Kremlin confident US will no longer 'indulge' Ukraine and EU after Trump's call to Putin
The mood in Russia is upbeat, bordering on triumphant, following Monday's phone call between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump.
"The tone of the conversation was excellent," crows the headline in the newspaper Argumenty i Fakty, quoting the American president's assessment of the conversation.
Trump has "accepted the Russian formula" of "negotiations first, ceasefire after", the paper brags.
Another, Komsomolskaya Pravda, runs with Putin 's description of the call as their main headline: "We are on the right track".
According to the pro-Kremlin paper, Trump's approach shows the United States "is not going to indulge [Volodymyr] Zelenskyy and Europe".
Much of the coverage portrays the call as a battle for Trump's affections, with Russia emerging victorious despite the influence of "Western hawks".
"[Trump] did not heed their requests," says Argumenty i Fakty, referring to Europe's calls for tougher sanctions.
In Kommersant, there's talk of the two leaders sharing a "common language".
The paper talks about how Trump has adopted "the most favourable position" for Moscow, which it claims "came as a complete surprise to the Western allies of the United States, nullifying their expectations".
"In Kyiv and the camp of its Western allies, disappointment reigns over the "betrayal" of the United States", it gloats.
There's no talk of the Kremlin stalling negotiations or dragging its feet. On the contrary, Putin's pledge to work with Ukraine on a memorandum for a future peace treaty is characterised as a logical next step.
"The purpose of the conversation was to advance the peace process in Ukraine", the daily Vedomosti states soberly.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Daily Mail
32 minutes ago
- Daily Mail
Russian shells on Kharkiv leave four dead and 60 injured - including a baby - after 'most powerful attack since the start of the war in Ukraine'
At least four people have been killed and more than 60 people injured after Russia unleashed 'the most powerful attack' since the start of the war with Ukraine, officials said on Saturday. Drones, missiles and guided bombs pelted down on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv during the overnight assault, with the injured said to include a baby. One of Ukraine's largest cities, Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under constant Russian shelling during more than three years of war. 'Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,' city mayor, Ihor Terekhov, said on Telegram on Saturday. Dozens of explosions were heard in the city throughout Friday night and Russian troops were striking simultaneously with missiles, drones and guided aerial bombs, he said. Multi-storey and private residential buildings, educational and infrastructure facilities were attacked, Terekhov noted. Photographs released by local authorities and Reuters showed burnt and partially destroyed houses and vehicles, and of rescuers carrying those injured to safety and removing debris. Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said that one of the city's civilian industrial facilities was attacked by 40 drones, one missile and four bombs, causing a fire, adding there may still be people under the rubble. In the evening, Russian aircraft once again attacked Kharkiv with guided bombs, which Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy called 'another brutal murder'. 'It was a brutal blow to the city in broad daylight, and in fact, they have been attacking our city of Kharkiv for the entire day,' Zelenskiy said in his evening statement. 'Last night, there was a massive drone strike on Kharkiv, and now there are aerial bombs. Dozens of people have been injured in the past 24 hours.' he said. The Ukrainian military said Russia launched 206 drones, two ballistic and seven other missiles against Ukraine overnight. It said its air defence units shot down 87 drones while another 80 drones were lost - in reference to the Ukrainian military using electronic warfare to redirect them - or they were drone simulators that did not carry warheads. Ten locations were hit, the military reported. The attack took place amid a stalling of a large-scale prisoner exchange between Russia and Ukraine expected to have taken place this weekend. Both sides accused the other of delaying and thwarting the swap, which has been the only concrete outcome of peace talks to date. At talks in Istanbul on Monday, Kyiv and Moscow agreed to release all wounded soldiers and those aged under 25 who had been captured - more than 1,000 people on each side. Russia said it would also hand back the remains of 6,000 killed Ukrainian soldiers. Moscow on Saturday accused Ukraine of not turning up to collect the bodies and not agreeing a date to swap the captured soldiers, while Kyiv said Russia was playing 'dirty games' by not sticking to the agreed parameters for the exchange. 'The Ukrainian side has unexpectedly postponed for an indefinite period both the acceptance of the bodies and the exchange of prisoners of war,' Russia's top negotiator Vladimir Medinsky said on social media. A defence ministry spokesman said 'the Ukrainian side is still refraining from setting a date' for the first stage of the prisoner swap. The exchange was set to be the largest of the war, topping last month's 1,000-for-1,000 swap that was agreed at a first round of talks in Istanbul. After the Istanbul talks, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said it would take place this weekend, while Russia said it was ready for Saturday, Sunday or Monday. Responding to Russia's accusations, Ukraine's Coordination Headquarters for the Treatment of Prisoners of War said no date had been agreed for the return of bodies. It also said a list of names Russia said would be released did not match the terms of the agreement. 'Unfortunately, instead of constructive dialogue, we are again faced with manipulations,' it said in a statement on social media. 'We call on the Russian side to stop playing dirty games and return to constructive work to bring people back to both sides and to clearly implement the agreement in the coming days,' it added. Following the attack on Kharkiv, Zelensky urged Kyiv's Western backers to heap more 'pressure' on Russia, with at least 10 people killed in the barrage. Three people were also killed in the frontline Donetsk region, which has seen the most intense fighting of the war, and three more in the Kherson region, also partially occupied by Moscow's forces. Since Russia invaded in February 2022, tens of thousands have been killed, with millions forced to flee their homes as cities and villages across eastern Ukraine have been destroyed. The Ukrainian air force said Russia had fired 206 drones and nine missiles in the overnight barrage. Russia's defence ministry said it had launched a 'group strike' against 'military-industrial' facilities in Ukraine. Despite talks, the two sides have made no progress towards halting the fighting. Russian President Vladimir Putin has issued a host of sweeping demands on Ukraine as preconditions to a truce. They include completely pulling troops out of four regions claimed by Russia, but which its army does not fully control, an end to Western military support and a ban on Ukraine joining NATO. Zelensky has rejected them as 'old ultimatums' and on Saturday repeated his call for sanctions on Moscow. 'The Russians are preparing to continue the war, ignoring all peace proposals. They must be held accountable for this,' he said in his evening address. 'Pressure forced Russia to enter the negotiation process. Pressure can force Russia to become realistic in the negotiation process,' he added.
Times
39 minutes ago
- Times
If I were Rachel Reeves: Hunt, Zahawi and Mel Stride give their advice
Sir Lots of people think being chancellor is like being Santa Claus with lots of goodies to dole out. The reality is rather different as both Rachel Reeves and I have found out. As I explain in my new book Can We Be Great Again? the biggest difference between good and bad governments is the extent to which you manage to carve out space for long-term decisions as opposed to daily firefighting. Here are the three crucial things I will be looking out for when it comes to the long term. First, given the austerity cuts about to be imposed on the police and criminal justice system, are we going to invest in modernising them so they really can deliver better outcomes with less money? Police officers spend up to eight hours a week on unnecessary admin tasks. They are crying out for modern IT systems which are normally the first casualty of any spending negotiations. If we want services to improve, things that unlock greater efficiency should be top and not bottom of a government's list. Second, when Europe is at war, you cannot commit to a programme that costs 3 per cent of GDP and only provide 2.5 per cent in funding — as the government appears to have done. That is a scandalous and dangerous black hole if ever there was one — not least a fortnight before the Nato summit. I was at the table when Trump nearly pulled the US out of Nato in 2018 so we are taking a big risk. But if we plug the gap, France and Germany are likely to as well. If we don't, and the US pulls out of Nato, it will not be 3 per cent we are arguing over but double that. Keir Starmer has shown he can be an international statesman — now really is the moment we need him to do the right thing. Finally, we have to avoid the doom loop of ever higher taxes creating ever lower growth. That means longer term supply-side policies to boost our growth rate. But in the short-term the only game in town is welfare reform as I explain in my new book. Getting the working age benefit bill to 2019 levels saves £49 billion — more than enough for 3 per cent of GDP on defence and to avoid tax rises. It would also be far better for people on benefits to be in work. Welfare reform isn't easy for Labour but with a large majority and four years in the mandate, if not now when? Nadhim Zahawi Rachel Reeves is in a difficult position. As the only cabinet member with real private sector experience, she should by now understand the difficulties businesses are facing because of the government's actions, not to mention families. Crucial to fixing this is to be able to reduce the tax burden, and that requires getting serious about growth. That will come from getting out of the way, deregulating and allowing supply-side reforms, but it also means attracting investment rather than driving it away. The closure of the non-doms regime has been a catastrophe for this, signalling that Britain isn't interested in prosperity. A flat-rate charge for wealthy individuals and entrepreneurs, as they do in Italy, would be a smart move, and worth eating humble pie over. Rome has had 2,200 multimillionaires settle there — raising hundreds of millions in tax and investment for the Italian people. If the chancellor can tempt them to the UK through a mix of a more welcoming tax regime, and a pledge to tackle law and order concerns, we could be back in business. Even before counting their ingenuity and investment, if we attracted just 3,000 new wealthy residents to Britain, charging them £400,000 per year to have an equivalent of non-dom tax status, she would be able to reverse the winter fuel allowance cut. Taking this further, and aiming for the sort of numbers America is hoping to attract with their Golden Visa programme, and she could do anything from abolishing the hated inheritance tax, which does so much to destroy family businesses and long-term investment in Britain, to an immediate increase in defence to 3 per cent of GDP or more. These are popular, easy fiscal policies which would unlock so much investment and revenue for the government. All Reeves needs to do is convince Labour not to hate wealth creators, which I grant may be a steep political challenge. Nadim Zahawi was Conservative chancellor between July and September 2022 Sir Mel Stride If I were in Rachel Reeves's shoes next week, I would do things very differently. First, I'd level with the public. Our country faces serious economic constraints and Labour's reckless policies are only deepening those problems — high debt, sluggish growth, rising cost of living. LEON NEAL/GETTY IMAGES The chancellor will no doubt tell us she is exercising judicious fiscal discipline, without mentioning that most of the new projects and programmes she is announcing are paid for with hundreds of billions in extra borrowing. I'd focus on what actually moves the dial. Productivity, public service reform and fiscal responsibility. That means rooting out waste, and being clear-eyed about what government can and cannot afford. And I wouldn't be afraid to say 'no'. Sometimes leadership means doing the difficult thing, not the easy or popular one. The scale of the spending being set out next week was confirmed in March, before the chancellor began being forced into embarrassing U-turns on welfare. We've seen what happens when fiscal credibility is lost — I would never let that happen again. So if I were the chancellor, I'd offer a serious plan. Rebuild stability, drive growth and restore trust. No gimmicks. Just hard truths and a credible path forward for our country.
BBC News
an hour ago
- BBC News
Trans former judge says Supreme Court gender ruling risks lives
The UK's only judge to ever publicly say they are transgender has told the BBC she is concerned the Supreme Court's ruling on biological sex puts lives at risk and fears "someone's going to get killed" because of Victoria McCloud is planning to take the government to the European Court of Human Rights over the April ruling, which said a woman is defined by biological sex under equalities led to the Equality and Human Rights Commission (EHRC) issuing new interim guidance to services and businesses on access to public facilities, such as toilets and changing Forstater, of campaign group Sex Matters, said Dr McCloud's comments were "alarmism". Speaking to Laura Kuenssberg on Newscast, the BBC's daily news podcast, Dr McCloud said: "This incident is putting lives at risk. I can't go out to the pub now, for example. It might not be the be all and end all of life but I am a lawyer."I've got to use the men's loos in a south London pub with a bunch of blokes who are drunk. I mean, come on. That's now government policy. Someone's going to get killed."Dr McCloud said she agreed with an argument put forward by "the gender critical ideological movement" that it is "risky" or "at least rather intimidating" to have a space designated for women, such as a changing room, that is occupied by men."But that applies to me too," she to the full Newscast interview on BBC Sounds"That danger is all the more if it is not going to be me and a bunch of women and one man, instead it's me - one woman - in an entirely male space in a drunk pub."That's absolutely clearly dangerous."Ms Forstater said: "Women have already been assaulted and many, many are self-excluding because of the policy Dr McCloud endorses of allowing men to self-identify into women's toilets, showers and changing rooms."Where's the concern for the female half of the population who need privacy, safety and dignity?"If McCloud isn't comfortable using male-only spaces, then there are usually gender-neutral options available. This is irresponsible alarmism."In the wake of the unanimous Supreme Court judgement, Equalities Minister Bridget Phillipson, speaking to BBC Radio 4's Today programme in April, stopped short of explicitly saying trans women should use the men's toilets. She said: "The ruling was clear that provisions and services should be accessed on the basis of biological sex."Pushed further for clarification on whether a trans woman should use the men's or women's toilets, she repeated: "The ruling is clear."The EHRC has already suggested trans people should use their "powers of advocacy" to campaign for so-called third spaces that are gender-neutral to avoid these sorts of Minister Sir Keir Starmer said in April the ruling gave "much-needed clarity" for those drawing up guidance."We need to move and make sure that we now ensure that all guidance is in the right place according to that judgement."A woman is an adult female, and the court has made that absolutely clear."Dr McCloud moved to Ireland after leaving her job as a judge last year and says she visits the UK only on essential said she is going to challenge the Supreme Court judgement at the ECHR, arguing the court did not hear from trans people before its ruling, and therefore breached her human Supreme Court did consider arguments on trans issues from the human rights campaign group Amnesty International, but not from exclusively trans activists.
