European leaders urge more 'pressure' on Russia ahead of Trump-Putin summit
Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska this Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of negotiations.
Announcing the summit last week, Trump said that 'there'll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both' sides, without elaborating.
But President Volodymyr Zelensky warned Saturday that Ukraine won't surrender land to Russia to buy peace.
'Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,' he said on social media.
'Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace,' he added.
Zelensky urged Ukraine's allies to take 'clear steps' towards achieving a sustainable peace during a call with Britain's Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
European leaders issued a joint statement overnight Saturday to Sunday saying that 'only an approach that combines active diplomacy, support to Ukraine and pressure on the Russian Federation to end their illegal war can succeed'.
They welcomed Trump's efforts, saying they were ready to help diplomatically -- by maintaining support to Ukraine, as well as by upholding and imposing restrictive measures against Russia.
'The current line of contact should be the starting point of negotiations', said the statement, signed by leaders from France, Germany, Italy, Poland, Britain, Finland and EU Commission chief Ursula Von Der Leyen, without giving more details.
They also said a resolution 'must protect Ukraine's and Europe's vital security interests', including 'the need for robust and credible security guarantees that enable Ukraine to effectively defend its sovereignty and territorial integrity'.
'The path to peace in Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukraine,' they said.
National security advisors from Kyiv's allies -- including the United States, EU nations and the UK -- gathered in Britain Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit.
French President Emmanuel Macron, following phone calls with Zelensky, Starmer and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said 'the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians' and that Europe also had to be involved in the negotiations.
In his evening address Saturday, Zelensky stressed: 'There must be an honest end to this war, and it is up to Russia to end the war it started.'
A 'dignified peace'
Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit.
Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.
Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.
Ukraine's leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and argues that meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.
The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.
Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.
Zelensky said of the location that it was 'very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people'.
The Kremlin said the choice was 'logical' because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their 'economic interests intersect'.
Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later.
Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump's first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, but Trump has failed to broker peace in Ukraine as he promised he could.
Fighting goes on
Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other's positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday.
A bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine's frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16.
The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, the site of the most intense fighting in the east and one of the five regions Putin says is part of Russia.
In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions -- Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia and Kherson -- despite not having full control over them.
As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support and be excluded from joining NATO.
Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield - AFP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
The Star
17 minutes ago
- The Star
S&P 500, Nasdaq close at record closing highs
The Dow rose 483.52 points, or 1.10%, to 44,458.61, the S&P 500 gained 72.31 points, or 1.13%, at 6,445.76 and the Nasdaq advanced 296.50 points, or 1.39%, to 21,681.90. NEW YORK: The S&P 500 and the Nasdaq scored record closing highs on Tuesday, as news that July inflation rose broadly in line with expectations bolstered bets on a Federal Reserve interest rate cut next month. The Labor Department said the Consumer Price Index (CPI) rose 0.2% on a monthly basis in July, while annual inflation came in slightly below forecasts, drawing calls from US President Donald Trump to lower interest rates. Yields on shorter-dated Treasury bonds – a reflection of interest rate expectations – slipped and rate futures showed traders are giving an 88.8% chance that the Fed could lower rates by about 25 basis points in September. "The CPI data is supportive for equities overall, getting some good news with the Fed looking more on track to cut in September and potentially more transitory inflation," said Katherine Bordlemay, co-head of client portfolio management, fundamental equities at Goldman Sachs Asset Management. "The first thing I'd guide is continue to lean into the theme of the big are getting bigger. We continue to have conviction around mega-tech and technology." Alphabet shares rose 1.2% as Perplexity made a US$34.5 billion cash offer to buy the company's Chrome browser. Intel Corp climbed 5.6% after Trump said he met its CEO, Lip-Bu Tan, on Monday, praising Tan and calling the meeting "very interesting." Last week, Trump demanded Tan's immediate resignation, calling him "highly conflicted" over his ties to Chinese firms. The Dow Jones Industrial Average rose 483.52 points, or 1.10%, to 44,458.61, the S&P 500 gained 72.31 points, or 1.13%, at 6,445.76 and the Nasdaq Composite advanced 296.50 points, or 1.39%, to 21,681.90. The quality of economic data remains a concern weeks after Trump fired the head of the Bureau of Labor Statistics following downward revisions to previous months' nonfarm payrolls counts. Markets are monitoring developments around Trump's nominee, E.J. Antoni, to the bureau commissioner post and potential candidates for the Fed's top job. "This is still early innings of this process and just as the Fed will be beginning to cut rates in the autumn, that's when the inflation data will probably start to be registering some of these more direct tariff price increases and it's going to complicate the rate-cutting decision," said John Velis, a macro strategist at BNY. Relief came as the US and China extended their tariff truce until November 10, staving off triple-digit duties on each other's goods. US stocks have rallied in recent weeks on the back of strong tech earnings, easing trade tensions, and increased rate cut expectations. Inflows into US stocks last week were the largest in two years, BofA Global Research data showed. The Russell 2000 index, tracking small-cap companies, advanced almost 3%. An index tracking airline stocks surged 8.87%, its biggest one-day rise in over a month after data showed airfares rose 4% in July. Bank stocks rallied, with the S&P 500 Banks index up 2.1%, as analysts said a steepening yield curve could help bank earnings as lenders could borrow cheap and lend at a higher rate. Cardinal Health dropped 7% after the drug distributor said it will buy healthcare management firm Solaris for US$1.9 billion. Advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 4.26-to-1 ratio on the NYSE. There were 484 new highs and 60 new lows on the NYSE. On the Nasdaq, advancing issues outnumbered decliners by a 2.69-to-1 ratio. The S&P 500 posted 27 new 52-week highs and 12 new lows while the Nasdaq Composite recorded 104 new highs and 96 new lows. Volume on US exchanges was 16.40 billion shares, compared with the 18.3 billion average for the full session over the last 20 trading days. — Reuters
The Star
an hour ago
- The Star
Homeless who refuse to cooperate with Trump crackdown may go to jail, White House says
WASHINGTON (Reuters) -Homeless people in Washington, D.C.,could face jail time if they do not comply with President Donald Trump's efforts to crack down on crime and rid the U.S. capital of homeless encampments, the White House said on Tuesday. "Homeless individuals will be given the option to leave their encampment, to be taken to a homeless shelter, to be offered addiction or mental-health services, and if they refuse, they will be susceptible to fines or to jail time," White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt told reporters. Leavitt said the administration was exploring strategies to relocate homeless individuals "far from the capital." She said U.S. Park Police have removed 70 homeless encampments from federal parks since March and are set to clear the remaining two encampments in the city later this week. Andy Wassenich, director of policy at Miriam's Kitchen - an organization offering services to the homeless - said his team was out trying to warn people. He said there was still a lot of confusion about what the crackdown may bring. Their best advice, he said, was: "Go to shelter if you can, if you can stand it. If you have anybody you can stay with, get off the street, and seek safety and let us know what we can do for you." Trump said on social media that he wanted the homeless out of Washington even before he announced the extraordinary step of temporarily taking over the District of Columbia's police department and deploying 800 National Guard troops as part of a crackdown on crime there - an effort that also includesanother 500 federal law enforcement agents. A billionaire real estate developer, Trump described the homeless as one of several groups who have "overtaken" Washington that include "violent gangs and bloodthirsty criminals, roving mobs of wild youth, drugged-out maniacs." He likened his intended crackdown to his administration's actions to secure the U.S. border with Mexico. HOMELESSNESS REACHED A RECORD HIGH NATIONWIDE IN 2024 U.S. communities have long experienced seemingly intractable problems with homelessness, which reached an all-time national high of over 771,000 men, women and children on a single night in 2024, according to the Department of Housing and Urban Development's latest homelessness report to Congress. The HUD report estimated Washington's homeless population at 5,616, a 14.1% increase from the year before. That made Washington, a city of just over 700,000 people, the 16th out of the 20 U.S. cities with the largest homeless populations, according to the website USA Facts. The top five cities are New York, Los Angeles, Chicago, Seattle and Denver. But the District of Columbia had the highest prevalence of homelessness among U.S. states, with 83 homeless individuals for every 10,000 people, HUD data showed. Homeless people did not appear to be caught up in a Monday night sweep by 850 officers and federal agents, who the White House said made 23 arrests across the city, an operation which Leavitt announced at a press conference on Monday. The District of Columbia operates under the Home Rule Act, which gives Congress ultimate authority but allows residents to elect a mayor and city council. Trump bypassed the city's elected leaders by declaring a "public safety emergency" and invoking a section of the act that allows the president to take over the police force for 30 days under emergency conditions. On Sunday night,a small group of federal agents arrived at Union Station - a gathering place for homeless people - and briefly questioned a personstanding there, according to a man who was outside the building at the time. After about 15 minutes, the agents, who were from a variety of federal agencies, left with little fanfare. Jacob Adams, a political activist with FLARE USA, a self-described anti-Trump group,was sitting at the organization's table set up near the fountain outside the station. He said the agents did nothing to disperse the people who had gathered there, and in fact told them they could stay overnight. "I don't know if it was a show of force or photo ops. But it didn't come off as very forceful," Adams said. Wassenich said on Tuesday that so far there was little evidence of the unhoused population being directly affected by the surge in law enforcement. "If they are caught up in other things, that's certainly possible," he said. "The tents are still standing. The people are still sleeping on whatever bench they might be on." (Reporting by Colette Luke, Julio Cesar-Chavez, Jasper Ward, Nicole Johnson in Washington, Maiya Keidan in Toronto, Brendan O'Brien in Chicago; Writing by David Morgan; Editing by Frank McGurty and Howard Goller)
New Straits Times
an hour ago
- New Straits Times
US accuses Britain, France, Germany of stifling online speech
WASHINGTON: The United States on Tuesday alleged that human rights were worsening in Western Europe due to internet regulations, in a pared-down annual global report that spared partners of President Donald Trump such as El Salvador. The State Department's congressionally required report historically has offered extensive accounts of all nations' records, documenting in dispassionate detail issues from unjust detention to extrajudicial killing to personal freedoms. For the first report under Secretary of State Marco Rubio, the State Department trimmed sections and took particular aim at countries that have been in the crosshairs of Trump, including Brazil and South Africa. On China, which the United States across administrations has identified as a top adversary, the State Department report said that "genocide" was ongoing against the mostly Muslim Uyghur people, whose plight Rubio took up as a senator. But the report also took striking aim at some of the closest allies of the United States, saying that human rights had worsened in Britain, France and Germany due to restrictions on online hate speech. In Britain, following the stabbing deaths of three young girls, authorities took action against internet users who falsely alleged that a migrant was responsible and urged revenge. The State Department report accused British officials of having "repeatedly intervened to chill speech." State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce, without naming Britain specifically, said that online restrictions have targeted "disfavored voices on political or religious grounds." "No matter really how disagreeable someone's speech may be, criminalizing it or silencing it by force only serves as a catalyst for further hatred, suppression or polarization," Bruce told reporters. The criticism comes despite Rubio moving aggressively to deny or strip US visas of foreign nationals over their statements and social media postings, especially student activists who have criticized Israel. In February, Vice President JD Vance used a visit to Germany to champion the far-right AfD party after the country's spy agency called it extremist. Trump is an avid social media user who frequently berates opponents in personal tones. Bruce said that previous State Department rights reports had been "politically biased" and that on the level of detail, "sometimes less is more." Lawmakers of the rival Democratic Party accused Trump and Rubio of treating human rights only as a cudgel against adversaries, inviting charges by Beijing and Moscow of US hypocrisy. Rubio's State Department has "shamelessly turned a once-credible tool of US foreign policy mandated by Congress into yet another instrument to advance MAGA political grievances and culture war obsessions," said Representative Gregory Meeks, the top Democrat on the House Foreign Affairs Committee. The report said there were "no credible reports of significant human rights abuses" in El Salvador and instead noted a "historic low" in crime. President Nayib Bukele has unleashed a sweeping crackdown on crime in which rights groups say many innocent people have wound up in detention. Bukele took in migrants sent from the United States in Trump's mass deportation drive, some of whom have since reported mistreatment during nearly round-the-clock confinement in a maximum-security prison, which took place after the time covered by the report. Kilmar Armando Abrego Garcia, who the Trump administration admits was wrongly deported, filed a lawsuit alleging severe beatings, sleep deprivation and inadequate nutrition in El Salvador's CECOT prison. The report trimmed down its section on Israel, the West Bank and Gaza. It acknowledged cases of arbitrary arrests and killings by Israel but said that authorities took "credible steps" to identify those responsible. In contrast, the report said that rights deteriorated in 2024 in Brazil, where Trump has pressed against prosecution of former president Jair Bolsonaro, his ally accused of a coup attempt with echoes of the Jan 6, 2021 riot at the US Capitol by Trump's supporters. Brazil, the report said, has "undermined democratic debate by restricting access to online content deemed to 'undermine democracy,' the report said.
