Lebanon reopens airspace temporarily, plans overnight closure
Citing the Lebanese Civil Aviation Authority, NNA reported the airspace will close again from 10:30pm (1930 GMT) until 6am (0300 GMT) on Sunday, following Israel's surprise attack on Iran.
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Al Etihad
8 hours ago
- Al Etihad
Putin preparing for long talks with Trump in Anchorage, Kremlin says
15 Aug 2025 21:42 Moscow (dpa) The Kremlin has said the summit between US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday is expected to last between six and seven hours. "We assume that there will first be a personal conversation. This will take place with the participation of advisers. Then there will be talks within the delegations, possibly in the form of a working lunch," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told state television. "After that, the heads of state will withdraw for some time and then come together for a joint press conference," he said. Putin earlier departed for Alaska from the Magadan region in Russia's Far East. Peskov previously said the Russian leader would arrive punctually at 11 am (1900 GMT) in Anchorage, where the meeting is to be held at a US military will greet Putin at the plane, Peskov added. Peskov said the Russian side expects real results. If this is the case, he said there could be a three-way meeting with the participation of Ukraine, which is not involved in the Anchorage talks.
Sharjah 24
2 days ago
- Sharjah 24
Zelensky in London to meet PM ahead of US-Russia summit
Zelensky was to arrive at 9:30 am (0830 GMT) at Downing Street, the prime minister's office said, after Starmer on Wednesday maintained there was now a "viable" chance for a Ukraine ceasefire. US President Donald Trump and Russia's Vladimir Putin will meet Friday at an air base in the far-northern US state, the first time the Russian leader has been permitted on Western soil since his February 2022 invasion of Ukraine which has killed tens of thousands of people. Near the front line Thursday, Ukraine fired dozens of drones at Russia overnight into the early morning, wounding three people and sparking fires including at an oil refinery in the southern city of Volgograd. Kyiv calls the strikes fair retaliation for Moscow's daily missile and drone barrages on its own civilians. With such high stakes, all sides were pushing hard in the hours before Friday's meeting. Three-way meeting? Zelensky, who has refused to surrender territory to Russia, spoke by telephone Wednesday with Trump, as did European leaders who voiced confidence afterward that the US leader would seek a ceasefire rather than concessions by Kyiv. Trump has sent mixed messages, saying that he could quickly organise a three-way summit afterward with both Zelensky and Putin but also warning of his impatience with Putin. "There may be no second meeting because, if I feel that it's not appropriate to have it because I didn't get the answers that we have to have, then we are not going to have a second meeting," Trump told reporters on Wednesday. But Trump added: "If the first one goes okay, we'll have a quick second one," involving both Putin and Zelensky. Zelensky, after being berated by Trump at a February meeting in the White House, has publicly supported US diplomacy but has made clear his deep scepticism. "I have told my colleagues -- the US president and our European friends -- that Putin definitely does not want peace," Zelensky said. As the war rages on in eastern Ukraine, Zelensky was in Berlin Wednesday joining Chancellor Friedrich Merz on an online call with other European leaders, and the NATO and EU chiefs, to show a united stance against Russia. Starmer on Wednesday said Ukraine's military backers, the so-called Coalition of the Willing, had drawn up workable military plans in case of a ceasefire but were also ready to add pressure on Russia through sanctions. "For three and a bit years this conflict has been going, we haven't got anywhere near... a viable way of bringing it to a ceasefire," Starmer told Wednesday's meeting of European leaders. "Now we do have that chance, because of the work that the (US) president has put in," he said. NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte declared: "The ball is now in Putin's court."
Dubai Eye
2 days ago
- Dubai Eye
Zelenskyy heads to Berlin for online meeting with Trump, European leaders
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy travelled to Berlin on Wednesday for a German-hosted virtual meeting with Donald Trump and European leaders, two days before the US president meets Russia's Vladimir Putin in Alaska. Europe's leaders are trying to drive home the perils of selling out Kyiv's interests at the first US-Russia summit since 2021. Trump has said the Alaska talks will be a "feel-out" meeting as he pursues a ceasefire in Moscow's war on Ukraine, having said last week, to consternation in Kyiv and Europe, that any deal would involve "some swapping of territories". Zelenskyy will meet German Chancellor Friedrich Merz before a video conference with the leaders of Germany, Finland, France, Britain, Italy, Poland and the European Union at 2 pm (1200 GMT), the hosts said. NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte will also attend. Trump and Vice President JD Vance will join the call at 3 pm (1300 GMT). EUROPE AND KYIV FEAR UNPREDICTABLE ALASKA DEAL The unpredictability of the summit in Alaska has fuelled Europeans' fears that the US and Russia could take far-reaching decisions over their heads and even seek to coerce Ukraine into an unfavourable deal. "We are focusing now to ensure that it does not happen - engaging with US partners and staying coordinated and united on the European side. Still a lot of time until Friday," said one senior official from Eastern Europe. European leaders, wary of angering Trump, have repeatedly said they welcome his efforts while stressing that there should be no deal about Ukraine - almost a fifth of which Russia has occupied - without Ukraine's participation. Trump's administration tempered expectations on Tuesday for major progress toward a ceasefire, calling his meeting with Putin in Alaska a "listening exercise". Trump's agreement last week to the summit with Putin was an abrupt shift after weeks of voicing frustration with Putin for resisting the US peace initiative. Trump said his envoy had made "great progress" at talks in Moscow. Half a dozen senior European officials told Reuters that they see a risk of a deal being struck that is unfavourable for Europe and Ukraine's security. They said European unity would be vital if that happened. White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Tuesday the summit would be a "listening exercise" for Trump to hear what it would take to get to a deal. After the meeting with Trump, the "coalition of the willing", a group of countries working on plans to support Ukraine in the event of a ceasefire, will also convene online. BATTLEFIELD PRESSURE MOUNTS ON UKRAINE A Gallup poll released last week found that 69 per cent of Ukrainians favour a negotiated end to the war as soon as possible. But polls also indicate Ukrainians do not want peace at any cost if that means crushing concessions. Ahead of the calls, Zelenskyy said it would be impossible for Kyiv to agree to a deal that would require it to withdraw its troops from the eastern Donbas region, a large swathe of which is already occupied by Russia. That, he told reporters on Tuesday, would deprive Ukraine of a vast defensive network in the region, easing the way for a Russian push deeper into Ukraine in the future. He said territorial issues could only be discussed once a ceasefire was in place and Ukraine had received security guarantees. Moscow's troops have recently ramped up pressure on the battlefield, tightening their stranglehold on the cities of Pokrovsk and Kostyantynivka in eastern Ukraine.
