Russia launches new attacks on Ukraine with the countdown to a US peace deadline underway
The latest bombardment in Russia's escalating aerial campaign against civilian areas came ahead of a Sept. 2 deadline set by U.S. President Donald Trump for the Kremlin to reach a peace deal in the three-year war, under the threat of possible severe Washington sanctions if it doesn't.
No date has yet been publicly set for a possible third round of direct peace talks between delegations from Russia and Ukraine. Two previous rounds delivered no progress apart from prisoner swaps.
Russia launched 400 Shahed and decoy drones, as well as one ballistic missile, during the night, the Ukrainian air force said. The strikes targeted northeastern Kharkiv, which is Ukraine's second-largest city, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy's hometown of Kryvyi Rih in central Ukraine, Vinnytsia in the west and Odesa in the south.
'Russia does not change its strategy,' Zelenskyy said. 'To effectively counter this terror, we need a systemic strengthening of defense: more air defense, more interceptors, and more resolve so that Russia feels our response.'
Trump on Monday pledged to deliver more weapons to Ukraine, including vital Patriot air defense systems, and threatened to slap additional sanctions on Russia. It was Trump's toughest stance toward Russian President Vladimir Putin since he returned to the White House nearly six months ago.
But some U.S. lawmakers and European government officials expressed misgivings that the 50-day deadline handed Putin the opportunity to capture more Ukrainian territory before any settlement to end the fighting.
Other U.S. ultimatums to Putin in recent months have failed to persuade the Russian leader to stop his invasion of neighboring Ukraine. Tens of thousands of soldiers have been killed in the war, many of them along the more than 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) front line, and Russian barrages of cities have killed more than 12,000 Ukrainian civilians, the United Nations says.
The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington think tank, said Tuesday that 'Putin holds a theory of victory that posits that Russia can achieve its war aims by continuing to make creeping gains on the battlefield indefinitely and outlasting Western support for Ukraine and Ukraine's ability to defend itself.'
Trump said the U.S. is providing additional weapons for Ukraine but European countries are paying for them. While Ukraine and European officials were relieved at the U.S. commitment after months of hesitation, some hoped Washington might shoulder some of the cost.
'We welcome President Trump's announcement to send more weapons to Ukraine, although we would like to see the U.S share the burden,' European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said Tuesday. 'If we pay for these weapons, it's our support.'
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Buzz Feed
23 minutes ago
- Buzz Feed
Stephen Colbert Blasts Trump's Lies About His Uncle John Trump
Late Show host Stephen Colbert on Wednesday said President Donald Trump 's event a day earlier 'went off the rails pretty darn quick.' Trump was supposed to discuss new investments in artificial intelligence and energy, but then derailed himself with a long, strange ramble about his uncle, John Trump, who was a professor at MIT. The president boasted that his uncle was 'one of the great professors, 51 years, whatever, longest-serving professor in the history of MIT, three degrees in nuclear, chemical, and math.' 'Brace yourself,' Colbert warned his audience after playing the clip. 'None of that was true.' Trump's uncle was not the longest-serving professor at MIT. His undergraduate and doctorate degrees were in electrical engineering and he had a master's degree in physics — not 'nuclear, chemical, and math.' Trump also said his uncle taught Ted Kaczynski, the 'Unabomber' terrorist who killed people via mail bombs. The president told a whole story about asking his uncle what kind of student Kaczynski was. His uncle, Trump claimed, told him that the future Unabomber was 'seriously good' and would correct the other students' work. Kaczynski went to Harvard, not MIT. 'Even more insane,' Colbert said, Trump's uncle died more than a decade before Kaczynski was identified as the person sending explosives and arrested. 'So why on Earth would Trump have asked his uncle about him?' Colbert wondered, then broke out his impression of the president to envision how it might have happened. 'Hey, Uncle John, Uncle Professor Dr. John Trump, professor, sir, uncle. You know that random guy who isn't famous at all and lives in the woods and machines his own screws?' Colbert asked in his Trump voice. 'What was it like when you didn't teach him?' CBS / Via
The Hill
23 minutes ago
- The Hill
British spies and special forces identities exposed in Afghan data leak
LONDON (AP) — A data leak that led thousands of Afghans to be resettled in the U.K. after their safety was jeopardized because they assisted forces against the Taliban also exposed the identities of British spies and special forces, news organizations reported Thursday. U.K. media reported that the names of more than 100 special forces troops, MI6 spies and military officers were part of the leak. A person with knowledge of the events confirmed to The Associated Press that 'a small number of special forces personnel' names were leaked. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive nature of the information. The revelation followed a London judge's order Tuesday to lift a so-called super injunction that prevented any reporting on an email inadvertently sent by a defense official in February 2022 that included personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to the U.K. The Afghans, who worked with Western forces as fixers, translators or served in the internationally backed Afghan army, applied under a program to bring some to the U.K. because they faced retribution. The British government only became aware of the leak when some of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list. A secret program was then launched to relocate Afghans to the U.K. When High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the rare and controversial super injunction, which also prevented reporting on existence of the injunction itself, he allowed information to be reported on the Afghans. Defense Secretary John Healey apologized Tuesday in Parliament on behalf of the British government and said a small number of names of people who supported the applications, including members of Parliament, senior military officers and government officials, were listed on the document. While Chamberlain lifted the super injunction, he had barred reporting that would show members of British forces and spies had also been on the list. Media groups sought a modification of the judge's order Thursday after The Sun tabloid, which was not a party to the case and not subject to the injunction, published information about the British identities being exposed. News of the blunder has become a scandal because the government went to the extreme lengths to hide it from the public while relocating thousands of people. Some 4,500 Afghans — 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the program, and about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a total cost of about 850 million pounds ($1.1 billion). The government said it was closing the program after an independent review found little evidence the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban. The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces. Critics, however, said thousands of people who helped British troops as interpreters or in other roles could be at risk of torture, imprisonment or death. Sean Humber, a lawyer who has represented Afghan claimants, said the 'catastrophic' data breach had caused 'anxiety, fear and distress' to those affected. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government of Afghanistan, said the supreme leader had declared a general amnesty for everyone that prevented anybody being arrested, killed, or targeted, he told The Associated Press. 'Intelligence agencies do not need to monitor such people, who have already been pardoned, and all documents and information related to them are available here,' he said in a WhatsApp message. 'Any rumors and gossip only serve to intimidate those individuals and cause fear and anxiety to their families.' British soldiers were sent to Afghanistan as part of an international deployment against al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At the peak of the operation, there were almost 10,000 U.K. troops in the country, mostly in Helmand province in the south. Britain ended combat operations in 2014, and its remaining troops left Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban swept back to power, two decades after they were ousted. The Taliban's return triggered chaotic scenes as Western nations rushed to evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.
San Francisco Chronicle
23 minutes ago
- San Francisco Chronicle
British spies and special forces identities exposed in Afghan data leak
LONDON (AP) — A data leak that led thousands of Afghans to be resettled in the U.K. after their safety was jeopardized because they assisted forces against the Taliban also exposed the identities of British spies and special forces, news organizations reported Thursday. U.K. media reported that the names of more than 100 special forces troops, MI6 spies and military officers were part of the leak. A person with knowledge of the events confirmed to The Associated Press that 'a small number of special forces personnel' names were leaked. The person spoke on condition of anonymity because they were not authorized to speak publicly about the sensitive nature of the information. The revelation followed a London judge's order Tuesday to lift a so-called super injunction that prevented any reporting on an email inadvertently sent by a defense official in February 2022 that included personal information of nearly 19,000 Afghans who had applied to come to the U.K. The Afghans, who worked with Western forces as fixers, translators or served in the internationally backed Afghan army, applied under a program to bring some to the U.K. because they faced retribution. The British government only became aware of the leak when some of the data was posted on Facebook 18 months later by someone who threatened to publish the whole list. A secret program was then launched to relocate Afghans to the U.K. When High Court Judge Martin Chamberlain lifted the rare and controversial super injunction, which also prevented reporting on existence of the injunction itself, he allowed information to be reported on the Afghans. Defense Secretary John Healey apologized Tuesday in Parliament on behalf of the British government and said a small number of names of people who supported the applications, including members of Parliament, senior military officers and government officials, were listed on the document. While Chamberlain lifted the super injunction, he had barred reporting that would show members of British forces and spies had also been on the list. Media groups sought a modification of the judge's order Thursday after The Sun tabloid, which was not a party to the case and not subject to the injunction, published information about the British identities being exposed. News of the blunder has become a scandal because the government went to the extreme lengths to hide it from the public while relocating thousands of people. Some 4,500 Afghans — 900 applicants and approximately 3,600 family members — have been brought to Britain under the program, and about 6,900 people are expected to be relocated by the time it closes, at a total cost of about 850 million pounds ($1.1 billion). The government said it was closing the program after an independent review found little evidence the leaked data would expose Afghans to a greater risk of retribution from the Taliban. The review said the Taliban had other sources of information on those who had worked with the previous Afghan government and international forces. Critics, however, said thousands of people who helped British troops as interpreters or in other roles could be at risk of torture, imprisonment or death. Sean Humber, a lawyer who has represented Afghan claimants, said the 'catastrophic' data breach had caused 'anxiety, fear and distress' to those affected. Hamdullah Fitrat, the deputy spokesman for the Taliban government of Afghanistan, said the supreme leader had declared a general amnesty for everyone that prevented anybody being arrested, killed, or targeted, he told The Associated Press. 'Intelligence agencies do not need to monitor such people, who have already been pardoned, and all documents and information related to them are available here," he said in a WhatsApp message. 'Any rumors and gossip only serve to intimidate those individuals and cause fear and anxiety to their families.' British soldiers were sent to Afghanistan as part of an international deployment against al-Qaida and Taliban forces in the wake of the Sept. 11, 2001, attacks. At the peak of the operation, there were almost 10,000 U.K. troops in the country, mostly in Helmand province in the south. Britain ended combat operations in 2014, and its remaining troops left Afghanistan in 2021 as the Taliban swept back to power, two decades after they were ousted. The Taliban's return triggered chaotic scenes as Western nations rushed to evacuate citizens and Afghan employees.
