Kremlin on Trump's 'playing with fire' comments: National interests paramount for Putin
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The Star
20 minutes ago
- The Star
Russia strikes Kharkiv with ballistic missile, injures 11, Ukraine says
KHARKIV (Reuters) -Russia hit a residential area in Kharkiv with a ballistic missile, injuring at least 11 people, Ukrainian authorities said late on Sunday, as the U.S. president presses Kyiv to accept a quick deal to end the war that Moscow had started. Among the injured in Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city, was a 13-year-old girl, Oleh Synehubov, governor of the broader Kharkiv region said on the Telegram messaging app. Kharkiv, which lies in northeastern Ukraine near the border with Russia, has been the target of regular Russian drone and missile attacks since the start of the war that Moscow launched with a full-scale invasion in February 2022. "The blast wave shattered windows in nearby apartment buildings," Ukraine's State Emergency Service said on Telegram. It added that some residents had to be evacuated. Reuters' witnesses saw medics attending to residents on a street and rescuers inspecting damage in residential buildings. A 57-year-old woman was injured in Russia's guided aerial bomb strike on the northeastern region of Sumy that also damaged at least a dozen residential houses and an educational institution building, regional authorities said. "The enemy continues to deliberately target civilian infrastructure in the Sumy region — treacherously, at night," Oleh Hryhorov, head of the regional administration in Sumy, said on Telegram. Reuters could not independently verify what weapons Russia used. There was no immediate comment from Moscow. Both sides deny targeting civilians in their strikes, but thousands of people have died, the vast majority of them Ukrainian. President Donald Trump, who hosted President Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday for bilateral talks aimed at ending the war, has urged Kyiv to make a deal with Moscow, stating, "Russia is a very big power, and they're not." (Additional reporting by Bogdan Kobuchey in Kyiv and Lidia Kelly in Melbourne, Writing by Lidia Kelly in Melbourne; editing by Diane Craft)
Malay Mail
20 minutes ago
- Malay Mail
Zelensky heads to Washington as Trump pressures Ukraine on peace deal
KYIV, Aug 18 — Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky flies to Washington today under heavy US pressure to agree a swift end to Russia's war in Ukraine but determined to defend Kyiv's interests — without sparking a second Oval Office bust-up with Donald Trump. The US president invited Zelensky to Washington after rolling out the red carpet for Vladimir Putin, Kyiv's arch foe, at a summit in Alaska that shocked many in Ukraine, where hundreds of thousands have died since Russia's 2022 invasion. The Alaska talks failed to produce the ceasefire that Trump sought, and the US leader said on Saturday that he now wanted a rapid, full-fledged peace deal and that Kyiv should accept because 'Russia is a very big power, and they're not'. The blunt rhetoric throws the onus squarely back on Zelensky, putting him in a perilous position as he returns to Washington for the first time since his talks with Trump in the Oval Office in February descended into acrimony. The US president upbraided him in front of world media at the time, saying Zelensky did not 'hold the cards' in negotiations and that what he described as Kyiv's intransigence risked triggering World War Three. Trump's pursuit of a quick deal defies intense diplomacy by the European allies and Ukraine to convince him that a ceasefire should come first and not — as sought by the Kremlin — once a settlement is agreed. A source familiar with the matter told Reuters that European leaders had also been invited to today's meeting between Trump and Zelensky, though it was unclear who would actually attend. Trump briefed Zelensky on his talks with Putin during a call on Saturday that lasted more than an hour and a half, the Ukrainian leader said. They were joined after an hour by European and Nato officials, he added. 'The impression is he wants a fast deal at any price,' a source familiar with the conversation said. The source said Trump told Zelensky that Putin had offered to freeze the front lines elsewhere as part of a deal, if Ukraine fully withdrew its troops from the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions, something Zelensky said was not possible. Trump and US envoy Steve Witkoff told the Ukrainian leader that Putin had said there could be no ceasefire before that happened, and that the Russian leader could pledge not to launch any new aggression against Ukraine as part of an agreement. Kyiv has publicly dismissed the idea of withdrawing from internationally recognised Ukrainian land as part of a deal, and says the industrial Donetsk region serves as a fortress holding back Russian advances deeper into Ukraine. Oleksandr Merezhko, head of the Ukrainian parliament's foreign affairs committee, told Reuters by phone that Trump's emphasis on a deal rather than a ceasefire carried great risks for Ukraine. 'In Putin's view, a peace agreement means several dangerous things — Ukraine not joining Nato, his absurd demands for denazification and demilitarisation, the Russian language and the Russian church,' he said. Any such deal could be politically explosive inside Ukraine, Merezhko said, adding he was worried that Putin's ostracism in the West had ended. Security guarantees Avoiding a repeat of the Oval Office row is critical for Zelensky to preserve relations with the US, which still provides military assistance and is the key source of intelligence on Russia's military activity. For Ukraine, robust guarantees to prevent any future Russian invasion are fundamental to any serious settlement. Two sources familiar with the matter said Trump and the European leaders discussed potential security guarantees for Ukraine similar to the transatlantic Nato alliance's mutual support pledge during their call. It says, in effect, that an attack on one is treated as an attack on all. One of the two sources, who requested anonymity to discuss sensitive matters, said European leaders were seeking details on what kind of US role was envisaged. Zelensky has repeatedly said a trilateral meeting with the Russian and US leaders is crucial to finding a way to end the full-scale war launched by Russia in February 2022. Trump this week voiced the idea of such a meeting, saying it could happen if his talks in Alaska with Putin were successful. 'Ukraine emphasises that key issues can be discussed at the level of leaders, and a trilateral format is suitable for this,' Zelensky wrote on social media on Saturday. Putin's aide Yuri Ushakov told the Russian state news agency TASS a three-way summit had not been discussed in Alaska. — Reuters
The Star
27 minutes ago
- The Star
No plans yet to penalise China for buying Russian oil
FILE PHOTO: A view shows a pressure gauge near oil pump jacks outside Almetyevsk, in the Republic of Tatarstan, Russia July 14, 2025. REUTERS/Stringer/File Photo WASHINGTON: US president Donald Trump says he does not immediately need to consider retaliatory tariffs on countries such as China for buying Russian oil but might have to 'in two or three weeks'. Trump has threatened sanctions on Moscow and secondary sanctions on countries that buy its oil if no moves are made to end the war in Ukraine. China and India are the top two buyers of Russian oil. The president last week imposed an additional 25% tariff on Indian goods, citing its continued imports of Russian oil. However, Trump has not taken similar action against China. He was asked by Fox News' Sean Hannity if he was now considering such action against Beijing after he and Russian President Vladimir Putin failed to produce an agreement to resolve or pause Moscow's war in Ukraine. 'Well, because of what happened today, I think I don't have to think about that,' Trump said after his summit with Putin in Alaska. 'Now, I may have to think about it in two weeks or three weeks or something, but we don't have to think about that right now. I think, you know, the meeting went very well.' Chinese President Xi Jinping's slowing economy will suffer if Trump follows through on a promise to ramp up Russia-related sanctions and tariffs. — Reuters
