Ukraine's parliament extends martial law until August
KYIV: Ukraine's parliament has extended martial law until August, lawmakers said, delaying the timing of new elections that the United States and Russia have been pushing for. As the war with Russia rages on, an overwhelming majority of 357 deputies on Wednesday supported the extension. It allows the country to continue mobilizing troops and suspends the election cycle. President Volodymyr Zelensky has faced pressure to hold elections from US President Donald Trump, who called him a dictator — criticism that prompted Ukrainians to rally around Zelensky and boosted his approval ratings. Russian President Vladimir Putin has repeatedly questioned Zelensky's legitimacy after his term ended in 2024. But in line with the Ukrainian legislation, elections are impossible during martial law. As peace talks led by the Trump administration created hopes for a potential ceasefire and eventual elections, some Ukrainian opposition politicians started criticizing Zelensky more openly. Petro Poroshenko, a former president and leader of the largest opposition party, 'European Solidarity,' said there was no doubt martial law should be extended, especially after deadly Russian strikes on Sumy and Kryvyi Rih this month. But he accused Zelensky of attempting to strengthen his powers during martial law. 'I want to stress that we should recognize the obvious — the government has started to abuse martial law, using it not only to defend the country, but to build an authoritarian regime,' Poroshenko said during parliamentary debates on Tuesday. However Poroshenko's party overwhelmingly supported the extension of martial law, with only one lawmaker from the party voting against it.
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Arab News
6 hours ago
- Arab News
Russian strike kills 5 in Ukraine, including a 1-year-old, hours after Trump-Putin call
PRYLUKY, Ukraine: At least five people, including a 1-year-old child, his mother and grandmother, were killed Thursday in a nighttime Russian drone attack on the northern Ukrainian city of Pryluky, officials said. Six drones hit a residential area in the city shortly before dawn, injuring nine others, according to authorities. The child killed was the grandson of the local fire chief, Ukraine's Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. The fire chief, identified by local officials as 50-year-old Oleksandr Lebid, 'arrived to respond to the aftermath right at his own home,' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in a post on Telegram. 'It turned out that a Shahed drone hit his house.' The attack came just hours after US President Donald Trump spoke by phone with Russian President Vladimir Putin. According to Trump, Putin said 'very strongly' that Russia will retaliate for Ukraine's stunning drone attacks on Russian military airfields on Sunday. US-led diplomatic efforts to stop the more than 3-year-long war have delivered no significant progress, and the grinding war of attrition has continued unabated. Child's mother feared drone attacks The mother of the 1-year-old killed in Pryluky was a police officer called Daryna Shyhyda, Ukraine's National Police said. 'Today our hearts are scorched by pain,' the police force wrote on Telegram. 'This is not just a loss — it is three generations of life uprooted.' Liudmyla Horbunova, 55, who lives across the street from where the Shahed drone hit, said Shyhyda had moved with her son last weekend to her parents' house from her home in Kyiv because she was scared of potential Russian attacks on the capital. 'She ran away from Shaheds in Kyiv, but they found her here, in Pryluky,' Horbunova told The Associated Press. Firefighters worked through charred debris and extinguished the remains of a fire that engulfed the home of Shyhyda's parents, leaving only a brick carcass and scattered toys, clothes and a family photo book. Horrific footage from Ukraine's city of Kharkiv last night, as Russians indiscriminately target densely populated high-rise buildings. — Kyiv Insider (@KyivInsider) June 5, 2025 Drones struck across regions Pryluky, which had a prewar population of around 50,000 people, lies about 100 kilometers (60 miles) east of Kyiv, the capital. The city is far from the front line and does not contain any known military assets. The last time Pryluky was struck was in November last year, when a Russian missile hit an administrative building and injured one person. Zelensky said a total of 103 drones and one ballistic missile targeted multiple Ukrainian regions overnight, including Donetsk, Kharkiv, Odesa, Sumy, Chernihiv, Dnipro and Kherson. 'This is another massive strike,' Zelensky said. 'It is yet another reason to impose the strongest possible sanctions and apply pressure collectively.' US peace effort remains stalled Zelensky, who has accepted a US ceasefire proposal and offered to meet with Putin in an attempt to break the stalemate in negotiations, wants more international sanctions on Russia to force it to accept a settlement. Putin has shown no willingness to meet with Zelensky, however, and has indicated no readiness to compromise. Germany's new leader Friedrich Merz was due to meet with President Donald Trump in Washington on Thursday as he works to keep the US on board with Western diplomatic and military support for Ukraine. Ukraine's top presidential aide, Andriy Yermak, met with senior American officials in Washington on Wednesday and called for greater US pressure on Russia, accusing the Kremlin of deliberately stalling ceasefire talks and blocking progress toward peace, according to a statement on the presidential website. Yermak, who traveled to the US as part of a Ukrainian delegation, met with senior American officials to bolster support for Ukraine's defense and humanitarian priorities. He said Ukraine urgently needs stronger air defense capabilities. More people wounded in Kharkiv Hours later, 19 people were injured in a Russian drone strike on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv. Those hurt included children, a pregnant woman, and a 93-year-old woman, regional Gov. Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. At around 1:05 a.m., Shahed-type drones struck two apartment buildings in the city's Slobidskyi district, causing fires and destroying several private vehicles. 'By launching attacks while people sleep in their homes, the enemy once again confirms its tactic of insidious terror,' Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. Russian aircraft also dropped four powerful glide bombs on the southern city of Kherson, injuring at least three people, regional authorities said.
Saudi Gazette
15 hours ago
- Saudi Gazette
Putin will seek revenge for Ukraine drone attack, warns Trump
WASHINGTON — Vladimir Putin has said he will have to respond to Ukraine's major drone attack on Russian airbases, US President Donald Trump has warned. Speaking after a phone call with the Russian president, Trump said: "President Putin did say, and very strongly, that he will have to respond to the recent attack on the airfields." Russian officials declined to confirm this on Wednesday night, but Moscow had earlier said that military options were "on the table" for its response. Trump warned in a social media post that the phone call, which lasted more than an hour, would not "lead to immediate peace" between Russia and Ukraine. Russia's RIA Novosti, a state-owned news agency, said Putin told Trump that Ukraine has tried to "disrupt" the negotiations and that the government in Kyiv has "essentially turned into a terrorist organisation". The two also "exchanged views on the prospects for restoring cooperation between the countries, which has enormous potential," it conversation between the two leaders marks the first since Ukraine launched a surprise attack using smuggled drones to strike Russian airbases on 1 June, targeting what it said were nuclear-capable long-range told Putin in the call that the US was not warned in advance of the attack, Russian presidential aide Yury Ushakov Minister of Strategic Industries Yuriy Sak told Radio 4's World Tonight programme his country had hoped the US would respond to the "incessant Russian missile and drone attacks" with "more sanctions and with more pressure".Last week, Trump appeared to set a two-week deadline for Putin, threatening to change how the US is responding to Russia if he believed Putin was still "tapping" him along on peace efforts in comment was one of a string of critical remarks by Trump, who on 26 May said that Putin had gone "absolutely crazy" and was "playing with fire" after Russia escalated drone and missile attacks on cities in Ukraine, killing dozens of made no mention of a deadline or his previous remarks in Wednesday's post on his Truth Social a post on X, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky talked about the scale Russian attacks on his country since Moscow's full-scale invasion in 2022."Many have spoken with Russia at various levels. But none of these talks have brought a reliable peace, or even stopped the war," Zelensky wrote."If the world reacts weakly to Putin's threats, he interprets it as a readiness to turn a blind eye to his actions," he Wednesday, a delegation of Ukrainian officials including Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko and Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak were set to meet with US senators in Washington to discuss arms purchases and efforts to stop the a social media post, Yermak said that the delegation planned to discuss "defense support and the situation on the battlefield", sanctions against Russia and a previously signed reconstruction investment post also comes just days after a second round of direct peace talks in Istanbul between the warring sides ended without a major breakthrough, although they agreed to swap more prisoners of negotiators said Russia rejected an "unconditional ceasefire" — a key demand of Kyiv and its Western allies including the Russian team said they had proposed multi-day ceasefires in "certain areas" of the frontline in Ukraine, although they gave no further has previously — and repeatedly — said he believes the two sides are making progress, despite ongoing fighting on the frontline and aerial attacks carried out in both Russia and on Wednesday, Putin also had a call with the US-born Pope Leo Vatican confirmed that "particular attention" was paid to peace in the Ukraine war.1:28Watch: Footage shows attack drones homing in on their targets as they sit on the Putin's call with Trump, the two leaders also discussed Iran. Trump said he believed the two "were in agreement" that "Iran cannot have a nuclear weapon".The US reportedly proposed Iran halt all production of enriched uranium — which can be used to make reactor fuel but also nuclear weapons — and instead rely on a regional consortium for has not yet responded to the plan presented at talks last to Trump, Putin "suggested that he will participate in discussions with Iran and that he could, perhaps, be helpful in getting this brought to a rapid conclusion"."It is my opinion that Iran has been slow walking their decision on this very important matter," Trump wrote. "We will need a definitive answer in a very short period of time."Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamanei has criticised the US proposal and said it will not stop enriching uranium. — BBC
Arab News
a day ago
- Arab News
Ukraine's Zelensky suggests truce until meeting with Putin can be arranged
KYIV: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Wednesday proposed implementing a ceasefire until such time as a meeting can be arranged with Russian President Vladimir Putin. 'My proposal, which I believe our partners can support, is that we propose to Russians a ceasefire until the leaders meet,' Zelensky told a briefing in Kyiv. June 2 peace talks with Russia in Istanbul made little progress toward ending the three-year-old war in Ukraine, apart from an exchange of proposals and a plan for a major swap of prisoners of war, which Zelensky said would take place this weekend.
