Rubio condoles deaths as Ukraine blows up Russian bridges, discuss forthcoming Istanbul talks with Sergei Lavrov
The US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov on Sunday discussed the prospects for ways to settle the Russia-Ukraine conflict ahead of second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul on Monday. This comes as Ukraine and Russia sharply ramped up the war with one of the biggest drone battles of their conflict.
"The situation linked to the Ukraine crisis was discussed," the ministry said in a statement on its website.
"S.V. Lavrov and M. Rubio also exchanged views on various initiatives concerning a settlement of the Ukraine crisis, including plans to resume direct Russian-Ukrainian talks in Istanbul on June 2."
Meanwhile, the US State Department said Rubio reiterated President Donald Trump's call for continued direct talks between Russia and Ukraine to achieve "a lasting peace."
It also said that during the conversation Rubio expressed condolences over deaths that occurred when two bridges were blown up in separate Russian regions bordering Ukraine.
"It was stressed on the Russian side that competent bodies will proceed with a thorough investigation and the results will be published. The guilty parties will be identified and will without doubt be subject to a worthy punishment."
At least seven people were killed and 69 injured when a highway bridge in Russia's Bryansk region, neighbouring Ukraine, was blown up over a passenger train heading to Moscow with 388 people on board. No one has claimed responsibility.
Ukraine attacked Russian nuclear-capable long-range bombers at a military base deep in Siberia on Sunday, a Ukrainian intelligence official said, the first such attack so far from the front lines more than 4,300 km (2,670 miles) away.
Ukraine's domestic intelligence service, the SBU, acknowledged it carried out the attack, codenamed "Operation Spider's Web," planned for more than a year and a half.
The intelligence official said the operation involved hiding explosive-laden drones inside the roofs of wooden sheds and loading them onto trucks that were driven to the perimeter of the air bases.
A total of 41 Russian warplanes were hit, the official said. The SBU estimated the damage at $7 billion and said Russia had lost 34% of its strategic cruise missile carriers at its main airfields.
Zelenskiy expressed delight at the "absolutely brilliant outcome," and noted 117 drones had been used in the attack.
(With inputs from Reuters)
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Economic Times
16 minutes ago
- Economic Times
Spying agencies are now targeting school children
TIL Creatives Representative Image Recently, a shocking case of Pakistan's spy agency ISI recruiting a social media influencer as a spy hit the headlines. A travel blogger, Jyoti Malhotra's travels were probably funded by the ISI. Spy agencies always look for the most vulnerable and least suspicious individuals to recruit. During the Russia-Ukraine war, spying agencies have found a new target -- school children. Russia and Ukraine have accused each other of recruiting children as spies. Children are easier to recruit and are hardly suspected to be spies. A few days ago, Lithuanian schools were warned over Russia's attempts to recruit teens. The Ministry of Education, Science and Sport recently warned Lithuanian schools that Russian intelligence agencies may attempt to recruit teenagers for hybrid activities, as per a report by a local news outlet, Delfi. Director of the National Crisis Management Centre Vilmantas Vitkauskas said warnings and recommendations to school principals were sent taking into consideration that Russia has already tried this tactic in Ukraine and may use it against other countries, too. Vitkauskas said children and teens on social networks may receive messages from strangers suggesting they earn some money. At first, they may be asked to take pictures of some insignificant buildings or paint graffiti. Later, they may be asked to take pictures of military equipment, military installations or to set fire to military facilities or lay explosives in locations they are instructed. 'Teenage Ukrainians being recruited by Russia'Some 22% of Ukrainians recruited by Russian intelligence services to prepare sabotage acts or terrorist attacks in the country are minors, Artem Dekhtiarenko, the spokesperson of the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU), said last month. As per a report in The Kyiv Independent, the youngest executors of Russian orders, whom the SBU exposed for setting fire to Ukrainian Railways' (Ukrzaliznytsia) railroad switchboards, were 13-year-old teenagers. Vasyl Bohdan, head of the Juvenile Prevention Department of Ukraine's National Police, said that the police are currently seeing a decrease in the number of cases of child recruitment compared to last year, while the number of reports of attempts to recruit children has increased. Citing teenagers who have been recruited, the police identified several reasons why minors agree to such cooperation: material gain, psychological manipulation techniques based on a sense of adventure, romanticization of crime, and blackmail. "Having some sensitive information about the child, either personal or related to simple tasks already completed, the handler can blackmail them into disclosing it," Bohdan March, the Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) claimed that Russia's intelligence service blew up two Ukrainian teenagers it had recruited to carry out a terrorist attack in the western city of year in December, there were reports of local law enforcement in Kharkiv arresting two groups of alleged Russian Federal Security Service (FSB) agents, all of whom were 15 and 16-year-old. The teenagers were allegedly tasked with carrying out espionage, directing missile strikes, and committing arson on behalf of Russian operatives, as per an SBU statement released at that time. Under the guise of "quest game" rules devised by the FSB — where players complete tasks as part of a game — the minors were given geolocation coordinates and were instructed to travel to those locations, take photographs and videos of targets, and provide brief descriptions of the areas to Russian spies via anonymous messaging apps, as per a media report that cited Ukrainian authorities. 'Ukrainian intelligence recruiting Russian teenagers'Russia too accuses Ukraine of recruiting Russian teenagers as spies. Russia's Federal Security Service (FSB) claimed in March that Ukraine's military intelligence (HUR) is working to collect personal information about Russian schoolchildren with the intent of recruiting them for criminal activities, adding that the effort is directed by the to the statement reported by the HUR aims to deceive educators into divulging their students' personal data. This information would then be utilized by Ukrainian agents to enlist teenagers for 'subversive activities that threaten Russian security and for sabotage within Russia,' the FSB said, adding that the infiltration was 'directed by NATO special services.'The FSB has previously reported that it apprehended multiple Russian citizens accused of conducting or planning sabotage operations on behalf of Ukraine, some of whom were minors. Ukrainian agents are said to employ various tactics for online recruitment, ranging from financial incentives and promises of future benefits to coercion, financial scams, and subsequent year in September, two teenagers in Omsk, Russia, set fire to an Mi-8 helicopter at an air base using a Molotov cocktail and cigarettes, Newsweek had reported based on social media reports. The teenage boys, aged 13 and 14, made their way to the helipad where the helicopter was stationed, and doused it in flammable liquid. The teenage boys were reportedly promised 5 million rubles (about $55,000) by an unknown individual on the Telegram messaging app for carrying out the task. Last year, had reported that In Russia and Ukraine, the number of acts of sabotage, often involving minors, is growing rapidly. For a promised reward from foreign security services, railway facilities, military enlistment offices, army vehicles and even helicopters are being torched, it said. Referring several sabotage incidents involving minors, it said, "These and other small-scale terrorist attacks (primarily arson of railway infrastructure and military enlistment offices), committed in Russia almost daily and often by minors, are likely part of the hybrid warfare being carried out by the Ukrainian security services, which are thus trying to compensate for the relative weakness of Ukraine in the face of a powerful and aggressive Russia." The report also mentioned several such acts in UKraine. "On September 12, the head of the National Police, Ivan Vyhovsky, said that more than 200 arson attacks on military vehicles had already been recorded in Ukraine since the beginning of the year. A quarter of them were committed by minors. In fact, there have been many more such cases. As of the end of July 2024, in Kharkiv alone there were about 40 cases of arson of military vehicles committed by teenagers aged 12 to 18. In Odessa, the SBU detained a gang of couriers aged 18 to 24 who moonlighted as arsonists. They had burned 15 army SUVs."
Time of India
19 minutes ago
- Time of India
Diplomats, automakers push Beijing to loosen rare earth magnet export restrictions
Diplomats, automakers and other executives from India, Japan and Europe were urgently seeking meetings with Beijing officials to push for faster approval of rare earth magnet exports, sources said, as shortages threatened to halt global supply chains. A business delegation from Japan will visit Beijing in early June to meet the Ministry of Commerce over the curbs, according to a source familiar with the visit. European diplomats from countries with big auto industries have also sought "emergency" meetings with MOFCOM in recent weeks, a European official said. India, where automakers warned last week they were close to shutting down, is organising a trip for auto executives in the next two to three weeks. "This is an extremely urgent and critical time for the auto and electronics industry ," Adam Dunnett, secretary general of the European Chamber of Commerce in China, told Reuters, saying some firms could stop production as soon as this week. The European Union and Japanese missions in Beijing did not immediately respond to requests for comment. The possibility of widespread shutdowns across the global auto industry demonstrates the enormous leverage Beijing has built over its decades-long rise to dominance in the rare earth industry. China - which controls over 90per cent of global processing capacity for the magnets, used in everything from automobiles and fighter jets to home appliances - imposed export restrictions on seven rare earth elements and several magnets on April 4, requiring exporters to obtain licenses from Beijing. The controls are widely viewed as a key source of diplomatic leverage because there are almost no alternatives outside China. Beijing agreed to suspend or remove non-tariff countermeasures imposed on Washington since April 2 as part of the Geneva truce. But there has only been a slow trickle of approvals since then and Chinese government officials have declined to address the issue publicly. US Trade Representative Jamieson Greer last week accused Beijing of "slow-rolling" the removal of non-tariff countermeasures. South Korea's industry ministry has asked China to issue more export licenses, an official told Reuters, as only a handful of companies had received licenses. China's foreign ministry on Tuesday did not respond to a question on whether Beijing would speed up processing of export license applications. The Ministry of Commerce did not immediately reply to queries sent after business hours. European firms alone have thousands of applications waiting for approval, said a source familiar with the matter. State media reported last week that China was considering relaxing some of the curbs for European semiconductor firms and the Ministry of Foreign Affairs said last week it would strengthen cooperation with other countries over its controls. However, rare-earth magnet exports from China halved in April due to a long and opaque application process for export permits. "China won't blink but it will slowly and strategically provide exemptions," said a US business figure briefed on the matter, who declined to be named for sensitivity reasons. "It's a painful stress test of an already fragile relationship."
Time of India
29 minutes ago
- Time of India
Ukraine Strikes Crimea Bridge Again In Underwater Attack; Kyiv's Intel Agency Claims ‘Big Success'
/ Jun 03, 2025, 08:06PM IST Ukraine's Security Service (SBU) has claimed responsibility for a dramatic underwater attack on the Crimea Bridge, marking its third strike on the key Russian supply line since 2022. Using 1,100 kilograms of explosives planted over months, Ukraine says the operation damaged the bridge's underwater pillars. The assault came just days after Kyiv's drone blitz on Russian strategic bombers, signaling an intensified phase of hybrid warfare. Watch
