Zelenskyy meets Trump on NATO sidelines; Putin will skip BRICS in Brazil
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and United States President Donald Trump have held talks on the sidelines of the NATO summit in The Hague, with sanctions on Russia over its war in Ukraine, now in its fourth year, and arms procurement for Kyiv on the agenda.
Zelenskyy said he discussed how to achieve a 'real peace' and 'protect our people' with Trump on Wednesday.
The meeting, which reportedly lasted 50 minutes, was a second attempt after Zelenskyy failed to meet Trump earlier this month in Canada when the US president abruptly left a G7 summit as the Israel-Iran conflict raged, just days before the US militarily intervened with strikes on Iran's nuclear sites.
Speaking at news conference ending his participation at the NATO summit, Trump said it is possible that Russian President Vladimir Putin has territorial ambitions beyond Ukraine, adding that he plans to speak to Putin soon about ending the war.
Zelenskyy noted earlier that Moscow and Kyiv have not moved any closer to a ceasefire, saying, 'The Russians once again openly and absolutely cynically declared they are 'not in the mood' for a ceasefire. Russia wants to wage war. This means the pressure the world is applying isn't hurting them enough yet, or they are trying very hard to keep up appearances.'
NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said the security bloc's 'military edge is being aggressively challenged by a rapidly rearming Russia, backed by Chinese technology and armed with Iranian and North Korean weapons' before the summit.
On Putin, Rutte was blunt, 'I don't trust the guy,' he said, adding that the Russian leader wouldn't be happy with the outcome of the NATO summit.
NATO endorsed a higher defence spending goal of five percent of gross domestic product (GDP) by 2035 – a response to a demand by Trump and to Europeans' fears that Russia poses a growing threat to their security.
Putin to stay at home
In the meantime, Putin will not travel to next week's BRICS summit in Brazil as an arrest warrant issued against him by the International Criminal Court (ICC) still hangs over him, Kremlin foreign policy aide Yuri Ushakov said on Wednesday.
The ICC issued the warrant in 2023, just over a year after Russia launched its full-scale invasion and war against Ukraine. Putin is accused of deporting hundreds of children from Ukraine to Russia, a war crime.
Moscow vehemently denies allegations of war crimes, and the Kremlin, which did not sign the ICC's founding treaty, has dismissed the warrant as null and void. But weighing the risk that he might be arrested if he travels to another country that is a signatory to the ICC treaty, Putin has always erred on the side of caution, only travelling where he is safe from being apprehended.
Putin concluded an official visit to Mongolia last September undisturbed as his hosts ignored the arrest warrant, despite Mongolia being an ICC member.
The Kremlin on Wednesday also said the US was not yet ready to dismantle obstacles to the work of their respective embassies, as efforts to normalise relations between the two have stalled after initial signs that Trump's second term as US president would lead to a major thaw after tensions during the administration of former US President Joe Biden.
The war grinds on
In the latest developments on the ground in the war, Russian missile strikes on southeastern Ukraine killed 17 people in the city of Dnipro and injured more than 200, damaging dozens of buildings and infrastructure facilities on Tuesday.
Two people were killed in a Russian attack on the city of Samara.
Russia says it intercepted dozens of drones overnight across its territory, including the Voronezh region on the border of eastern Ukraine.
Russian forces say they captured the village of Dyliivka in Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, a key battleground dating back to the first eruption of conflict in 2014.
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Al Jazeera
39 minutes ago
- Al Jazeera
Rubiales to appeal fine for Hermoso forced kiss
Disgraced former Spanish Football Federation chief Luis Rubiales will appeal to the Supreme Court the confirmation of his $12,600 (10,800-euro) fine for forcibly kissing Jenni Hermoso, his lawyer said on Wednesday. After a keenly awaited trial that gripped the country, Spain's top criminal court in February found Rubiales guilty of sexual assault for the kiss at the 2023 Women's World Cup, which generated global outrage. The Audiencia Nacional also cleared him of a separate accusation of coercion for allegedly forcing Hermoso to downplay the incident afterwards. Both parties contested the sentence, which fell short of the two-and-a-half-year prison term sought by prosecutors and infuriated feminist groups that condemned the punishment as too lenient. Rubiales maintained that the kiss was a consensual 'peck' between friends celebrating during a medal ceremony after star forward Hermoso had just helped Spain beat England in the final in Sydney, denying any coercion. The court said in a statement on Wednesday that it had rejected the appeals of the defence team and prosecutors, maintaining the conviction and the fine. 'The kiss was not consensual', and Hermoso 'expressed her displeasure with what happened, as she herself confirmed in the trial, as well as her teammates', the court wrote. 'It cannot be said that a kiss in those circumstances was frequent or common or usual.' The court also confirmed that Rubiales, former women's national team manager Jorge Vilda and two former senior federation officials, Albert Luque and Ruben Rivera, were cleared of the coercion charge. Rubiales's lawyer, Olga Tubau, told the AFP news agency that he would appeal the verdict at the Supreme Court. A separate request by the prosecutors to rerun the trial, notably due to doubts over the judge's impartiality, was dismissed. The court also maintained a ban on Rubiales from going within a 200-metre (656-foot) radius of Hermoso and from communicating with her for one year. The kiss led to a global uproar that forced Rubiales to relinquish his post, saw him banned from all football-related activity for three years and plunged the federation into a prolonged period of turmoil. The affair made Hermoso, the all-time top scorer for the national women's team, an icon of the fight against sexism and macho culture in sport. Rubiales is also embroiled in an investigation into alleged financial irregularities totalling millions of euros related to the Spanish Super Cup's relocation to Saudi Arabia, which involved a company owned by Barcelona great Gerard Pique. Rubiales has dismissed the allegations as 'falsehoods'.
Qatar Tribune
an hour ago
- Qatar Tribune
Trump says he's had a ‘very nice' meeting with Zelensky
dpa The Hague US President Donald Trump has said his meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on the sidelines of a NATO summit 'couldn't have been nicer.' When asked during a post-summit press conference about his meeting with the Ukrainian leader, Trump said it was 'very nice,' admitting 'we had a little rough times sometimes.' Trump and Zelensky clashed in a tense and highly public Oval Office meeting in February, broadcast live, when the US president accused the Ukrainain of 'gambling with World War III.' After that meeting, Washington temporarily suspended military aid to Ukraine including vital battlefield intelligence, and a minerals deal was initially left unsigned. Relations appeared to have since thawed, with Trump and Zelensky meeting one-on-one on the sidelines of pope Francis' funeral in April. Unlike at last year's summit, Zelensky was not invited to attend formal consultations among leaders but only joined events on the sidelines, in what is believed to reflect US opposition to Ukrainian NATO membership. In a post on X, Zelensky described the meeting as 'long and substantive,' saying more details would follow.
Qatar Tribune
an hour ago
- Qatar Tribune
NATO defence spending hike ‘monumental win' for Trump
dpa The Hague US President Donald Trump on Wednesday hailed a decision by NATO allies to spend 5% of gross domestic product (GDP) on defence and related expenditures by 2035 as his personal major success. 'It's a monumental win for the United States because we were carrying much more than our fair share,' said Trump after a summit of the alliance in The Hague. 'This is the safety of Europe, the safety of the world,' he stated. NATO leaders pledged to more than double military expenditure to finance the Western defence alliance's biggest rearmament programme since the Cold War, amid concerns that Moscow could be ready to attack a NATO country within a few years. 'We must take the threat posed by Russia's militant revisionism seriously and we must remember that we can defend ourselves so that we do not have to defend ourselves,' said German Chancellor Friedrich Merz after the summit. In a declaration adopted at the two-day gathering, allies pledge to 'invest 5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements' by 2035, in light of 'profound security threats and challenges, in particular the long-term threat posed by Russia to Euro-Atlantic security and the persistent threat of terrorism.' Allies will spend 3.5% of GDP annually on core defence requirements, such as weapons and troops, and an additional 1.5% on related expenses, including infrastructure and innovation. 'Allies agree to submit annual plans showing a credible, incremental path to reach this goal,' the statement says. According to the agreement, the 'trajectory and balance of spending' is to be reviewed in 2029. Until now, NATO countries have been obliged to spend at least 2% of their economic output on defence, a goal that all member states are only set to meet this year. 'This is day one. We now shift from agreeing on what we need to rolling up our sleeves and making this new plan a reality,' said NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte. The new spending target represents a huge challenge for many of the 32 NATO states, and has not come to pass without opposition. Spain, one of the biggest laggards when it comes to defence spending, publicly opposed the plans just days before the summit in the Netherlands, saying it had not committed to the new target as it was not compatible with its welfare state system. But Madrid has since assured Rutte that it can meet new NATO capability targets - meaning Spain's specific defence contributions - by spending less than 3.5% of GDP, in what is believed to be a work-around engineered to ensure the unanimity required for the new spending pledge. Asked about the Spanish opposition, Trump threatened Madrid with new tariffs over the country's low defence spending. French President Emmanuel Macron called for an end to the ongoing trade dispute between the US and Europe following NATO's agreement on higher defence spending. NATO allies also reaffirmed their 'ironclad commitment' to Article 5 of the NATO Treaty - which stipulates that an attack on one member shall be treated like an attack against them all - following signs of dwindling US interest in Europe's security. Allies said they 'remain united and steadfast in our resolve to protect our one billion citizens, defend the Alliance, and safeguard our freedom and democracy.' The renewed commitment was 'a clear sign of strength to all our potential opponents,' said Germany's Merz. And Trump seemed appeased by the new spending pledge, assuaging concerns that the US might not heed Article 5 if NATO allies fail to meet the target. 'I left here differently,' he said. 'I left here saying that these people really love their countries. It's not a rip-off. And we're here to help them protect their country.'
