Russia launches fresh wave of strikes on western Ukraine
The prospect of a trilateral meeting mediated by the US came after US President Donald Trump met Putin in Alaska, before hosting Zelensky and other European leaders at the White House.Zelensky has stated his willingness to meet Putin in "any format". Hungarian Foreign Minister Peter Szijjarto offered Budapest as a possible venue for such a summit on Thursday.Hungary's Prime Minister Viktor Orban has maintained close ties with Moscow and has frustrated EU efforts to support Ukraine in the war with Russia in the past - so may not be viewed by all as a neutral host.Speaking to reporters on Thursday morning, Zelensky did not discuss Hungary's offer - but said he had asked Trump to pressure Hungary into unblocking negotiations for Ukraine to join the EU."Trump promised that his team would work on this," he said.The Ukrainian leader also said that Russian forces were massing on the southern front line in the Zaporizhzhia region - one of four regions of Ukraine that Russia now claims as its own."We can see that they continue transferring part of their troops from the Kursk direction to Zaporizhzhia."Ukraine's air force counted 614 aerial vehicles among Russia's overnight attacks, 577 of which it said it had stopped.Foreign Minister Sybiha said this included a mix of drones, hypersonic, ballistic, and cruise missiles."One of the missiles struck a major American electronics manufacturer in our westernmost region, leading to serious damage and casualties," he wrote on social media on Thursday.
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Reuters
25 minutes ago
- Reuters
Oil edges up on stalled Russia-Ukraine peace talks, strong US demand
NEW YORK/LONDON, Aug 21 (Reuters) - Oil prices edged up on Thursday as Russia and Ukraine blamed each other for a stalled peace process, and as earlier U.S. data showed signs of strong demand in the top oil consuming nation. Brent crude futures were up 56 cents, or about 0.8%, at $67.40 a barrel at 12:08 p.m. EDT (1608 GMT), having hit a two-week high earlier in the session. U.S. West Texas Intermediate crude futures were up 53 cents, or 0.9%, at $63.24 a barrel. Both contracts climbed over 1% in the prior session. The path to peace in Ukraine remained uncertain, turning oil traders cautious after a selloff over the past two weeks on hopes that U.S. President Donald Trump would soon negotiate a diplomatic end to Russia's war with its neighbor. Both Moscow and Kyiv have since blamed each other for stalling the peace process. Russia on Thursday launched a major air attack near Ukraine's border with the European Union, while Ukraine claimed to have hit a Russian oil refinery. "Some geopolitical risk premium is slowly being pumped back into the market," oil trading advisory firm Ritterbusch and Associates told clients on Thursday. The uncertainty in the peace talks means that the possibility of tighter sanctions on Russia has resurfaced, said Tamas Varga, an analyst at PVM Oil Associates. Oil prices were also supported by a larger-than-expected drawdown from U.S. crude stockpiles in the last week, indicating strong demand. U.S. crude stockpiles fell 6 million barrels in the week ended August 15, the U.S. Energy Information Administration reported on Wednesday, while analysts had expected a draw of 1.8 million barrels. Investors were also looking to the Jackson Hole economic conference in Wyoming for signals on a possible Fed interest rate cut next month. The annual gathering of central bankers begins on Thursday, with Fed Chair Jerome Powell scheduled to speak on Friday.
Telegraph
25 minutes ago
- Telegraph
Russia is the new dividing line on Britain's Right
The Right has a problem with Russia. With his usual succinctness and sagacity, Charles Moore last week gave expression to an anxiety that has been exercising many conservatives: 'If perverted liberalism leads to neo-Marxism, could not perverted patriotism lead to neo-fascism?' Could Moore be right? Nigel Farage is our equivalent of Oswald Mosley, who also trumpeted his patriotism – though Farage is a more serious and more successful politician than Mosley ever was. That makes him also much more dangerous. Farage has a long record of excusing or downplaying the threat posed by Putin. He actually defended the Trump administration's bullying of Zelensky in the Oval Office. We may be sceptical about the 'Coalition of the Willing', but at least Nato's European allies are now rearming on an unprecedented scale and presenting Putin with a united front. Would that be happening under PM Farage? Pull the other one, as he might say. With JD Vance and his British ally James Orr in mind, Moore mused: 'How did the national conservatism of Edmund Burke get mixed up with the Putinist opportunism of Viktor Orban's government in Hungary?' In response, Dr Orr protested indignantly that he, Vance and other National Conservatives were in no sense apologists for Putin. Yet he claims that more people are prosecuted for free speech offences in Britain than in Russia. I'm not sure the late Alexei Navalny would agree. Orr champions the 'principled realism' of the 'New Right', arguing that 'the time has come to rally behind politicians who will put Kent before Kyiv'. Let it first be said that this is an argument among people of goodwill, most of whom probably agree more than they disagree. British conservatives, whether 'Old' or 'New', are in favour of freedom (notably of speech and of the press), King and country, the rule of law and parliamentary democracy. Religious or not, they cherish the Judaeo-Christian foundations of our society and state. Abroad, conservatives tend to support other nations who broadly share our values, particularly if they are forced to defend themselves, at the risk of being accused by Orr of suffering from 'Ukraine Brain'. Finally, conservatives rely on history as a guide in war and peace, even if (as Orr claims) 'Right-wing Zoomers' sneer at them as victims of 'World War Two Brain'. Having played a minor part in the fall of the Berlin Wall, I plead guilty to Second World War, Cold War and Ukraine brain. This is the historical context of today's politics and diplomacy. Any attempt to play down the continuity and relevance of these conflicts is as foolish as it is unconservative. And dressing up an abdication of moral responsibility for Ukraine as 'principled realism' strikes me as at best wrong-headed, at worst a betrayal of our island story. Alas, that is exactly what is meant by 'putting Kent before Kyiv'. Defending Kent is not a matter of fortifying the Channel coastline. The latter-day Hitlers and Napoleons threaten our way of life without setting foot here. If we sacrifice other peoples to appease the monstrous ideology propagated by Putin, we will be incapable of defending ourselves. It is actually Kyiv that is defending Kent, not the other way round. The late Sir Roger Scruton, the patron saint of the National Conservative movement, understood all this better than his acolytes. Having devoted much of his life to helping dissidents in the former Soviet empire, he knew who the enemy was: the ex-communist secret policeman who is now trying to rebuild that empire. But Scruton's political romanticism has been co-opted by Putin's chief ally in Europe, Viktor Orban. His goulash authoritarianism has helped to sanitise Putin's dictatorship – a soft cop, hard cop routine. The nationalist Right in Europe and the Maga Right in America have danced to their tune, seeking to diminish Zelensky's status as the symbolic hero of the free world. They promote their allies with money and influence. Elon Musk's meddling in the German election failed to stop the anti-Russian conservative Friedrich Merz being elected, but the Trump loyalist Kristi Noem helped the hardline nationalist Karol Nawrocki to win the Polish presidency. Reform's intellectual praetorian guard is a motley band, ranging from the former academic and social media influencer Matt Goodwin to a new Millbank-based think tank, the Centre for a Better Britain (CBB), chaired by the aforementioned Orr. They have a blueprint: the Heritage Foundation's Project 2025, which has set Trump's agenda. Reform's in-house thinkers hope to play an analogous role in a Faragist future. They will doubtless dismiss any similarities between Trump's ersatz authoritarianism and the Putinist original. Yet Russia remains a problem for the Right, not least in Britain. In one corner, Kemi Badenoch and the Conservatives, including most centre-Right intellectuals, remain staunch allies of Ukraine. They reject Putin and all his works. Meanwhile Farage and his camp lean towards authoritarian solutions at home and an isolationist policy abroad. My guess is that the British public, given adequate time and a level playing field, will opt for Kemi's inclusive patriotism, which precludes any hint of proto-fascism, rather than Farage's exclusive nationalism, which does not. Will the field actually be level, though?
BreakingNews.ie
25 minutes ago
- BreakingNews.ie
Russian attack hits American factory in Ukraine during US-led push for peace
Russia has launched a rare drone and missile attack on western Ukraine, officials said, striking targets including an American-owned electronics plant and injecting further uncertainty into the US-led peace efforts. The aerial assault on a part of Ukraine that has largely avoided such attacks was one of Russia's biggest this year and came amid Moscow's objections to key aspects of proposals that could end the fighting after Russia's February 2022 invasion of its neighbour. Advertisement US President Donald Trump discussed the war with Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin in Alaska last week before hosting Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders at the White House on Monday. Donald Trump (Seth Wenig/AP) Mr Trump last month questioned Mr Putin's commitment to ending the war, saying the Russian leader 'talks nice and then he bombs everybody'. In a social media post on Thursday, the US president criticised his predecessor, Joe Biden, for not providing Ukraine with the weaponry it needs to 'fight back'. 'It is very hard, if not impossible, to win a war without attacking an invaders country,' Trump wrote. 'It's like a great team in sports that has a fantastic defense, but is not allowed to play offensive. There is no chance of winning! It is like that with Ukraine and Russia.' Advertisement Russia has fired nearly 1,000 long-range drones and missiles at Ukraine since Monday's White House talks, according to Ukrainian tallies. European countries are discussing how they can deploy military assets to deter any post-war Russian assault on Ukraine, but the Kremlin will not accept the deployment of any troops from Nato countries, and foreign minister Sergey Lavrov said on Wednesday that making security arrangements for Ukraine without Moscow's involvement was pointless. Mr Putin is ready to meet with Mr Zelensky to discuss peace terms, Mr Lavrov said on Thursday, but only after key issues have been worked out by senior officials in what could be a protracted negotiating process because the two sides remain far apart. Ukrainian and European leaders have accused Mr Putin of stalling in the peace efforts in the hopes that his bigger army, which has been making slow advances, can capture more Ukrainian land. Advertisement Volodymyr Zelensky condemned the overnight attack which left one person dead (Jacquelyn Martin/AP) US secretary of state Marco Rubio plans to host a conference call on Thursday with the national security advisers of European countries expected to play a role in future security guarantees for Ukraine, a senior US official said. Military leaders from Ukraine, the US, the UK, Finland, France, Germany and Italy met on Tuesday and Wednesday in Washington to work out military options, said Joseph Holstead, a spokesman for the US Joint Chiefs of Staff. A source said 'everything is being considered and nothing is being ruled out' regarding security guarantees for Ukraine, apart from US boots on the ground. Military chiefs and their staffs are looking at options including 'how big' the security guarantee is and what happens if it is implemented with or without a ceasefire, the official said, noting that European defence chiefs acknowledged it is their 'responsibility to secure Europe'. Advertisement Russia launched 574 drones and 40 ballistic and cruise missiles overnight, the Ukrainian Air Force said. The attack mostly targeted western regions of the country where much of the military aid provided by Ukraine's western allies is believed to be stored. The strikes killed at least one person and injured 15 others, according to officials. Mr Zelensky condemned the attack amid the push for peace, saying it was carried out 'as if nothing were changing at all'. A US electronics plant near the Hungarian border was struck, according to Andy Hunder, president of the American Chamber of Commerce in Ukraine. The Flex factory is one of the biggest American investments in Ukraine, he told the Associated Press. Russian President Vladimir Putin (Vyacheslav Prokofyev, Sputnik, Kremlin Pool Photo/AP) At the moment of impact, 600 night shift workers were on the premises, and six were injured, Mr Hunder added. Russian attacks on Ukraine since it launched its invasion have damaged property belonging to more than half of the chamber's roughly 600 members, he said. Advertisement 'The message is clear: Russia is not looking for peace. Russia is attacking American business in Ukraine, humiliating American business,' Mr Hunder said. Russia's Defence Ministry said the strikes targeted 'enterprises of the Ukrainian military-industrial complex'. It claimed the attack hit drone factories, storage depots and missile launch sites, as well as areas where Ukrainian troops were gathered. Russia has repeatedly denied targeting civilian areas of Ukraine. In the western city of Lviv, one person was killed and three were injured as the attack damaged 26 residential buildings, a nursery school and administrative buildings, regional head Maksym Kozytskyi wrote on Telegram. The regional prosecutor's office said three Russian cruise missiles with cluster munitions struck the city. Moscow has shown no signs of pursuing meaningful negotiations to end the war, Mr Zelensky said. He urged the international community to respond with stronger pressure on Moscow, including tougher sanctions and tariffs. On Wednedsay he said plans for security guarantees will become clearer by the end of next week, and he then expects to be ready to hold direct talks with Mr Putin for the first time since the full-scale invasion. The talks could also be conducted in a trilateral format alongside Mr Trump, the Ukrainian president said.
