logo
Serbia's protesters accuse police of brutality as they prepare to rally again on Friday

Serbia's protesters accuse police of brutality as they prepare to rally again on Friday

Washington Post2 days ago
Serbia's police said Friday they have detained scores of demonstrators who took part in anti-government protests throughout the country this week. The arrests came amid reports of police brutality and excessive use of force during the riots.
The three days of clashes between the police and loyalists of autocratic President Aleksandar Vucic on one side and the anti-government protesters on the other left dozens injured or detained.
Orange background

Try Our AI Features

Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:

Comments

No comments yet...

Related Articles

Putin agreed to let U.S., Europe offer NATO-style protections for Ukraine, Trump envoy says
Putin agreed to let U.S., Europe offer NATO-style protections for Ukraine, Trump envoy says

CBS News

time14 minutes ago

  • CBS News

Putin agreed to let U.S., Europe offer NATO-style protections for Ukraine, Trump envoy says

Washington — Russia's Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Trump to allow the U.S. and its European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war in Ukraine, special U.S. envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday. "We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," he told CNN's "State of the Union." He added that it "was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that" and called them "game-changing." Article 5, at the heart of the 32-member military alliance, states that an armed attack against one or more of the members shall be considered an attack against all members. Witkoff, who had joined Secretary of State Marco Rubio for the talks Friday at a military base in Alaska, offered few details on how such an agreement would work. But it appeared to be a major shift for Putin and could serve as a workaround to his long-standing objection to Ukraine's potential NATO membership. Outlining some of the details about the private discussions, Witkoff also said Russia had agreed to enact a law that it would not "go after any other European countries and violate their sovereignty. And there was plenty more." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, applauded the move. "We welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine and the 'Coalition of the willing' — including the European Union — is ready to do its share," she said. Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington was willing to support such guarantees, but said much was unclear. "It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, "But there are no details how it will work, and what America's role will be, Europe's role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees." Witkoff defended Mr. Trump's decision to abandon his push that Russian agree to an immediate ceasefire, which the president had set as a benchmark going into the meeting. Witkoff said the Republican president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made. "We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal," Witkoff said, without elaborating. "We began to see some moderation in the way they're thinking about getting to a final peace deal." Rubio said on "Face the Nation with Margaret Brennan" that he did not believe imposing new U.S. sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire. "If he did this now, the moment the president puts those additional sanctions, that's the end of the talks," Rubio said. "We want to wind up with a peace deal that ends this war so Ukraine can go on with the rest of their lives and rebuild their country and be assured that this is never going to happen again. That's the goal here." Rubio said that Kyiv "is going to have to accept things, but they're going to have to get things too." "For example, Ukraine is a sovereign country. They have a right, like every sovereign country does in the world, to enter into security alliances with other countries to prevent an invasion in the future, to prevent threats to their national security," Rubio said. "That's not an unreasonable request. That's something needs to be worked on." Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders, who heard from Mr. Trump after the summit, are scheduled to meet with him at the White House on Monday. "I'm not saying we're on the verge of a peace deal, but I am saying that we saw movement, enough movement to justify a follow up meeting with Zelenskyy and the Europeans, enough movement for us to dedicate even more time to this," Rubio said.

Trump envoy says Putin made 'robust' concessions during Alaska meeting talks on Ukraine
Trump envoy says Putin made 'robust' concessions during Alaska meeting talks on Ukraine

Fox News

time14 minutes ago

  • Fox News

Trump envoy says Putin made 'robust' concessions during Alaska meeting talks on Ukraine

U.S. Special Envoy for Peace Missions Steve Witkoff claims Russian President Vladimir Putin made "robust" steps toward peace during his meeting with President Donald Trump last week. Witkoff made the statement during an appearance on "Fox News Sunday" with host Shannon Bream. The official was in the room for the Alaska meeting and has met previously with Putin several times. "We agreed on much more robust security guarantees," Witkoff said. "The Russians agreed on enshrining legislatively language that they would attest to not attempting to take any more land from Ukraine after a peace deal, where they would attest to not violating any European borders." Witkoff also said Trump spoke with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and European leaders directly after the meeting. He said the meeting was "absolutely acknowledged as a win." Bream pressed Witkoff to explain why Trump did not push Putin for a ceasefire agreement during the meeting as well. Trump had previously said a ceasefire was a top priority and claimed Putin would face consequences if he didn't agree to one. "The president has always talked about a ceasefire, until he made a lot of different wins in this meeting and began to realize that we could be talking about a peace deal. The ultimate deal here is a peace deal, and we were talking about much more robust security guarantees than anyone ever imagined," he said. In a statement after the call with Trump, major European leaders did not address whether they preferred a peace deal over a ceasefire. The leaders said they "welcomed President Trump's efforts to stop the killing in Ukraine, end Russia's war of aggression, and achieve just and lasting peace." Putin described his talks with Trump in Alaska as "very frank." "We, of course, respect the position of the American administration, which sees the need for a speedy end to military actions," Putin said at the follow-up meeting at the Kremlin, adding that "we would like to move to resolving all issues by peaceful means."

European leaders to join Zelensky in Trump meeting
European leaders to join Zelensky in Trump meeting

Yahoo

time25 minutes ago

  • Yahoo

European leaders to join Zelensky in Trump meeting

European leaders will join Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on a Monday visit to Washington to see President Donald Trump in a collective bid to find a way to end to Moscow's invasion, with the US offering security guarantees for Kyiv. The meeting follows a summit in Alaska between Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin that failed to yield any breakthrough on an immediate ceasefire that the US leader had been pushing for. Trump, who pivoted afterwards to say he was now seeking a peace deal, on Sunday posted "BIG PROGRESS ON RUSSIA. STAY TUNED!" on his Truth Social platform, without elaborating. Trump's Russia envoy Steve Witkoff said on Sunday that Trump and Putin had agreed in their summit on "robust security guarantees" for Ukraine. But Zelensky, on a Brussels visit on Sunday hosted by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen, rejected the idea of Russia offering his country security guarantees. "What President Trump said about security guarantees is much more important to me than Putin's thoughts, because Putin will not give any security guarantees," he said. Von der Leyen hailed the US offer to provide security guarantees modelled on -- but separate from -- NATO's collective security arrangement, known as Article 5. "We welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine, and the coalition of the willing, including the European Union, is ready to do its share," von der Leyen said. - Hopes for 'productive meeting' - Trump's pivot to looking for a peace deal, not a ceasefire, aligns with the stance long taken by Putin, and which Ukraine and its European allies have criticised as Putin's way to buy time with the intent of making battlefield gains. Zelensky also said he saw "no sign" the Kremlin leader was prepared to meet him and Trump for a three-way summit, as had been floated by the US president. The leaders heading to Washington on Monday to appear alongside Zelensky call themselves the "coalition of the willing". They include British Prime Minister Keir Starmer, French President Emmanuel Macron,, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte, and von der Leyen. Also heading to Washington will be Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and Finnish President Alexander Stubbs, who get on well with Trump. On Sunday they all held a video meeting to prepare their joint position. Speaking to US broadcaster CNN, Witkoff said: "I'm hopeful that we have a productive meeting on Monday, we get to real consensus, we're able to come back to the Russians and push this peace deal forward and get it done." US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, speaking to NBC on Sunday, warned of "consequences" -- including the potential imposition of new sanctions on Russia -- if no peace deal is reached on Ukraine. - Territorial 'concessions' - European leaders have expressed unease from the outset over Trump's outreach to Putin, who has demanded Ukraine abandon its ambitions to join the EU or NATO. They were excluded from Trump's summit with Putin. Witkoff, in his CNN interview, said the United States was prepared to provide "game-changing" security guarantees to Ukraine as part of a process that would involve territorial "concessions". According to an official briefed on a call Trump held with Zelensky and European leaders as he flew back from Alaska, the US leader supported a Putin proposal that Russia take full control of two eastern Ukrainian regions in exchange for freezing the frontline in two others. Putin "de facto demands that Ukraine leave Donbas," an area consisting of the Donetsk and Lugansk regions in eastern Ukraine, which Russia currently only partly controls, the source said. In exchange, Russian forces would halt their offensive in the Black Sea port region of Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in southern Ukraine, where the main cities are still under Ukrainian control. Several months into its full-scale invasion of Ukraine, Russia in September 2022 claimed to have annexed all four Ukrainian regions even though its troops still do not fully control any of them. "The Ukrainian president refused to leave Donbas," the source said. Meanwhile, the conflict in Ukraine rages on, with both Kyiv and Moscow launching attack drones at each other Sunday. bur/js-sbk/rmb Solve the daily Crossword

DOWNLOAD THE APP

Get Started Now: Download the App

Ready to dive into a world of global content with local flavor? Download Daily8 app today from your preferred app store and start exploring.
app-storeplay-store