escalation proves Russia is still choosing the battlefield over the negotiating table.

A city under fire

In Darnytskyi district, a five-story apartment building was directly struck by multiple Russian missiles, collapsing from the ground floor up. At least 19 people—including four children—were killed, and fears remain that more are trapped beneath the rubble.

Russia launched a massive aerial strike on Kyiv and other Ukrainian cities far from the front lines on the morning of 28 August, 2025.

At least 18 people have been killed in Kyiv, with another 38 injured as of this report.

Four children are among the dead, including three aged… pic.twitter.com/mKGrZRgGNE

— Euromaidan Press (@EuromaidanPress) August 28, 2025

Symbols in the crosshairs

The barrage also damaged symbols of diplomacy and industry, including the EU mission, the British Council, and the Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty offices.

According to Ihor Zinkevych, a deputy of the Lviv City Council, one of Russia’s targets was a Bayraktar drone plant near Kyiv, designed to produce Turkish TB2 and Akıncı drones. Zinkevych said two missiles struck the facility, causing millions of dollars in damage. Turkish media confirmed the strike, noting it was already the fourth attack on the plant in six months.

Mourning and fallout

Kyiv declared 29 August a day of mourning, lowering flags and canceling events. President Volodymyr Zelenskyy demanded tougher sanctions, saying:

“All deadlines are broken, dozens of diplomatic opportunities wasted. Russia must feel its responsibility for every strike, every day of this war.”

Western leaders echoed outrage: the UK summoned the Russian ambassador, while EU officials vowed new penalties.

Right now in Kyiv, first responders are clearing the rubble of an ordinary residential building after a Russian strike. Another massive attack against our cities and communities. Killings again. Tragically, at least 8 people have already been confirmed dead. One of them is a… pic.twitter.com/aukkujC9ji

— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) August 28, 2025

Key takeaways

• 19 killed, including four children, in one of the war’s deadliest strikes.
• Alaska peace summit failed; Zelenskyy–Putin talks remain stalled.
• EU and British offices hit, Bayraktar drone plant damaged again.