'New' ideas raised in US-Russia talks, Russia hits Kyiv
"I think it's a new and a different approach," Rubio told reporters after talks with Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov.
"I wouldn't characterise it as something that guarantees a peace but it's a concept that, you know, that I'll take back to the president".
He did not elaborate.
Rubio added that US President Donald Trump has been "disappointed and frustrated that there's not been more flexibility on the Russian side" to bring about an end to the conflict.
"We need to see a roadmap moving forward about how this conflict can conclude. And then we shared some ideas about what that might look like," he said of the 50-minute meeting.
"We're going to continue to stay involved where we see opportunities to make a difference."
In a statement released shortly after Thursday's meeting, Russia's foreign ministry said that "substantive and frank exchange of views" had taken place on issues including Ukraine, Iran, Syria and other global problems.
"Both countries reaffirmed their mutual commitment to finding peaceful solutions to conflicts, restoring Russian-American economic and humanitarian co-operation, and unimpeded contact between the societies of the two countries, something which could be facilitated by resuming direct air traffic," the statement said.
"The importance of further work to normalise bilateral diplomatic relations was also emphasised."
Local authorities said two people were killed, 23 were wounded and damage reported in nearly every district of Kyiv.
Explosions and anti-aircraft machine gun fire rattled the city.
Windows were blown out, facades ravaged and cars burned to shells, including in the city centre where an apartment in an eight-storey building was engulfed in flames.
"This is terror because it happens every night when people are asleep," said Karyna Volf, a 25-year-old Kyiv resident who rushed out of her apartment moments before shards of glass showered her home.
Ukrainian air defences stopped all but a few dozen of the drones, authorities said, a day after Russia launched a record 728 drones at Ukraine.
Escalating Russian strikes in recent weeks have strained Ukraine's air defences at a time when its troops are facing renewed pressure on the front line, and forced residents in Kyiv and across the country to seek cover in bomb shelters.
"Residential buildings, vehicles, warehouse facilities, offices and non-residential buildings are on fire," Tymur Tkachenko, head of Kyiv's military administration, said on the Telegram messaging app.
Russia's defence ministry said it had hit "military-industrial" targets in Kyiv as well as military airfields.
with AP
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
News.com.au
2 hours ago
- News.com.au
Russian deserters facing brutal punishments in Ukraine
Brutal punishments meted out to Russian deserters in the gruelling war with Ukraine are being shared in harrowing videos from the front lines. Soldiers accused of abandoning their posts are tied to trees and left for dead, forced to fight fellow deserters in pits or dragged along behind cars by their comrades. Some of the videos posted to social media sites such as Telegram and obtained by CNN show bound soldiers being viciously assaulted and urinated on. In one clip, a man's voice can be heard as he opens a large metal storage tank holding three men stripped down to their underwear. 'Time to feed the animals! The ones who tried to f*** off,' he says. 'Let's find out what they are doing.' The man asks if the men were hungry: 'Do you want a cookie?' One of the captives nods and a biscuit is crumbled into his hands, which he eats. Ukrainian soldiers report intercepting radio communications of enemy battalions describing the punishments as sacrifices to the witch Baba Yaga – who in Slavic folklore eats children. 'Any large Ukrainian drone they call Baba Yaga. It spreads terrible panic in these damaged people,' the commander, who goes by the call sign Munin, told CNN. 'For them, it's some kind of scary myth that flies in and kills everyone.' Tens of thousands of Russians are estimated to have deserted their army since the full-scale invasion of Ukraine began in 2022. Get Lost, which helps men desert or avoid conscription, says it has facilitated the escape of 1700 Russians. 'Their lives are not worth anything to their commanders,' founder Grigory Sverdlin said. 'For Russian officers, losing a tank, losing a vehicle, is much worse than losing, say, 10 or 20 people. 'We often hear from our clients that officers tell them they will all be dead in a week. The officer will get another unit, so it's not a problem for them.' US-based Institute for the Study of War cites apparently leaked data from Russia's Defence Ministry that suggests as many as 50,000 men could have deserted so far. Trump's ultimatum to Putin US President Donald Trump on Monday issued Moscow with a dramatic new deadline to end the war or face tough new sanctions, as he met UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer in Scotland. Saying he was not very interested in talking to the Russian leader anymore, Mr Trump said he was 'very disappointed' with Putin over continued strikes against Ukrainian civilian targets. He announced that he was reducing an earlier 50-day deadline set on July 14 for Mr Putin to bring the Ukraine conflict to an end to 'about 10 or 12 days', starting immediately. 'There is no reason in waiting,' Mr Trump said, adding he thought Mr Putin would want to end things quickly. 'I really felt it was going to end. But every time I think it's going to end he kills people. 'I'm not so interested in talking (to him) anymore.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky swiftly praised the US leader's stand, thanking Mr Trump for his 'clear stance and expressed determination'. 'Right on time, when a lot can change through strength for real peace,' Mr Zelensky said on social media. 'I thank President Trump for his focus on saving lives and stopping this horrible war.'
News.com.au
3 hours ago
- News.com.au
Russia kills 25 in Ukraine, as Kremlin says 'committed' to peace
The Kremlin said on Tuesday that it wanted to pursue peace in Ukraine hours after mounting attacks that killed at least 25 people, including a 23-year-old pregnant woman and more than a dozen prison inmates. The strikes on several regions came hours after US President Donald Trump issued Moscow with a new deadline to end its grinding invasion of Ukraine -- now in its fourth year -- or face tough new sanctions. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Russia of purposefully targeting a prison in the Zaporizhzhia region -- that Russia claims as its own -- killing 16 people and wounding more than 40 others. "It was a deliberate strike, intentional, not accidental. The Russians could not have been unaware that they were targeting civilians in that facility," Zelensky said on social media in response. The Kremlin denied that claim. "The Russian army does not strike civilian targets," spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters, including from AFP. Peskov added that Moscow had "taken note" of Trump's new deadline and told journalists that it remained "committed to the peace process to resolve the conflict around Ukraine and secure our interests." - 'War crimes' - Ukraine's justice ministry said Moscow's forces hit the prison with four glide bombs, while police said 16 inmates were killed and 43 were wounded. Bricks and debris were strewn on the ground around buildings with blown-out windows, according to images released by the ministry. The facility's perimeter was intact and there was no threat that inmates would escape, it added. Rescue workers were seen searching for survivors in pictures released by the region's emergency services. A senior Ukrainian source said that 274 people were serving sentences in the Bilenkivska facility, where 30 people worked. The source added there were no Russian war prisoners being held at the centre. Ukraine's human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said the Zaporizhzhia attack was further evidence of Russian "war crimes". "People held in places of detention do not lose their right to life and protection," he wrote on social media. In addition to the glide bomb attack, the Ukrainian air force said that Russia had launched 37 drones and two missiles overnight, adding that its air defence systems had downed 32 of the drones. Zelensky said that among the separate attacks, Russian forces had targeted a hospital in the town of the Kamyanske in the Dnipropetrovsk region. - Hospital targeted - "Three people were killed in the attack, including a pregnant woman. Her name was Diana. She was only 23-years-old," Zelensky said. Separate strikes in the eastern Kharkiv region that borders Russia killed six people, regional authorities said. In the southern Russian region of Rostov, a Ukrainian drone attack killed one person, the region's acting governor said. Kyiv has been trying to repel Russia's summer offensive, which has made fresh advances into areas largely spared since the start of the invasion in 2022. The Russian defence ministry claimed fresh advances across the sprawling front line on Tuesday, saying its forces had taken control of two more villages -- one in the Donetsk region, and another in the Zaporizhzhia region. The prison strike on Tuesday came on the three-year anniversary of a attack on another detention facility in occupied Ukrainian territory that Kyiv blamed on Moscow and that was reported to have killed dozens of captured Ukrainian soldiers. Ukraine and Russia blamed each other for the strike over the night of July 29 three years ago on the detention centre in the Russian-occupied Donetsk region, which the Kremlin says is part of Russia. Ukraine says that dozens of its soldiers who laid down their arms after a long Russian siege of the port city of Mariupol were killed in that attack on the Olenivka detention facility.
Perth Now
3 hours ago
- Perth Now
Trump opens golf course in Scotland before heading home
US President Donald Trump has formally opened a new golf course at his sprawling property in Scotland, saying he would play a quick round before heading home to focus on addressing crises in the Middle East and elsewhere. Trump, wrapping up a five-day visit to Scotland, was joined by former football players, golfers and business leaders for a first round of golf at his new second 18-hole course at Trump International near Aberdeen, Scotland. Initially billed as a private visit, the trip quickly morphed into a diplomatic mission, including a trade agreement sealed with European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, bilateral meetings with British officials and phone calls aimed at ending a nascent war between Cambodia and Thailand. During a meeting with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer on Monday, Trump raised pressure on Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu over a worsening hunger crisis in the war-torn Palestinian enclave of Gaza. Asked at Tuesday's event what he would say to Netanyahu, Trump said he was trying to get things "straightened out". During his talks with Starmer, Trump said he disagreed with Netanyahu's assessment there was no starvation in Gaza, while giving Russian President Vladimir Putin a much tighter deadline to make progress towards ending the war in Ukraine. Flanked by his two sons, Eric Trump and Donald Trump Jr, with several grandchildren nearby, Trump raved about the beauty of the new golf course in the dunes of northeastern Scotland, before teeing off. "I look forward to playing it today. We're going to play it very quickly, and then I go back to (Washington) DC and we put out fires all over the world," he said at a ribbon-cutting ceremony for the new course, alluding in part to a ceasefire between Thailand and Cambodia. "We stopped a war - we've stopped about five wars. So that's much more important than playing golf." Several nations have nominated Trump for the Nobel Peace Prize, a message endorsed by White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt in a social media post in recent days. Golfers Paul McGinley and Rich Beem teed off with Trump and his son Eric, and an eclectic mix of notable figures followed. Former Chelsea and AC Milan striker and top Ukraine goal-scorer Andriy Shevchenko, who is now the president of his country's football association, was a guest, as were fellow ex-football players Robbie Fowler, Gianfranco Zola and Jim Leighton. Scottish First Minister John Swinney, who met with Trump earlier on Tuesday, also attended, along with Adrian Mardell, the chief executive of Jaguar Land Rover, and Alastair King, the Lord Mayor of the City of London, who represents Britain's finance industry.
