Ukrainian President Zelensky says Russian war machine's overnight strikes display Kremlin's true intentions
Stating that Moscow's military campaign has left swathes of areas destroyed and many dead, Zelensky said, 'And at this very moment, the Russians are attacking Kharkiv, Zaporizhzhia, the Sumy region and Odesa, destroying residential buildings and our civilian infrastructure.'
Claiming that Russian troops were going out of their way and 'deliberately killing people, particularly children', the Ukrainia President said, 'seven people have been killed as a result of the drone strike in Kharkiv, the youngest being a girl who is only a year and a half old, and dozens have been injured, including children.'
'In Zaporizhzhia, missile strikes injured 20 people and killed three. My condolences go out to all of the victims' families and loved ones,' he added.
'There was also a deliberate Russian strike on an energy facility in Odesa owned by an Azerbaijani company, implying that it was an attack not only on us but also on our relations and energy security.'
He noted that the attacks are going while he is in the US to meet with President Donald Trump.
'They are aware that a meeting is taking place today in Washington that will address the end of the war. We will have a discussion with President Trump about key issues,' he explained.
'Along with Ukraine, the leaders of the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Italy, Finland, the European Union, and Nato will participate in the conversation. Everyone seeks dignified peace and true security.'
Berating the Kremlin, Zelensky said that the Russian 'war machine' will continue to kill and destroy in its mission to pressure Ukraine, Europe, and humiliate all attempts at diplomacy.
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The Wire
30 minutes ago
- The Wire
India ‘Perplexed' By US Logic Behind Steep Tariffs, China ‘Stands With India'
Diplomacy External affairs minister S. Jaishankar also said that the US had urged India to help stabilise global energy markets, including by buying Russian oil. S. Jaishankar attends a joint news conference with his Russian opposite number Sergey Lavrov in Moscow on August 21, 2025. Photo: AP/PTI. New Delhi: India on Thursday (August 21) said it was 'perplexed' by Washington's justification for slapping steep new tariffs on Indian goods over its Russian oil imports, even as China publicly backed New Delhi, with ambassador Xu Feihong warning that 'silence or compromise only emboldens the bully' and declaring that Beijing 'firmly stands with India' against the US measures. The tariffs, announced earlier this month and due to take effect next week, will raise overall duties on Indian exports to the US to as high as 50%. They were defended in recent interventions by White House trade adviser Peter Navarro, writing in the Financial Times, and US treasury secretary Scott Bessent in an interview with CNBC. Both argued that India's discounted oil imports from Russia indirectly strengthened Moscow's war effort and alleged that politically connected Indian conglomerates, rather than ordinary citizens, were profiting. However, recent data shows that India's reliance on Russian crude has already declined. According to Bloomberg, Russia's seaborne crude shipments to India have plunged nearly threefold this month, falling to about 400,000 barrels a day this month from an average of 1.18 million earlier this year. Despite the decline, Russia still remained India's top oil supplier in July, though volumes were down 24.5% compared to June, Reuters reported. Speaking in Moscow after talks with Russian foreign minister Sergey Lavrov, external affairs minister S. Jaishankar dismissed the US argument as flawed. 'Quite honestly, we are very perplexed at the logic of the argument that you had referred to,' he told reporters in response to a question about Navarro's remarks. Jaishankar stressed that India was far from being Russia's largest energy customer. 'We are not the biggest purchasers of Russian oil, that is China. We are not the biggest purchasers of Russian LNG. I'm not sure, but I think that is the European Union. We are not a country which has the biggest trade surge with Russia after 2022. I think there are some countries to the south,' he said. While China is the largest buyer of Russian oil, the US has not imposed any specific tariffs on Beijing in response to its purchases of crude from Moscow. Both countries are currently in the middle of talks for a trade deal, with Washington postponing the imposition of country-specific tariffs on China until November. India has consistently maintained that its imports are guided by market factors and cited the necessity of securing cheap energy for its large population. Jaishankar also recalled that Washington itself had urged New Delhi to help stabilise global energy markets. 'We are a country where actually the Americans said for the last few years that we should do everything to stabilise the world energy markets, including buying oil from Russia. Incidentally, we also buy oil from America and that amount has been increasing,' he added. He noted that his talks with Lavrov and first deputy prime minister Denis Manturov had focused on preparing concrete outcomes for the annual summit between Prime Minister Narendra Modi and President Vladimir Putin later this year. Discussions covered negotiations on a free trade agreement with the Eurasian Economic Union, market access, trade barriers and cooperation in energy, fertilisers, infrastructure and skilled labour mobility. The minister also called on Putin at the end of his three-day visit. He additionally raised concern over Indian nationals recruited into the Russian Army. 'While many have been released, there are still some pending cases and some missing persons. We hope that the Russian side will expeditiously resolve these matters,' he said. According to official Indian figures, 126 Indians had been enlisted, of whom 96 have been discharged, 12 were killed and 16 remain missing or unaccounted for. China, meanwhile, went beyond merely opposing the US tariffs to explicitly aligning itself with India. In a speech in New Delhi to mark the upcoming Shanghai Cooperation Organisation (SCO) summit, ambassador Xu accused the US of undermining global trade rules. 'The United States has imposed tariffs of up to 50% on India and even threatened for more. China firmly opposes it,' he said. He warned that 'in the face of such acts, silence or compromise only emboldens the bully', and pledged that 'China will firmly stand with India to uphold the multilateral trading system with the World Trade Organisation at its core'. Xu also framed Sino-Indian cooperation as essential for the wider region. Calling China and India the 'double engines of economic growth in Asia', he urged the two neighbours to 'enhance strategic mutual trust' and work together to 'safeguard international fairness and justice' in the face of tariff wars and protectionism. Modi is expected to travel to China later this month for the SCO summit, his first visit in seven years. Ties between the two countries were largely frozen for four years during the military standoff in eastern Ladakh, which was resolved in October 2024. This article went live on August twenty-first, two thousand twenty five, at twenty-eight minutes past eleven at night. The Wire is now on WhatsApp. Follow our channel for sharp analysis and opinions on the latest developments. Advertisement
India Today
30 minutes ago
- India Today
Putin's Ukraine ceasefire demands: Control over Donbas, no NATO and western troops
Vladimir Putin is demanding that Ukraine give up all of the eastern Donbas region, renounce ambitions to join NATO, remain neutral and keep Western troops out of the country, three sources familiar with top-level Kremlin thinking told Russian president met Donald Trump in Alaska on Friday for the first Russia-US summit in more than four years and spent almost all of their three-hour closed meeting discussing what a compromise on Ukraine might look like, according to the sources who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive afterwards beside Trump, Putin said the meeting would hopefully open up the road to peace in Ukraine - but neither leader gave specifics about what they discussed. In the most detailed Russian-based reporting to date on Putin's offer at the summit, Reuters was able to outline the contours of what the Kremlin would like to see in a possible peace deal to end a war that has killed and injured hundreds of thousands of essence, the Russian sources said, Putin has compromised on territorial demands he laid out in June 2024, which required Kyiv to cede the entirety of the four provinces Moscow claims as part of Russia: Dontesk and Luhansk in eastern Ukraine - which make up the Donbas - plus Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the rejected those terms as tantamount to his new proposal, the Russian president has stuck to his demand that Ukraine completely withdraw from the parts of the Donbas it still controls, according to the three sources. 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"It is a matter of our country's survival, involving the strongest defensive lines."Joining NATO, meanwhile, is a strategic objective enshrined in the country's constitution and one which Kyiv sees as its most reliable security guarantee. Zelenskiy said it was not up to Russia to decide on the alliance's White House and NATO didn't immediately respond to requests for comment on the Russian scientist Samuel Charap, chair in Russia and Eurasia Policy at RAND, a U.S.-based global policy think-tank, said any requirement for Ukraine to withdraw from the Donbas remained a non-starter for Kyiv, both politically and strategically."Openness to 'peace' on terms categorically unacceptable to the other side could be more of a performance for Trump than a sign of a true willingness to compromise," he added. "The only way to test that proposition is to begin a serious process at the working level to hash out those details."advertisementTRUMP: PUTIN WANTS TO SEE IT ENDEDRussian forces currently control a fifth of Ukraine, an area about the size of the American state of Ohio, according to U.S. estimates and open-source three sources close to the Kremlin said the summit in the Alaskan city of Anchorage had ushered in the best chance for peace since the war began because there had been specific discussions about Russia's terms and Putin had shown a willingness to give ground."Putin is ready for peace - for compromise. That is the message that was conveyed to Trump," one of the people sources cautioned that it was unclear to Moscow whether Ukraine would be prepared to cede the remains of the Donbas, and that if it did not then the war would continue. Also unclear was whether or not the United States would give any recognition to Russian-held Ukrainian territory, they added.A fourth source said that though economic issues were secondary for Putin, he understood the economic vulnerability of Russia and the scale of the effort needed to go far further into has said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the war and be remembered as a "peacemaker president". He said on Monday he had begun arranging a meeting between the Russian and Ukrainian leaders, to be followed by a trilateral summit with the U.S. president."I believe Vladimir Putin wants to see it ended," Trump said beside Zelenskiy in the Oval office. "I feel confident we are going to get it solved."Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Thursday that Putin was prepared to meet Zelenskiy but that all issues had to be worked through first and there was a question about Zelenskiy's authority to sign a peace has repeatedly raised doubts about Zelenskiy's legitimacy as his term in office was due to expire in May 2024 but the war means no new presidential election has yet been held. Kyiv says Zelenskiy remains the legitimate leaders of Britain, France and Germany have said they are sceptical that Putin wants to end the GUARANTEES FOR UKRAINETrump's special envoy Steve Witkoff was instrumental in paving the way for the summit, and the latest drive for peace, according to two of the Russian met Putin in the Kremlin on August 6 with Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov. 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Business Standard
30 minutes ago
- Business Standard
EU, US set new steps to cut tariffs and boost transatlantic trade
The US and European Union took the next steps to formalize their trade pact, detailing plans that could reduce tariffs on European automobiles within weeks while opening the door to new potential discounts for steel and aluminum. The joint statement issued Thursday advances the preliminary deal announced a month ago, by including specific benchmarks for the EU to secure its promised sectoral tariff discounts on cars, pharmaceuticals and semiconductors, as well as new commitments to cooperate on economic security matters, food standards and digital trade. President Donald Trump has repeatedly praised the sweeping US-EU trade framework, extolling it as 'a big deal' in a Monday White House meeting with foreign leaders including European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen. The deal provides predictability and 'delivers for our citizens & companies, and strengthens transatlantic relations,' von der Leyen said in a post on the social-media platform X. The development underscores the nature of trade talks under Trump, with some initial, broad pronouncements of deals giving way to weeks or more of work to hammer out detailed agreements. Many of them are also tied to sweeping policy changes that could take time to materialize. For example, Trump already imposed a flat 15 per cent rate on most European goods — half the 30 per cent he'd previously threatened. But the US promise to extend that lower levy to autos and auto parts now hinges on the EU formally introducing a legislative proposal to eliminate a host of its own tariffs on US industrial goods and provide 'preferential market access' for some US seafood and agricultural products. Car Relief The statement outlines choreographed action on both sides of the Atlantic, with the US codifying reduced auto tariffs once the EU 'formally introduces the necessary legislative proposal to enact' its own promised tariff reductions. The discounted 15 per cent tariffs on European auto imports — down from the current 27.5 per cent — would be effective from the start of the same month that legislation is advanced. They could be in place within weeks, said a senior Trump administration official who briefed reporters on the initiative. The shift has been anxiously anticipated by some EU member states, particularly Germany, which exported $34.9 billion of new cars and auto parts to the US in 2024. The legislative trigger is designed to help ensure the EU delivers on its promised tariff reductions — and ensure the 27-nation bloc has sufficient pressure to obtain the political mandate needed to make the changes, the administration official said. The US is committing to apply lower most-favored-nation, or MFN, tariffs to a slew of other European products — including aircraft and aircraft parts, generic pharmaceuticals and their ingredients and some natural resources such as cork. More carve-outs could be added in future, the statement says, but for now the EU has not succeeded in receiving the same treatment for wines, spirits and medical devices. The US is also renewing its commitment to cap future sectoral tariffs on European pharmaceutical products, semiconductors and lumber at 15 per cent. Metals Quotas It's also opening the prospect for discounted rates on some steel, aluminum and derivative products under a quota system. That's a shift from the White House's stated plans in July, when the Trump administration insisted those metal tariffs would remain at 50 per cent, helping to lower trade deficits with the EU and bring revenue to US coffers. On steel and aluminum, the EU and US now assert they 'intend to consider the possibility to cooperate on ring-fencing their respective domestic markets from overcapacity, while ensuring secure supply chains between each other,' according to the joint statement. Under the terms agreed by the two sides, the EU faces a 15 per cent tariff on most of its exports. The US clarified in an executive order last month that the EU's rate would function as a ceiling, while other exporters' universal duty is currently in addition to existing MFN duties. Goods covered by the order that faced MFN levies above 15 per cent will continue to do so, but separate sectoral tariffs do not stack on top of each other or on top of the universal rates, said some of the people. QuickTake: EU-US Trade Deal - What Has and Hasn't Been Agreed? The document leaves unanswered major questions about how the EU might fulfill its promise to invest $600 billion in the US or purchase some $750 billion in US energy resources — including liquefied natural gas, oil and nuclear power products — through 2028. Private sector investments by European companies would be expected across strategic sectors in the US, including pharmaceuticals, semiconductors and advanced manufacturing, the senior administration official said. Meanwhile, the EU plans to substantially increase procurement of military and defense equipment from the US, according to the statement, and intends to buy at least $40 billion worth of US artificial intelligence chips. According to the joint statement, the EU intends to provide preferential market access for a range of seafood and non-sensitive agricultural goods imported from the US, including tree nuts, certain dairy products, fresh and processed fruits and vegetables, processed foods, planting seeds, soybean oil, pork and bison meat. Digital Trade In recent weeks, deliberations over the EU's digital services regulations and potential relief for some goods — including wine and spirits - were seen prolonging talks. The EU didn't secure lower rates for alcohol in the joint statement. The US and EU are pledging to address some of what the joint statement calls 'unjustified digital trade barriers,' with the bloc confirming that it will 'not adopt or maintain network usage fees.' A question-and-answer paper released Thursday by Brussels said it made no commitment on digital services regulation. 'The Joint Statement does not include any commitment on EU digital regulations,' it said. The EU has committed to work toward providing more 'flexibilities' in its levy on carbon-intensive imports set to kick in next year, the statement said, and it will seek to ensure its corporate sustainability due diligence and reporting requirements don't pose 'undue restrictions on transatlantic trade.' Potential changes could include eased compliance requirements for small- and medium-sized businesses, according to the statement.
