US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the negotiations between Russia and Ukraine held in Abu Dhabi under the mediation of Washington "very productive" and called for the Europeans to be included at the negotiating table. “We believe that the trilateral format must, over time, include our European partners at the negotiating table, as they are part of the long-term solution to this problem,” Rubio said in Paris, following the first day of talks in the UAE capital.
No step back on support for Kiev and no tension in the majority over new military aid. Italy confirms its commitment alongside Ukraine and is preparing to send the 13th package. This was reiterated by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, in Paris for the G7 Foreign Ministerial. "Italy's support for Ukraine is absolutely guaranteed. We have supported Ukraine since the beginning of the war", assured the head of the Farnesina, today once again the subject of threats from the pro-Russian hacker group Noname057, threats which "do not intimidate me", he said. "There is no question of a lack of signature, when there are issues I am happy to comment on them but in this case it is a temporary physical impediment, so much so that Minister Crosetto is at Copasir, I think that when he has finished his presence at Ecofin" Giancarlo Giorgetti "will return to Rome and sign the package" of new aid for Ukraine. Thus Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni on Giancarlo Giorgetti's failure to sign the thirteenth military aid package for Ukraine.
Negotiators at US-led Ukraine-Russia talks in Abu Dhabi are working on a possible far-reaching prisoner swap, Ukrainian President Volodymir Zelensky said at a news conference in Copenhagen. “A large-scale exchange is being prepared,” he told reporters, adding that U.S. officials would travel to Russia to discuss it further.
Russia and Ukraine have agreed on a large-scale prisoner exchange in the near future after the first round of talks in a trilateral format, including with the United States, today in Abu Dhabi, Radio Free Europe reports, citing sources from the delegations.
The most recent stage is that of the Abu Dhabi talks on 10 and 11 November 2026, for negotiations between Kiev and Moscow with US mediation and the presence of European representatives. But there have already been several moments in which attempts have been made to put an end to the conflict, but have failed. Already in 2022 Kiev and Moscow had started negotiations, which then ended in stalemate. It happened between March and April four years ago, when Russian and Ukrainian negotiators met in Belarus and Turkey.
Fires, sabotage and cyber attacks against European infrastructure are no longer just episodes of hybrid warfare, but acts of "state-sponsored terrorism". This is the accusation of Estonian Interior Minister Igor Taro, who points the finger at Russia and asks for a more decisive response. But the European Union is struggling to identify those responsible and to build a common and effective defense strategy.
A US Army soldier has been arrested in Gloucestershire, south-west England, in a British counter-terrorism investigation into alleged espionage activities for Russia. The UK media reported it. The man, 41, was stopped near Gloucester and police are searching two locations in the area. The investigation is being conducted in collaboration with the FBI and the US military.
"I always hope that we can start dialogue with Russia again." This was stated by the Foreign Minister, Antonio Tajani, interviewed by the French TV Tf1, responding to a question on the hypothesis of a return of the Russian president, Vladimir Putin, to the G20 scheduled for the next few weeks in Miami. "It was Russia that decided to attack a free country. It was not the West, it was not Europe that attacked Russia", underlined Tajani. As for the possibility of seeing Putin again among the leaders of the G20, the minister, whose words do not represent an overture to Putin, replied: "We need to look at the results. If there will be peace, why not?".
After nine months of stalemate, direct talks between Russia and Ukraine have resumed. The really interesting aspect is that at the center of the table there may not be so much the fate of the war in Ukraine or the Donbas, but rather the future European defensive assets.
Alongside aid to civilians, the list for anti-aircraft defense is becoming increasingly thinner in the Italian package for Kiev. For the next shipment, classified like all the others, it could be expected to send components that can still guarantee the operational capacity of the Italian-French Samp-T battery, already supplied in the past. But the availability of stocks of Aster missiles for Ukraine, the same ones that arm the 'shield', would have run out. Hence the hypothesis that soon, if not immediately, Italy may also effectively suspend their supply, as Germany has already done for the Patriots. In this case the reasons would certainly be linked to the need to protect national security and not empty one's reserves. Likewise, the industry - in general - may not be able to guarantee new production quickly. For days, Defense Minister Guido Crosetto has also specified that over time the threats have become limited and that there is no availability on certain requests from Kiev, which mainly concern air defense systems. It is no coincidence that the intensity of the packages has reduced over time. This does not mean that support disappears. Russia is trying to bend the civilian population, attacking the possibility of warming up in winter: energy and electricity infrastructure have been in Moscow's sights for several months. This is why a significant part of the Italian package will concern generators and components to repair the bombed plants. The situation on the ground has therefore changed profoundly. After Kiev's attempted counter-offensive, thanks to drones, Russian technology has now evolved exponentially, also thanks to the speed of the new Shaed automated aircraft: until recently the Ukrainian military was able to deal with 90% of attacks while now they stop 10%. Hence Kiev's request to the Allies for systems which, however, are difficult to obtain.
To meet the security challenge of the continent "it is necessary to establish a national and European center for combating hybrid warfare, pooling not only Italian analyses, tools and experiences, but also those of the allies, to strengthen the exchange of information and jointly counter attacks, propaganda, information manipulation and hostile cognitive campaigns". This was stated by the Minister of Defense, Guido Crosetto, in a video message sent to Ericsson Imagine Italy 2026, the event organized by Ericsson in Rome, at the Sala delle Colonne in Eur, dedicated to the strategic role of digital infrastructures, network security and European technological sovereignty.
"Today, data is a strategic resource. Economies, infrastructures, public services, health and financial systems depend on them. Knowing how to collect, analyze and protect them has become a question of national security, strategic autonomy, technological sovereignty", underlined Crosetto, recalling that military capacity also depends on the protection of information and the reliability of communications. The minister then recalled the risks associated with the use of artificial intelligence. "Artificial intelligence offers extraordinary opportunities, from medicine to industry, from research to security, but it can also be used to identify vulnerabilities, make cyber attacks more sophisticated and manipulate information - he said - It is the terrain of hybrid and cognitive warfare, to which I have been drawing attention for some time."
"To cause damage, a traditional military attack is no longer needed, it may be enough to compromise an IT system. For this reason, Defense must anticipate changes, invest in skills and protect infrastructures and national information assets", he added. Crosetto recalled that the Defense strategy on artificial intelligence, presented in 2026, includes the project of the Artificial Intelligence Laboratory for Defense (Liad), intended for the development and testing of applications together with universities, research and industry, maintaining human control over their use. He also recalled the proposal for a national quantum hub and the recent establishment of the Cyber Intel joint force command, responsible for coordinating technical-military intelligence activities against hybrid threats. "In this path, dialogue between all institutions, the armed forces, the State, research and technological entities such as Ericsson is fundamental. We need resilient networks, reliable interlocutors, innovation and trained people", concluded Crosetto, underlining the importance of collaborating with companies that do not refer to hostile countries.
It is a controversy between the Lisbon government and Mark Rutte. The Portuguese Foreign Ministry deplores the "superficiality" with which the NATO secretary general expressed himself on Portugal's position regarding the war in Ukraine. According to what was reported by the Lusa agency, Rutte said in an interview with a Dutch television station that Spain and Portugal consider the conflict in Ukraine to be something "distant". In a post published on the ministry's official profile on the social network Furthermore, "Portugal, its government and its people have never had d
