Latest news with #Ukr
Scottish Sun
29-05-2025
- Politics
- Scottish Sun
Trump gives Putin two-week ceasefire DEADLINE as tyrant masses 50k troops at border – but will new talks stop bloodbath?
Click to share on X/Twitter (Opens in new window) Click to share on Facebook (Opens in new window) A FRUSTRATED Donald Trump has issued Vladimir Putin a two-week deadline for a ceasefire - warning of a different response if Putin is "tapping us along". The US president's ultimatum comes as Russia launches its deadliest strikes yet on Ukraine, with Kyiv fearing Moscow is massing troops for a major new offensive. 3 Donald Trump has given Putin a two-week ceasefire deadline 3 A Ukrainian firefighter at the site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on the Sumy region Credit: Reuters 3 Trump said in the Oval Office on Wednesday: 'I'm very disappointed at what happened a couple of nights now where people were killed in the middle of what you would call a negotiation." He added: 'When I see rockets being shot into cities, that's no good. We're not going to allow it.' When asked if Putin really wants to end the war, Trump replied: "I can't tell you that, but I'll let you know in about two weeks. "Within two weeks. We're gonna find out whether or not (Putin is) tapping us along or not. "And if he is, we'll respond a little bit differently." The US president's comments came just minutes after Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov proposed a second round of talks with Ukraine in Istanbul. He said the proposed talks on June 2 would be a continuation of negotiations. Kyiv has said it's "not opposed" to meetings. The White House has ramped up its efforts to push for a ceasefire deal between Russia and Ukraine. Trump and Putin recently had a two-hour phone call, after which Putin said he was ready to work with Ukraine on a "memorandum on a possible future peace agreement". Trump 'not happy' with Putin after war's biggest air attack on Ukraine killing 13 as Don considers sanctions on Russia The White House has been accused of appeasing Moscow - most notably when Trump shifted the focus from the 30-day ceasefire mentioned in the call and later opted for a summit with Putin. But the US has rejected these claims, pointing out that all sanctions remain in force against Russia. The Kremlin has not yet sent a memorandum, claiming it's currently drafting its version and that there cannot be a fixed deadline for ceasefire details to be agreed. Meanwhile, over the past few days, the US president has lashed out at his Russian counterpart on social media. He said on Tuesday that Putin has gone "absolutely crazy" and is "playing with fire" after Russia intensified its attacks on Ukraine. Trump added that "lots of bad things" would have happened to Russia if it were not for his involvement. He broke his silence on Sunday after Russia fired 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities in the largest aerial attack of the war now in its fourth year. Russian strikes in Kyiv killed at least 13 people and injured dozens more. Putin has been building up a 50,000-strong force alongside the border of Kharkiv, for an offensive in the eastern region of Sumy, according to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky. On Tuesday, it was revealed that Putin's forces had snatched another four villages in Ukraine's Sumy region. Sumy governor Oleh Hryhorov wrote in a post: "The enemy is continuing attempts to advance with the aim of setting up a so-called buffer zone". Hryhorov said the villages of Novenke, Basivka, Veselivka and Zhuravka had been overrun and the resident evacuated. In response, Ukraine launched a wave of brutal drone strikes on the Russian capital. Zelensky has accused Moscow of delaying the peace process and claimed Ukrainian intelligence shows Putin has no intention of ending the war. According to top Russian officials, Putin wants a "written" pledge from Western leaders to stop Nato's expansion to countries eastward, it was revealed to Reuters. The eastward expansion refers to Ukraine, Georgia, Moldova and other former Soviet republics.
Times
25-04-2025
- Politics
- Times
Ukraine will not accept ‘stitch-up' deal, says MP turned soldier
Ukraine will not have a 'stitch-up deal' forced upon it and its armed forces are prepared to carry on fighting without US backing, according to a British former MP turned soldier in Ukraine's military. Jack Lopresti, who is serving in the International Legion's military intelligence unit as well as in a liaison role helping with weapons procurement, said Donald Trump's ceasefire proposal amounted to 'appeasement' of a dictator. On a brief visit to London, he said that Ukraine could continue to fight without US equipment as long as Britain and Europe ramped up their military support. He said: 'They are not going to put up with having a stitch-up deal forced upon them. They are prepared to fight and carry on fighting. The morale is incredibly high; it's astonishing. 'They are fighting for their existence, for their survival, and they are not going to give up any time soon, even if America withdraws.' Washington's proposal is to recognise the Russian annexation of Crimea and Russia's conquest of a fifth of Ukraine's territory in the east. Kyiv must also accept that membership of Nato is ruled out indefinitely, and hand over immediate control of Ukraine's rare earth resources, as well as its oil and gas industries, to a joint fund from which America could profit. Trump's administration has already threatened to remove itself from the discussions if the two sides do not agree, raising fears US support for Ukraine could be pulled altogether. 'It's been our worst nightmare what has transpired,' Lopresti said, wearing a fleece inscribed with 'freedom can't be stopped' in Ukrainian. 'I think the deal is pretty disgusting, it's appeasement. 'It basically says if you are a dictator and you take land and you kill people and commit war crimes and kidnap over 20,000 children, as long as you stay put, eventually you will get something and then you can come back for more.' Lopresti, 55, a father-of-four, spoke to The Times after coming off the phone to friends in Kyiv. He had called them to check they were safe after a deadly Russian missile and drone attack on Wednesday night. He travelled to Ukraine early this year to join Ukraine's equivalent of the Foreign Legion after losing his parliamentary seat in July last year. After serving as a reservist in the British Army, which included a deployment to Afghanistan, he was elected MP for Filton & Bradley Stoke, near Bristol, in 2010. He also served as Conservative Party deputy chairman. During his time as an MP he had stage four bowel cancer but recovered after chemotherapy. When he signed up to help Ukraine at the end of last year, he had been prepared to fight in the trenches, he said. Although he generally carries out more of a liaison role to make use of his skills, he has also been deployed to the front line where he has come under Russian drone attack. • Western officials have recently said that Russia's progress on the battlefield has slowed, although it is still advancing. Some experts question how long Ukraine could fight on without US support. In March, when the US suspended military aid and intelligence-sharing with Kyiv, a senior official said Ukraine could 'last a matter of months, maybe less' without US support. However, striking a relatively upbeat tone about the challenge Ukraine faces, Lopresti said: 'They are not losing … cities are being smashed, but they are holding the line, they are successfully defending their country.' He believes Britain and Europe could fill any void left by the US if necessary. He insisted that Ukraine wants peace, ,but was 'not going to be shafted'. He said: 'They are going to remain a sovereign independent country.' If President Zelensky were to agree to Trump's demands, he would have to change the constitution, which states that Ukraine's sovereignty 'extends throughout its entire territory' which 'within its present border is indivisible and inviolable'. The former MP said that if there was a frozen conflict, Putin would return again to take more territory. 'The defence of the UK starts in Ukraine,' he warned. Would he die for Ukraine? 'I'm joining a military of a country at war, fighting for its own survival,' he said. 'I could have been killed last night. You have to be prepared to make those sorts of sacrifices, otherwise there is no point.'
Saudi Gazette
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Saudi Gazette
Ukraine reports many Russian drone attacks after truce ends
KYIV — Ukraine's military has reported Russian drone attacks on several regions overnight, just hours after the end of a 30-hour "Easter truce" declared by Moscow. Air raid alerts were issued by Ukraine's air force for the Kyiv region, as well as Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Cherkasy, Mykolaiv and Zaporizhzhia. In the southern city of Mykolaiv, Mayor Oleksandr Senkevych said "explosions were heard". It was not immediately clear whether there were any casualties. Russia's defense ministry confirmed it has resumed fighting, adding that its military had "strictly observed the ceasefire and remained at the previously occupied lines and positions". The truce declared by President Vladimir Putin expired at midnight on Sunday Moscow time (21:00 GMT). Both sides accused each other of violating the ceasefire thousands of times. Early on Monday residents in several Ukrainian cities, including the capital Kyiv, were urged by local authorities to go immediately to nearby shelters due to the threat of drone strikes. In the Kyiv region, local officials said air defense forces were "working on targets". Ukraine's air force also reported a "rocket danger" for central regions, and said Russian aircraft were "active in the north-eastern and eastern directions". In an update on Telegram, the air force said Russia launched 96 drones overnight, as well as striking the southern region of Mykolaiv two missiles and Kherson with a third missile. In Mykolaiv, regional head Vitaliy Kim said shortly afterwards that the city had been attacked by missiles. "There were no casualties or damage," he added. Several hours before the truce expired, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Putin had not given any order to extend it, Russia's state-run news agency Tass reported. The BBC has not independently verified the claims by Ukraine and Russia. US President Donald Trump, who has been pushing for an end to the war, said late on Sunday that "hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week". He gave no further details. Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine on 24 February 2022, and currently controls about 20% Ukraine's territory, including the southern Crimea peninsula annexed by Moscow in 2014. It is estimated that hundreds of thousands of people - the vast majority of them soldiers - have been killed or injured on all sides since 2022. Last month, Moscow came up with a long list of conditions in response to a full and unconditional ceasefire that had been agreed by the US and Ukraine. On Saturday, President Putin said there would be an end to all hostilities from 18:00 Moscow time (15:00 GMT) on Saturday until midnight on Sunday. Kyiv said it would also adhere. "For this period, I order all military actions to cease," Putin said in his announcement. "We assume that the Ukrainian side will follow our example. At the same time, our troops must be ready to repel possible violations of the truce and provocations from the enemy, any of its aggressive actions." However, Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky said late on Sunday there had been a total of 1,882 cases of Russian shelling, 812 of which involved heavy weaponry, according to a report from Commander-in-Chief of the Armed Forces of Ukraine Oleksandr Syrskyi. The president said the heaviest shelling and assaults were in eastern Ukraine near the besieged city of Pokrovsk, a key logistics hub in the Donetsk region. "The nature of Ukrainian actions will continue to be mirrored: we will respond to silence with silence, our strikes will be to protect against Russian strikes," Zelensky said. Earlier on Sunday, he said "there were no air raid alerts today", referring to Russia's daily drone and missile strikes against Ukraine. He proposed "to cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of extension". Zelensky also said Putin's declaration of a truce amounted to a "PR" exercise and his words were "empty". He accused the Kremlin of trying to create "a general impression of a ceasefire". "This Easter has clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia," the president said. The Russian defense ministry insisted its troops had "strictly observed the ceasefire". Meanwhile, Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova accused Ukraine of using US-supplied Himars missiles during the ceasefire. The surprise ceasefire announcement came shortly after Trump threatened to "take a pass" on brokering further Russia-Ukraine peace talks. However, a State Department spokesperson said on Sunday Washington remained "committed to achieving a full and comprehensive ceasefire". "It is long past time to stop the death and destruction and end this war," the spokesperson added. — BBC
Sky News
20-04-2025
- Politics
- Sky News
Trump hopes Russia and Ukraine 'will make deal this week' - as Putin's 'Easter truce' expires
US President Donald Trump has said he hopes Russia and Ukraine "will make a deal this week" as Vladimir Putin's "Easter truce" expired, with the two countries blaming each other for breaking it. The Russian leader said he had ordered his forces to stop all military activity along the frontline for 30 hours from 6pm on Saturday (4pm UK time) until midnight on Sunday (10pm UK time). But on Sunday evening, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said the Russian army had "violated Putin 's ceasefire more than 2,000 times" during the day. Mr Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform that "hopefully Russia and Ukraine will make a deal this week" and both will then "start to do big business" with the US. 2:44 Mr Zelenskyy accused Russia of "failing" to "uphold its own promise of ceasefire" and wrote on X: "Either Putin does not have full control over his army, or the situation proves that in Russia, they have no intention of making a genuine move toward ending the war, and are only interested in favourable PR coverage." Mr Zelenskyy proposed that Russia "cease any strikes using long-range drones and missiles on civilian infrastructure for a period of at least 30 days, with the possibility of extension". And he added that if Russia does not agree to such a step "it will be proof that it intends to continue doing only those things which destroy human lives and prolong the war". He insisted that the Ukrainian army was "acting - and will continue to act - in a fully symmetrical manner" and this Easter has "clearly demonstrated that the only source of this war, and the reason it drags on, is Russia". "We are ready to move toward peace and a full, unconditional, and honest ceasefire that could last for at least 30 days - but there has been no response from Russia on that so far." 2:17 What has Moscow said? Russia's defence ministry said Ukraine had broken the ceasefire more than 1,000 times, damaging infrastructure and causing civilian deaths. According to the ministry, Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times while there had been more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, including on Crimea and the Russian border areas of the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions. "As a result, there are deaths and injuries among the civilian population, as well as damage to civilian facilities," the ministry said. The Kremlin said there was no order for the ceasefire to be extended. 0:32 Mr Trump and his secretary of state Marco Rubio warned on Friday that the US will walk away from efforts to broker a peace deal unless there are clear signs of progress soon. The US president said negotiations between Ukraine and Russia were "coming to a head" and he insisted that neither side is "playing" him in his push to end the grinding three-year war. Last month, Ukraine accepted Mr Trump's proposal for a 30-day truce. But Mr Putin refused to back a full 30-day ceasefire, saying crucial issues of verification had not been sorted out. He said he would agree not to target Ukraine's energy infrastructure. However, both sides have accused each other of breaking the moratorium on attacks on energy targets and at sea.
Los Angeles Times
24-03-2025
- Politics
- Los Angeles Times
U.S. holds separate talks with Russians after meeting Ukrainians to discuss a potential ceasefire
DUBAI, United Arab Emirates — U.S. negotiators worked on a proposed partial ceasefire in Ukraine on Monday, meeting with representatives from Russia a day after holding separate talks with the Ukrainian team. Each side has accused the other of undermining efforts to reach a pause in the 3-year-old war. Kyiv and Moscow agreed in principle Wednesday to a limited ceasefire after President Trump spoke with the countries' leaders, but the parties have offered different views of what targets would be off-limits to attack. While the White House said 'energy and infrastructure' would be covered, the Kremlin declared that the agreement referred more narrowly to 'energy infrastructure.' Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he would also like to see railways and ports protected. Talks Monday are expected to address some of those differences, as well as a potential pause in attacks in the Black Sea to ensure the safety of commercial shipping. U.S. and Russian representatives met in the morning in the Saudi capital, Russia's state Tass and RIA-Novosti news agencies reported. The U.S. and Ukrainian teams met Sunday in Riyadh. Serhii Leshchenko, an adviser to the Ukrainian presidency, said the delegation remained in Riyadh on Monday and expected to meet again with the Americans. Grigory Karasin, head of the foreign affairs committee in the Russian parliament's upper house and a participant in Monday's talks, told the Interfax news agency the negotiations were going on in a 'creative way' and that the U.S. and Russian delegations 'understand each other's views.' Meanwhile, both Russia and Ukraine continued to launch attacks across their borders. The Russian Defense Ministry said Monday a Ukrainian drone attacked an oil pumping station in southern Russia that serves a pipeline carrying Kazakhstan's Caspian Sea oil to the Russian port of Novorossiisk for export. It said the drone was downed before it could reach the pumping station. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Monday the Russian military has been fulfilling President Vladimir Putin's order to halt attacks on energy facilities for 30 days. He has accused Ukraine of derailing the partial ceasefire with attacks on Russia's energy facilities, including a gas metering station in Sudzha in Russia's Kursk region. Ukraine's military General Staff rejected Moscow's accusations and blamed the Russian military for shelling the station, a claim Peskov called 'absurd.' Zelensky said Sunday evening that 'since March 11, a proposal for an unconditional ceasefire has been on the table, and these attacks could have already stopped. But it is Russia that continues all this.' He added that Ukraine's partners — 'the U.S., Europe, and others around the world' — should increase pressure on Russia 'to stop this terror.' Zelensky has emphasized that Ukraine is open to Trump's proposal of a full, 30-day ceasefire. Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine's military mobilization — demands rejected by Kyiv and its Western allies. Speaking on 'Fox News Sunday,' Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff said he expected 'some real progress' at talks and that a pause in hostilities by both countries in the Black Sea would 'naturally gravitate into a full-on shooting ceasefire.' Asked about reports speculating that China might send peacekeepers to Ukraine to enforce any peace deal, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Guo Jiakun responded Monday with an unequivocal no. 'Let me stress that the report is completely false. China's position on the Ukraine crisis is clear and consistent,' Guo said at a briefing. China has provided Russia with trade earnings from oil and other natural resources, along with diplomatic backing, but has not given any weapons or sent any personnel. China is, however, on close terms with North Korea, which has sent troops to fight alongside the Russian army. A 'massive targeted cyberattack' hit Ukrainian state railway operator Ukrzaliznytsia on Sunday, the company wrote on Telegram, adding that it was working to restore its systems on Monday. The company said the attack did not affect train movements or schedules but disrupted its online booking system. 'The railway continues to operate despite physical attacks on the infrastructure, and even the most vile cyberattacks cannot stop it,' the company wrote. Meanwhile, Ukraine's Special Operations Forces claimed Monday it destroyed four military helicopters in Russia's Belgorod region with the use of U.S.-supplied HIMARS rocket systems. It published drone footage on its Telegram page of what it said was the attack. The strikes occurred at a concealed 'jumping-off point' for Russian aircraft used in surprise attacks on Ukrainian forces, the group said. A Russian missile struck the northern city of Sumy, across the border from Russia's Kursk region, hitting residential buildings and a school, said regional head Volodymyr Artiukh. Children at the school were being evacuated at the time, and all were safe, he added. But acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said 28 people were injured, including four children. He did not specify whether the four were in the school when the attack occurred. Earlier, Russia fired 99 attack and decoy drones into Ukraine overnight, according to Ukraine's air force, of which 57 were shot down. Gambrell and Novikov write for the Associated Press. Novikov reported from Kyiv. The AP's Christopher Bodeen in Beijing contributed.
