Three children among 23 wounded in Russia's drone attack on Kharkiv, Ukraine says
Hashtags
Try Our AI Features
Explore what Daily8 AI can do for you:
Comments
No comments yet...
Related Articles
Asharq Al-Awsat
11 hours ago
- Asharq Al-Awsat
Putin Agreed to Let US, Europe Offer NATO-Style Security Protections for Ukraine, Trump Envoy Says
Special US envoy Steve Witkoff said Sunday that Russian leader Vladimir Putin agreed at his summit with President Donald Trump to allow the US and European allies to offer Ukraine a security guarantee resembling NATO's collective defense mandate as part of an eventual deal to end the 3 1/2-year war. "We were able to win the following concession: That the United States could offer Article 5-like protection, which is one of the real reasons why Ukraine wants to be in NATO," he said on CNN's "State of the Union." He added that it "was the first time we had ever heard the Russians agree to that." European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen, speaking at a news conference in Brussels with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, said that "we welcome President Trump's willingness to contribute to Article 5-like security guarantees for Ukraine. and the 'Coalition of the willing' -- including the European Union -- is ready to do its share." Witkoff, offering some of the first details of what was discussed at Friday's summit in Alaska, said the two sides agreeing to "robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing." He added that Russia said that it would make a legislative commitment not to go after any additional territory in Ukraine. Zelenskyy thanked the United States for recent signals that Washington is willing to support security guarantees for Ukraine, but said the details remained unclear. "It is important that America agrees to work with Europe to provide security guarantees for Ukraine," he said, "But there are no details how it will work, and what America's role will be, Europe's role will be and what the EU can do, and this is our main task, we need security to work in practice like Article 5 of NATO, and we consider EU accession to be part of the security guarantees." Witkoff defended Trump's decision to abandon his push for Russian to agree to an immediate ceasefire, saying the president had pivoted toward a peace deal because so much progress was made. "We covered almost all the other issues necessary for a peace deal," Witkoff said, without elaborating. "We began to see some moderation in the way they're thinking about getting to a final peace deal," he said. Secretary of State Marco Rubio insisted there would be "additional consequences" as Trump warned before meeting with Putin, if they failed to reach a ceasefire. But Rubio noted that there wasn't going to be any sort of deal on a truce reached when Ukraine wasn't at the talks. "Now, ultimately, if there isn't a peace agreement, if there isn't an end of this war, the president's been clear, there are going to be consequences," Rubio said on ABC's "This we're trying to avoid that. And the way we're trying to avoid those consequences is with an even better consequence, which is peace, the end of hostilities." Rubio, who is also Trump's national security adviser, said he did not believe issuing new sanctions on Russia would force Putin to accept a ceasefire, noting that the latter isn't off the table but that "the best way to end this conflict is through a full peace deal." "The minute you issue new sanctions, your ability to get them to the table, our ability to get them to table will be severely diminished," Rubio said on NBC's "Meet the Press." He also said "we're not at the precipice of a peace agreement" and that getting there would not be easy and would take a lot of work. "We made progress in the sense that we identified potential areas of agreement, but there remains some big areas of disagreement. So we're still a long ways off," Rubio said. Zelenskyy and Europeans leaders are scheduled to meet Monday with Trump at the White House. They heard from the president after his meeting with Putin. "I think everybody agreed that we had made progress. Maybe not enough for a peace deal, but we are on the path for the first time," Witkoff said. He added: "The fundamental issue, which is some sort of land swap, which is obviously ultimately in the control of the Ukrainians -- that could not have been discussed at this meeting" with Putin. "We intend to discuss it on Monday. Hopefully we have some clarity on it and hopefully that ends up in a peace deal very, very soon."
Al Arabiya
12 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Zelenskyy says current front lines should be the start for negotiations
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, speaking in Brussels on Sunday, said the current front lines in his country's war against Russia should be the basis for peace talks. 'We need real negotiations, which means we can start where the front line is now,' Zelenskyy said, adding that European leaders supported this. Zelenskyy was speaking ahead of a virtual meeting with European leaders and before he travels to Washington to meet with Donald Trump following the US leader's summit with Russian President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday. Zelenskyy reiterated his position that it was necessary to establish a ceasefire in order to then negotiate a final deal. 'It's important that Washington is with us,' the Ukrainian leader said. He will be accompanied by several European allies for Monday's talks with Trump. Zelenskyy said that Ukraine did not yet know all the demands made by Putin at the meeting with Trump on Friday, adding that it would take a long time to go over them -- and that this was not possible under 'the pressure of weapons.'
Al Arabiya
13 hours ago
- Al Arabiya
Trump, Putin agreed to ‘robust security guarantees' for Ukraine: Witkoff
US President Donald Trump and his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin agreed to 'robust security guarantees' for Ukraine during their high-stakes summit in Alaska, a top White House envoy said Sunday. 'We agreed to robust security guarantees that I would describe as game-changing,' Steve Witkoff said on CNN. He also said that Russia has made 'some concessions' with regard to five Ukrainian regions central to Moscow's war against that country during the high-stakes Alaska summit between Trump and Putin. 'The Russians made some concessions at the table with regard to all five of those regions,' Witkoff said, in an apparent reference to the Donetsk, Lugansk, Kherson, Zaporizhzhia and Crimea.
