Russian attack on Poltava shows Putin does not want peace, Ukraine says
KYIV - An overnight Russian attack that rocked the central Ukrainian city of Kremenchuk and left hundreds of customers in the Poltava region without power shows that Russian President Vladimir Putin does not want peace, regional Ukrainian officials said.
During a summit at the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump told President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on Monday that the United States would help guarantee Ukraine's security in any deal to end Russia's war there.
After the meeting, Trump called the Russian leader and began arranging a meeting between Putin and Zelenskiy.
"At the very same time when Putin was assuring Trump over the phone that he seeks peace, and when President Volodymyr Zelenskiy was holding talks at the White House with European leaders about a just peace, Putin's army launched yet another massive attack on Kremenchuk," Vitalii Maletskyi, mayor of the city that lies in the Poltava region, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Maletskyi added that tens of blasts shook the city.
"Once again, the world has seen that Putin does not want peace — he wants to destroy Ukraine."
The scale of the attack was not clear. Ukraine's Air Force said overnight that the central Ukrainian region was under the threat of a cruise missile attack.
Top stories
Swipe. Select. Stay informed.
Singapore Two China Eastern Airlines planes involved in runway incursion at Changi Airport in Aug 2024
Life Local indie theatre The Projector to cease operations on Aug 19 after a decade
Singapore 'I vaped when I woke up until I slept': More youth vaping to cope with stress, say social workers
Asia Singaporean man sentenced to 72 years' jail in Malaysia for murdering wife and stepson
Singapore 4 days' jail for former pre-school teacher who kicked and bruised pupil's shin
Life Disrupted sleep, steroid psychosis: How chronic sinus condition affected one S'pore hawker's life
World Trump's art of the 'peace' deal for Ukraine and Russia
Poltava Governor Volodymyr Kohut said that the attack damaged administrative buildings of a local power infrastructure operation.
"Fortunately, there were no casualties," Kohut said on Telegram.
He said that in the Lubny district nearly 1,500 residential and 119 commercial customers were left without power.
There was no immediate comment from Russia. Both sides have been targeting infrastructure key to the military in their strikes during the war on each other's territory, including energy infrastructure.
Russia said on Tuesday that Ukraine's overnight drone attack sparked fires at an oil refinery and a hospital roof in the Volgograd region. REUTERS
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Straits Times
6 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Man admits slapping 6-year-old boy who kicked styrofoam wall, causing his daughter to fall
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox The man pleaded guilty to an assault charge on Aug 20. SINGAPORE – Unhappy with a six-year-old stranger who had caused his daughter to fall, a man slapped the boy's face once, bruising it. For about a week following his ordeal, the boy was observed to be noticeably quieter, and he also experienced occasional nightmares. The bruise he sustained subsided several days after his assault and his behaviour has since returned to normal, the court heard. On Aug 20, his assailant pleaded guilty to an assault charge. The 39-year-old Singaporean man cannot be named to protect the identity of his daughter, who was around three years old at the time of the incident and referred to in court documents as X1. Individuals below 18 years old are protected under the Children and Young Persons Act. The court heard that the man, his wife and their three daughters had gone to an indoor playground at Westgate shopping mall in Gateway Drive, near Boon Lay Way, on Dec 22, 2024. Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 18 persons nabbed and 82 vapes seized in HSA ops in Raffles Place and Haji Lane Singapore Woman trapped between train doors: Judge rules SBS Transit '100% responsible' Life 'Loss that's irreplaceable': Local film-makers mourn closure of indie cinema The Projector Singapore COE premiums up in all categories except motorcycles; Cat A price climbs 2.5% to $104,524 Singapore Nearly 2 years' jail, caning for man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children Singapore MyRepublic's policy of not imposing download speed limits to stay after takeover: StarHub Singapore Staff member found with active TB after screening at 2 pre-schools; no children diagnosed so far: CDA Singapore Grab users in Singapore shocked by fares of over $1,000 due to display glitch At around 2.30pm, he saw the boy kick a wall made of multicoloured styrofoam building blocks while at least one of his daughters was standing near to it. At least one of the building blocks then fell on the floor, said Deputy Public Prosecutor Joelle Loy. The DPP added: 'Shortly thereafter... X1... walked towards the said wall and stood there. A few seconds later, the victim ran towards the wall and kicked it while X1 was behind it. This caused X1 to fall on the floor. 'The victim had kicked the said wall despite knowing that X1 was standing behind it as he believed that X1 had destroyed the styrofoam wall that he had built earlier.' Even though more than 20 other people, both adults and children, were in the vicinity, the man brazenly approached the boy and forcefully slapped his right cheek once, causing a bruise, said DPP Loy. The man asked the boy where the parents were, and the child led him to his mother who was sitting nearby. The man told the woman what her son had done but did not disclose that he had slapped the boy. The mother made her son apologise to the offender, who told her off for not keeping an eye on the boy. She did not respond to the man's angry words and he left the playground soon after. A witness later told the woman's friend, who was also in the vicinity, that the offender had slapped the boy. After finding out about the assault, the mother left the playground to look for the man and later saw him with his family. '(The mother) then approached the victim to check if it was the accused who had hit him. (The boy) confirmed this while crying,' said the DPP. The mother alerted the police and the assailant was arrested at around 4pm that day. On Aug 20, DPP Loy urged the court to sentence the man to between six and seven weeks' jail, adding: 'While understandably upset by the victim's behaviour towards his daughter, the accused's forceful slapping of the... victim, who was much smaller, was completely unwarranted and inexcusable.' The man will be sentenced in September.
Straits Times
6 minutes ago
- Straits Times
Bangkok's Jay Fai restaurant fined over hidden pricing for ‘VVIPs' after YouTuber complaint
Sign up now: Get ST's newsletters delivered to your inbox Jay Fai is a culinary icon in Thailand known for her meticulous cooking and trademark ski goggles. BANGKOK - Michelin-starred chef Jay Fai was fined 2,000 baht (S$80) after an uproar on social media over a crab omelette she charged a YouTuber 4,000 baht for, even though the listed price was just 1,500 baht. This comes after the YouTuber, Peachii, posted on her X account on Aug 15 that she was shocked by the bill after dining at the popular restaurant in Bangkok. She had ordered the dish with a listed price of 1,500 baht and was told only later the crab meat was premium. She argued she had not been informed or asked in advance if she wanted the premium option. On Aug 18, Thai Commerce Minister Jatuporn Buruspat announced that he would have the Department of Internal Trade (DIT) investigate why Ms Jay Fai's restaurant charged a customer 4,000 baht for a crab omelette when the listed price was 1,500 baht. A friend of Peachii, who had dined with her at Jay Fai's had attempted to explain the price discrepancy. Dr Pattarapha Chadit, a regular patron of the eatery helmed by Ms Supinya Junsuta, better known as Jay Fai, explained that the 4,000-baht price was for a special dish Jay Fai would cook with premium crab meat only for 'VVIPs' or regular patrons she knew well. It was Dr Pattarapha who had taken Peachii and her friend Martha to dine at Jay Fai's that day and who had ordered the food for the three. Dr Pattarapha explained that Jay Fai recognised her patrons and remembered what kinds of dishes she used to cook for them. Because of this, she cooked the special crab omelette for her without asking. 'I didn't explain this to my friend, so a misunderstanding occurred,' Dr Pattarapha said. 'It was just special cooking for familiar patrons or VVIP customers.' Top stories Swipe. Select. Stay informed. Singapore 18 persons nabbed and 82 vapes seized in HSA ops in Raffles Place and Haji Lane Singapore Woman trapped between train doors: Judge rules SBS Transit '100% responsible' Life 'Loss that's irreplaceable': Local film-makers mourn closure of indie cinema The Projector Singapore COE premiums up in all categories except motorcycles; Cat A price climbs 2.5% to $104,524 Singapore Nearly 2 years' jail, caning for man caught with at least 100 sexually explicit videos of children Singapore MyRepublic's policy of not imposing download speed limits to stay after takeover: StarHub Singapore Staff member found with active TB after screening at 2 pre-schools; no children diagnosed so far: CDA Singapore Grab users in Singapore shocked by fares of over $1,000 due to display glitch After Dr Pattarapha came forward with her explanation, Peachii made new posts on X saying she understood the situation. 'The jigsaw puzzle of the 4,000-baht crab omelette is now complete,' she posted. Peachii explained that she was initially confused because the menu price was 1,500 baht and a waiter had not asked her if she wanted a special option. The confusion was compounded by the fact that when they paid the bill, Dr Pattarapha couldn't explain the price difference either, as she always paid without checking the listed prices. Peachii said Dr Pattarapha promised to seek an explanation from Jay Fai and found out it was a 'VVIP price' she served only for her regular patrons without asking. Meanwhile, officials from the Office of the Consumers Protection Board, the DIT, and the consumer protection police division questioned Jay Fai at her shop on Aug 20. A DIT officer, said the investigators found that the menu listed the crab omelette at 1,500 baht without stating the 4,000-baht option. As a result, officials fined Jay Fai 2,000 baht for not publicly stating the food prices. The officer added that the restaurant was ordered to add the 4,000-baht option to the menu, and the shop agreed to comply with the DIT's regulations. Jay Fai is a culinary icon in Thailand known for her meticulous cooking and trademark ski goggles, which protect her eyes from the heat of her charcoal stoves. Her restaurant received one Michelin star in Bangkok's inaugural Michelin Guide in 2018 and has maintained it ever since, transforming her from a local legend into a globally recognised chef. THE NATION/ASIA NEWS NETWORK
Business Times
10 minutes ago
- Business Times
This Ukraine summitry is all reality TV, zero substance
SO MUCH has happened in recent days, it's easy to overlook how little has happened. To wit: Nothing material. Not when it comes to matters of war and peace in Ukraine, where Russian President Vladimir Putin continues to bomb civilians, to detain children (for which he is wanted by the International Criminal Court) and more generally to terrorise a sovereign nation that he considers an errant satrapy. That, however, is not the impression you may have formed if, like me, you've been following the summitry and pageantry on YouTube, TikTok, X, Truth Social or your medium of choice. In the endless scroll of our screens, one meme chases another while all orbit around the bright yellow-orange star of the show, Donald Trump. The medium is the message, the philosopher Marshall McLuhan observed six decades ago. And the message today is that this US president – for better or worse – is shaping world affairs. Here is Trump applauding Putin as the Russian leader approaches on a red carpet in Alaska. There he is again, receiving the rehearsed gratitude of the Ukrainian president and seven European allies, who rushed impromptu to the White House to contain whatever damage the KGB-trained Putin may have wreaked in Trump's mind. There he will soon be again, if and when Trump gets both Putin and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky, into the same room, in what would be a 'trilat' made for reality TV. Reality TV – and specifically The Apprentice – was of course the medium that, starting in 2004, catapulted Trump from relative obscurity onto the memetic platform from which he ultimately stepped into the Oval Office not once, but twice. BT in your inbox Start and end each day with the latest news stories and analyses delivered straight to your inbox. Sign Up Sign Up Like so much in our zeitgeist, everything about this medium is sort of real and sort of not, kind of jocular and kind of serious, not quite substantive but always performative. It is a universe in which Trump's meeting in the Oval Office with Zelensky in February – when the American host berated and humiliated the Ukrainian guest – counted within the White House as a success because, as the president put it, it made for 'great television'. Trump ran that script again during another visit to the Oval Office, when he trapped South Africa's president in an ambush as devastating as it was riveting. A virtuoso of the craft, Trump also incorporates voluntary or involuntary extras, bit players and cameos into his show. He mused about whether or not he would bomb Iran's nuclear facilities not at the Resolute Desk but on the White House lawn, where a work crew was erecting a flagpole and unexpectedly became the supporting cast in this particular episode. When weighing air strikes, or anything, Trump's first question to his advisers is not about his options or strategic consequences. It is: 'How is it playing?' None of this would have surprised McLuhan, who analysed (without judging) the role of media in the creation of reality, and did so when print and radio were old and television was new. Content, he understood, was subservient to the vectors in which it reaches human brains. A text-based culture rewards linear and logical thinking. Video (already in McLuhan's time) instead turns politics into theatre, shortens attention spans and favours appearance over substance. As media change accelerated in the 1980s and 1990s – during Trump's formative years – other theorists elaborated on McLuhan. Jean Baudrillard, a French sociologist, saw that the media increasingly reflected not reality but what he called hyperreality, a world of 'simulacra,' or copies without originals. In one memorable phrase, he said that 'the map precedes the territory', by which he meant that narratives trump (sorry) truth. That popped into my mind this week as Trump presented Zelensky with a map of Ukrainian territories now apparently up for negotiation. Still writing before the rise of Fox News or TikTok, the American media theorist Neil Postman came closest to predicting the moment we are in today. In Amusing Ourselves to Death, he argued that the new media would increasingly turn everything – from news to politics and war – into mere entertainment and spectacle. He foresaw a dystopia not unlike Brave New World, in which Aldous Huxley's Soma takes the form of Insta feeds or Trump's Truth Social. So here we are, with two summits down and several more to go. We parse things such as, say, wardrobes. In the Oval Office in February, Zelensky was roasted for wearing the military-style garb he has donned since Russia invaded; this time he showed up in all black, and Trump agreed that he looked 'fabulous'. A positive sign? Days earlier, the Russian foreign minister arrived at his Alaskan hotel with a sweatshirt that, in Cyrillic, advertised the 'USSR'. Code for Putin's imperialist treachery? And all the while a tragedy is unfolding for those who dare to see it. The reality – yes, there still is one – includes these facts: The war that Trump once promised to end in 24 hours rages on. Trump keeps toggling between blaming Putin and Zelensky for it. By being ambiguous about US support, he has hurt Ukraine's effort to defend itself. By ending Putin's diplomatic isolation, Trump has made the Russian side stronger than it would be. And by giving Putin a deadline for a ceasefire, then letting it expire without the 'severe consequences' he promised just a week ago, Trump forfeited the pressure he needs to exert now. What's new is that there are suddenly lots of meetings about meetings. What remains is that people are bleeding, crying and dying, all because of the decisions made by one man, Putin. In the minds of Trump and most of us in our brave new world, the map may seem to precede the territory. But that is not a luxury which people have, say, in Luhansk or Donetsk. Ukrainians and their friends are right to turn off their phones for a while, in the sad knowledge that nothing meaningful has changed. BLOOMBERG
