Putin suggests putting Ukraine under UN-sponsored external governance, boasts battlefield gains
Speaking to the crew of a Russian nuclear submarine in televised remarks broadcast early Friday, Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal.
Under Ukraine's constitution it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while it's under martial law.
Putin claimed that any agreement that is signed with the current Ukrainian government could be challenged by its successors and said new elections could be held under external governance.
'Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine,' Putin said, adding that it would allow the country to 'hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty.'
He added that such external governance is just 'one of the options,' without elaborating.
'They're playing for time'
Putin's remarks came hours after the conclusion of a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that considered plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to cement an eventual peace deal. Macron said 'several' other nations want to be part of the force alongside France and Britain.
Russia has warned it wouldn't accept any troops from NATO members as part of a prospective peacekeeping force.
Macron and other participants of the Paris summit on Thursday accused Russia of only pretending to want a negotiated settlement.
'They are playing games and they're playing for time,' said U.K. Prime Minister Keir Starmer. 'We can't let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion.'
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a tentative U.S-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, but quickly accused each other of violations, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace.
Drone attacks continue
Russia launched 163 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine late Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said that 89 of them were downed and 51 more jammed.
The drones damaged multiple residential buildings and injured a 19-year-old in Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said. In Poltava, drones damaged warehouses, administrative building, and a high-voltage transformer, according to regional head Volodymyr Kohut.
Damage to buildings and infrastructure facilities was also reported by the authorities in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukraine's state-run gas company, Naftogaz, said Friday that its facilities came under Russian fire without specifying its time and location.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces struck a gas metering station in Sudzha in the Kursk region with U.S.-made HIMARS rockets, completely destroying the facility. It said another Ukrainian strike on an energy facility in Russia's Bryansk region led to a power cutoff, and added that air defenses downed 19 Ukrainian drones that attempted to strike an oil refinery in Saratov.
The ministry said the continuing strikes show that Kyiv's pledge of adherence to a U.S.-proposed halt on strikes on energy facilities was just 'another ruse by Zelenskyy to prevent the collapse of Ukrainian defenses and to restore military potential with the help of European allies.'
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy assets was a sign that Zelenskyy can't control his military.
'The Ukrainian armed forces aren't following orders from the country's leadership and are continuing attempts to strike Russia's energy infrastructure,' Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
He said that Russia will continue sticking to the halt on strikes on energy facilities but reserves the right to opt out of the deal if violations continue.
'Strictly adhering to agreements'
Ukraine's military rejected Russia's claims of Ukrainian strikes on energy facilities as fake, aimed at 'discrediting Ukraine and the diplomatic efforts of Ukraine and its partners.'
'We emphasize that the Ukrainian Defense Forces are strictly adhering to the agreements reached with partners to stop strikes on energy facilities,' the General Staff said, emphasizing that the military only has struck Russia's military targets.
It also accused Russia of violating the 'energy ceasefire,' saying that it has struck energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson and Poltava region of Ukraine over the last 24 hours.
'The Russian tactic of dragging out the war remains unchanged,' Ukraine's General Staff said.
While Ukraine has agreed to a full, 30-day ceasefire that U.S. President Donald Trump has proposed, Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine's military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Russia's battlefield gains
Russian troops have made slow but steady gains in several sectors of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 620-mile) frontline, and Zelenskyy warned Thursday that Russia was trying to drag out talks in preparation for bigger offensives.
Putin declared in overnight remarks that the Russian troops have 'gained steam' and 'are holding strategic initiative all along the line of contact.'
He noted that Russia is open to a peaceful settlement, but emphasized the need to 'remove root causes that led to the current situation.'
'We certainly need to ensure Russia's security for a long historic perspective,' he said.
Putin has demanded that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the four regions Moscow has partially seized. He also wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army and legally protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow's orbit.
Russian officials also have said that any prospective peace deal should involve unfreezing Russian assets in the West and lifting other U.S. and European Union sanctions. The Trump administration has said it would consider potential sanctions relief.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Yahoo
28 minutes ago
- Yahoo
France's prime minister wants to cut 2 public holidays to save money for the indebted economy
PARIS (AP) — France's prime minister proposed on Tuesday the elimination of two public holidays from the country's annual calendar — possibly Easter Monday and the day marking the Allied victory over the Nazis — to save money in next year's budget. That's among a raft of spending cuts laid out by Prime Minister Francois Bayrou in a sweeping, and potentially doomed, budget plan. He argued that removing two state holidays would bring in tax revenues generated from economic activity, contributing to around 44 billion euros ($51.3 billion) in overall savings. President Emmanuel Macron tasked Bayrou with crafting a budget that shaves costs to bring down France's staggering debt and deficit — while also adding billions in new defense spending to face what Macron says are resurgent threats from Russia and beyond. Bayrou questioned the religious importance of Easter Monday. And Victory Day, celebrated on May 8, comes in a month that has become a 'veritable Gruyere,' or holey cheese, of days off that includes May Day and the Catholic holiday of Ascension, he said. He said that those holidays were just suggestions, and that he was open to other ideas. France currently has 11 official holidays per year. With no parliamentary majority, Macron's centrist grouping must win support from adversaries on the left and right to pass the budget this fall. Bayrou's proposals, which are just a first step in the budget process, were quickly assailed by unions and the far-right National Rally, the largest single party in the lower house of Parliament. Bayrou's job is precarious, and he could be voted out if he fails to reach compromise on the budget. The Associated Press Error in retrieving data Sign in to access your portfolio Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data Error in retrieving data
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
The Memo: Trump adopts new aggressive stance on Russia
President Trump moved to a more aggressive footing with Russia on Monday, promising to funnel weapons through NATO allies to Ukraine and threatening to hammer Moscow's trading partners with sanctions. Even though there is a lengthy hiatus of 50 days before those sanctions would take effect, it's still a notable shift from the president. Trump had long been skeptical of the pace and scale of U.S. aid to Ukraine. It has been only a little more than four months since he and Vice President Vance had a famously fractious meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Oval Office. In the aftermath of that meeting, where Zelensky was assailed for his supposed ingratitude and the weakness of his bargaining position, it seemed like the choking off of U.S. military aid to Kyiv was near-certain. That, in turn, would make a Russian victory in the war begun by President Vladimir Putin's February 2022 invasion equally inevitable. Now, the picture looks very different. Trump — for reasons that appear personal as much as strategic — has become increasingly irritated with Putin's refusal to bring the war to an end. On Monday, meeting at the White House with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, Trump complained that he enjoys 'very pleasant' phone calls with Putin only to see Russian 'missiles go off that night.' The accusation of double-dealing or disingenuousness on the part of Putin has become more of a centerpiece of Trump's rhetoric recently. On Monday, he contended that Putin 'didn't fool' him, even as he held that the Russian leader had pulled the wool over the eyes of past Presidents Biden, Obama and George W. Bush. Just last week, Trump made a similar point in even more pointed terms, saying, 'We get a lot of bulls‑‑‑ thrown at us by Putin, if you want to know the truth. He's very nice all the time but it turns out to be meaningless.' Now, of course, the question is how meaningful Trump's own shift will be. The most obviously substantive move is the provision of weapons — notably Patriot air defense systems. The deal by which those, and other weapons, will be bought by European NATO members and then transferred on to Ukraine seems to resolve one central tension in the conflict. It enables Trump to vastly reduce the cost to the U.S. Treasury Department — and thus to U.S. taxpayers — of military aid to Ukraine, while bolstering Ukraine's defenses and ameliorating the panic from U.S. allies in Europe that Trump's isolation would invite greater Russian expansionism. Referring to NATO allies, Trump said Monday, 'We are going to be sending them weapons, and they're going to be paying for them. We're not buying it, but we will manufacture it, and they're going to be paying for them.' The Wall Street Journal, citing two unnamed sources familiar with the upcoming weapons transfers, reported that the package could be worth about $10 billion. The Department of State says the United States has provided almost $67 billion in military assistance to Ukraine since Russia's invasion. The sanctions element of Monday's proposal was a bit more vague. Trump initially used the word 'tariffs' to describe what he had in mind as a tactic to deepen Russia's economic isolation. But it fell to Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick to clarify that Trump was in fact suggesting the imposition of economic sanctions on Moscow's trading partners. Those sanctions are supposedly going to take effect if a peace deal is not arrived at within Trump's 50-day time frame. There are a few obvious caveats. The most obvious is whether Trump will follow through given his propensity to move in unpredictable ways. A second is whether Putin would try to persuade the president, during that period, that it is actually Ukraine that is being the more stubborn party. A third mixed signal came even Monday, when Trump appeared lukewarm about the proposed congressional legislation that would ramp up sanctions on Russia directly. Even so, it's notable that the more hawkish members of the GOP, including Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.), have been vocally enthusiastic about Trump's apparent shift. There are, too, some in Republican circles who believe Trump's instinctive isolationism has been diluted somewhat by the perceived success of the recent U.S. airstrikes against targets in Iran — strikes that resulted neither in any casualties for the U.S. nor created any serious danger of getting sucked into a longer war. The American public also seems to have an appetite for tougher economic measures against Russia. An Economist/YouGov poll last month found that 44 percent of Americans surveyed favored increasing sanctions on Russia and 19 percent wanted to maintain sanctions at their current level, while only 15 percent wanted to reduce or eliminate sanctions. Much remains uncertain, including how Putin will react to Monday's announcements. And, of course, the biggest vexing question is how many concessions either Russia or Ukraine are willing to make to end the war. But Trump, long derided by critics for his softness on Putin, is this time taking a harder line than he ever has before. The Memo is a reported column by Niall Stanage. Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
Yahoo
34 minutes ago
- Yahoo
What to know about the US-NATO weapons deal for Ukraine
President Trump said Monday he had brokered a deal to send more weapons to Ukraine without burdening the U.S., while threatening Russian President Vladimir Putin with new sanctions if there is no deal to end the war in 50 days. Trump's announcement marks a potential turning point for a president who had wanted to pull U.S. support from Ukraine and has repeatedly demonstrated favorable treatment to Putin despite Moscow's invasion of its neighbor. Under the deal, weapons would be sourced from NATO allies in Europe that just agreed to step up their defense spending at a summit Trump hailed as a success. Here's what to know about the deal. Trump announced last week that he had struck a deal for NATO to purchase weapons from the U.S. to send to Ukraine. He said Monday that these systems would include Patriot missile defense batteries critical for Ukraine to guard its skies under increasing Russian bombardment. 'It's everything. It's Patriots. It's all of them. It's a full complement with the batteries,' Trump said, adding that the batteries could arrive in Ukraine within days. 'They're paying for everything. We're not paying anymore,' Trump said. A top German military official told reporters in Kyiv last week that Berlin was in negotiations for weeks with the U.S. over the potential purchase and transfer of a Patriot missile battery. The NATO Support and Procurement Agency is the arm of the organization that handles acquisitions and logistics support and can be used to purchase and deliver the weapons for Ukraine. The agency employs about 1,550 staff and oversees more than 2,500 contractors in NATO's missions across the world, according to NATO's website. Another avenue NATO allies can use to procure weapons for Ukraine is purchasing them directly with the U.S. on a bilateral basis, with NATO helping to facilitate such transactions. 'We're going to make top-of-the-line weapons, and they'll be sent to NATO. NATO may choose to have certain of them sent to other countries where we can get a little additional speed, where the country will release something and be it'll be mostly in the form of a replacement,' Trump said. There's little information on what exact weapons systems Trump is greenlighting for countries to purchase or what is being prioritized. Sen. Jeanne Shaheen (D-N.H.), the ranking member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee, said Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky told lawmakers at the NATO summit last month that in addition to Patriots, the country needs additional long-range weapons. 'But beyond that, I haven't heard any specifics from this administration,' she said in a call with reporters. Trump acknowledged Secretary of Defense Pete Hegseth had paused weapons shipments to Ukraine as part of a review of Pentagon stockpiles, despite reports the president was caught off-guard when weapons to Ukraine were halted July 1. 'What Pete was doing, and me too, I knew what Pete was doing, was evaluation, because we knew this was going to happen,' Trump said, referring to the NATO procurement deal. 'So we did a little bit of a pause.' The U.S. still has $3.86 billion worth of presidential drawdown authority for Ukraine as part of appropriations provided by Congress. This allows for the U.S. to send weapons directly from Pentagon stockpiles and use the money to purchase backfills. Former President Biden last provided a drawdown worth $500 billion on Jan. 9. Politico reported last week that Trump is considering a drawdown package for Ukraine. The moves are likely to rankle Trump's MAGA base, which oppose the U.S. sending weapons and military aid abroad. 'We do not want to give or sell weapons to Ukraine or be involved in any foreign wars or continue the never ending flow of foreign aid,' Rep. Marjorie Taylor Greene (R-Ga.) posted Monday on the social platform X. Trump made his latest remarks in the Oval Office following a meeting with NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, a staunch supporter of Ukraine. 'Dear Donald, this is really big,' said Rutte, who has demonstrated a unique ability to both flatter and cajole Trump to the side of Europe. 'You called me on Thursday that you had taken a decision. And the decision is you want Ukraine — what it needs to have to maintain to defend itself against Russia, but you want Europeans to pay for it, which is totally logical, and this is building on the tremendous success of the NATO summit,' he said. Trump gave Putin a 50-day deadline to reach a deal over Ukraine or risk being hit with a 100 percent tariff on exports to the U.S. 'The country's economy is going very poorly, and he's got to get his economy back. He's got to save his economy,' Trump said. But Trump raised doubt over his support for a Republican-led sanctions bill on Russia that has 85 cosponsors. Trump suggested the sanctions bill might not be needed; he is meeting with Senate Majority Leader John Thune (R-S.D.) later Monday. Still, Trump has increasingly expressed frustration with Putin and identified him as the obstacle to peace, after months of trying to reorient the U.S. as a neutral mediator between Moscow and Kyiv. Rutte said Trump's outreach to Putin in the initial days of his administration served to 'break the deadlock' and start the conversation over whether peace was possible. 'You have to test him, and you did this, and you really gave him a chance to be serious to get to the table to start negotiations,' Rutte said. Trump said, 'We probably had, four times, a deal,' but that Putin's talk 'didn't mean anything.' 'I don't want to say he's an assassin, but he's a tough guy,' Trump said of his dealings with Putin. 'He's fooled a lot of people. … Clinton, Bush, Obama, Biden. He didn't fool me,' he said, referring to former U.S. presidents. 'But what I do say is that at a certain point, ultimately, talk doesn't talk. It's got to be action. It's got to be results.' Copyright 2025 Nexstar Media, Inc. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.
