Latest news with #Ukrainian-controlled
Yahoo
3 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Russia proposes 2-3-day ceasefire in some areas of front to retrieve bodies of the fallen, Medinsky says
Russia has proposed to Ukraine a temporary ceasefire for two or three days in certain areas of the front line to collect the bodies of the fallen soldiers, Vladimir Medinsky, Russian President Vladimir Putin's aide and head of the country's delegation to Istanbul, said during a press conference on June 2. Medinsky's statement comes hours after the conclusion of the second round of the peace talks between Ukraine and Russia in Istanbul. Ukraine has not yet reacted to the Russian proposal. According to a source in the President's Office, who spoke on condition of anonymity, Russia declined a ceasefire proposed by Ukraine. According to Medinsky, Russia will also transfer 6,000 bodies of Ukrainian soldiers and officers. "We identified all (the bodies) that we could, conducted DNA tests, found out who they were. Next week, we will transfer these bodies to the Ukrainian side in an organized way by special trains so that they can bury them humanely," Medinsky said. Medinsky added that Ukraine and Russia also agreed to exchange severely wounded people and those under 25. The total number of people involved in the exchange could reach 1,000, he added. A representative of the Russian delegation also showed a list handed over by Ukraine during the talks. The list included 339 names of children abducted by Russia and whom Ukraine wants to return to their homes. Medinsky denied Kyiv's accusations, claiming that Russia did not abduct the children. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has identified over 19,500 children who were forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied territories. To date, only around 1,300 have been returned to Ukrainian-controlled areas, according to official data. The abduction of Ukrainian children has drawn international condemnation. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of overseeing the forced deportations. Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed a resolution labeling Russia's actions a "genocidal strategy" aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity, and demanded the unconditional return of all abducted minors. Read also: As Trump fails to sanction Moscow, few expect breakthrough during upcoming Russia-Ukraine talks We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Boston Globe
7 days ago
- Politics
- Boston Globe
Russia appears to launch new offensive in Ukraine amid peace talks
In particular, Russian forces are pushing into the remaining Ukrainian-controlled territory in the Donbas area in the east, in the fourth year of a conflict that has become a war of attrition. They used the winter lull to build up equipment reserves, improve battlefield communications, and tweak the tactics and technical abilities of attack drones, the military analysts said. Advertisement Despite some localized battlefield successes, the pace of Russia's advances remains slow, and few analysts expect it to achieve a decisive victory this summer that would reshape the war. Russia's intensified bombing campaign and mounting civilian casualties are already hurting geopolitically. President Trump has stopped praising President Vladimir Putin of Russia and threatened new US sanctions against Russia. Ukraine is deepening its alliance with major European nations. And the Ukrainian public is more skeptical than ever of Russia's peace overtures. 'What Vladimir Putin doesn't realize is that if it weren't for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD,' Trump said in a social media post Tuesday. 'He's playing with fire!' Advertisement The Kremlin, in typical fashion, has not directly commented on the offensive or announced its commencement. Putin has said merely that the Russian forces are creating a 'buffer zone' with Ukraine to protect Russian civilians from enemy raids. He has also repeated his mantra that the war will end only when Russia eliminates the 'root causes' of the conflict, a shorthand for wide-ranging demands that Ukraine and its allies see as subjugation. While advancing on the ground despite heavy losses on both sides, Russia is also using combined drone and missile strikes to overwhelm Ukrainian air defenses, exhaust its citizens, and deplete its industrial base. Russia's defense ministry has justified attacks on Ukrainian cities as a tit-for-tat response to the more limited Ukrainian drone strikes on Russian towns and cities, which are causing a smaller number of civilian deaths. It is unclear what role the Kremlin expects the unfolding offensive to play in the broader complex diplomatic maneuvers over ending the war. Nor is it clear whether Trump would follow through on his threats to exert more pressure on Putin to reach a cease-fire. Some Western analysts say that Putin may be using the dry weather season most conducive for offensive operations to maximize his negotiating power before giving more weight to peace talks later this year. It would be rational, they argue, for Russia, which has had the edge on the battlefield for most of the past two years, to use military pressure as leverage in any negotiations. 'Russia is used to the idea of fighting and talking at the same time,' said Samuel Charap, a Washington-based senior political scientist focused on Russia at Rand Corp., a security research organization. The offensive, he said, shows that Russia is unwilling to meet European and Ukrainian calls for a cease-fire before negotiating a peace deal that satisfies its demands. Advertisement Charap does not expect a diplomatic breakthrough in the near future, given how far apart the two sides are. But he said that the current uptick in violence did not rule out progress in talks. Warring sides often 'attempt to get as much as possible before the guns fall silent,' Charap added. But many other analysts, as well as the governments of Ukraine and the European Union, say the acceleration of attacks prove that Putin is not serious about the peace talks, which tentatively restarted in Istanbul this month under pressure from the White House. The Russian offensive is not about gaining negotiating leverage, they say -- it is about winning the war. On Wednesday, Russia's foreign minister, Sergey V. Lavrov, proposed a new round of talks in Istanbul on Monday. Ukraine's defense minister, Rustem Umerov, responded by saying that Kyiv was open to another meeting but wanted to see concrete cease-fire proposals from the Kremlin first. Kyiv said it had already submitted its own proposals to allies. 'Diplomacy cannot succeed amid constant attacks,' President Volodymyr Zelensky of Ukraine said Monday, hours after one of Russia's largest aerial strikes of the war. Some Russian analysts tied to the opposition contend that this year's offensive could argue that any Russian gains might evaporate as the country's military machine deflates later this year under economic pressure and dwindling resources. But Russia's military and economy have already survived multiple setbacks and predictions of collapse. For now, Russian forces are on the attack. Advertisement This month, they have more than doubled the area that they seized in April, capturing an average of 5.5 square miles each day, according to data from Deepstate, a Ukrainian war-monitoring group with ties to the country's military. Russia this month is advancing at the fastest pace since November, the data shows. Most of the recent gains came in Donetsk, one of the two regions that make up the Donbas, the historically Russian-speaking area at the center of the Kremlin's territorial claims. This month, the Russian military broke through defenses between the besieged Ukrainian cities of Pokrovsk and Toretsk, pushing north toward the last regional logistical hubs under Ukrainian control. The attack appears to be the beginning of a planned Russian campaign to conquer the remainder of Donetsk this year, said Dmitri Kuznets, a military analyst at independent Russian news outlet Meduza. Russian forces are also making smaller gains in the Sumy region, north of the major city of Kharkiv. They are building on the momentum after pushing back most Ukrainian forces that last year had occupied part of Russia's Kursk region, across the border from Sumy. Russia also appears to have expanded the production and improved the effectiveness of its drones. Last week, Russian forces launched hundreds of drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities over three nights, the biggest barrage of the war. A small but significant fraction of these weapons are penetrating air defenses and causing damage to both industrial and civilian buildings. Military analysts have attributed this trend to a combination of Kyiv's dwindling antiair ammunition, innovations in Russian tactics, and the sheer scale of the attacks. Advertisement
Yahoo
28-05-2025
- General
- Yahoo
11 more Ukrainian Children rescued from Russian-occupied territories, Yermak's advisor says
Eleven more Ukrainian children have been successfully returned from Russian-occupied territories as part of the national "Bring Kids Back UA" initiative, Daria Zarivna, an advisor to President Volodymyr Zelensky's chief of staff and head of the project, said on May 28. Among those rescued is a young girl whose mother and brother, both defenders of the Azovstal steel plant in Mariupol, spent more than three years in Russian captivity. "All this time, the mother did not know whether she would ever see her children again. During the exchange, she met her son on the bus, and today she was finally able to hug her little girl," Zarivna said. Another boy was reunited with his father and brother, both Ukrainian soldiers. The father has been serving on the front lines, while the brother had also been held in Russian captivity for over three years. Zarivna also said a teenage boy who had been orphaned was rescued from Russian forces. The child had been kidnapped from his school, held in a basement, tortured, and nearly conscripted into the Russian army days before his 18th birthday. The operation is the latest in a series of rescue missions under Bring Kids Back UA, a national initiative launched by Zelensky to coordinate the return of children abducted during Russia's full-scale invasion. On May 22, Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak announced the return of nine other children from occupied areas. He described the children as survivors of grave abuse, including a girl whose life was endangered due to lack of medical care, and a boy who was imprisoned in a basement with his mother while Russian forces tortured his father nearby. Since the start of Russia's full-scale invasion in February 2022, Ukraine has identified over 19,500 children who were forcibly deported to Russia, Belarus, or Russian-occupied territories. To date, only around 1,300 have been returned to Ukrainian-controlled areas, according to official data. The abduction of Ukrainian children has drawn international condemnation. In March 2023, the International Criminal Court issued arrest warrants for Russian President Vladimir Putin and Children's Rights Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova, accusing them of overseeing the forced deportations. Earlier this month, the European Parliament passed a resolution labeling Russia's actions a "genocidal strategy" aimed at erasing Ukrainian identity, and demanded the unconditional return of all abducted minors. On May 21, U.S. senators have introduced a resolution urging that no peace deal with Russia be made until all abducted Ukrainian children are returned. The resolution condemns Russia's forced deportation and Russification of Ukrainian minors as an attempt to erase Ukrainian identity. Kyiv has maintained that the safe return of its children remains a central precondition for any future peace negotiations with Russia. Read also: Because of Russia, my child understood fear early We've been working hard to bring you independent, locally-sourced news from Ukraine. Consider supporting the Kyiv Independent.
Yahoo
26-05-2025
- Politics
- Yahoo
Russia, Ukraine exchange drone attacks after Trump rebukes leaders
Russia and Ukraine continued long-range cross-border drone attacks on Sunday night into Monday morning, despite President Donald Trump's criticism of presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- the latest signal of Trump's frustration at his inability to bring Moscow's 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor to a close. Ukrainian officials said air defenses engaged targets across the country, including in the capital Kyiv where damage was reported to buildings. Ukraine's air force said Russia launched a total of 364 "air attack vehicles" -- nine cruise missiles and 355 attack drones -- in the latest bombardment. All missiles and 288 drones were shot down or neutralized in flight, the air force said. Impacts were reported in five regions and falling debris in 10 regions, the air force said. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed 128 Ukrainian drones over 12 regions overnight and into Monday morning. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said "unknown drones" attacked the city of Yelabuga in Russia's Tatarstan Republic -- more than 500 miles east of Moscow and some 740 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory. The target was a facility producing Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones, Kovalenko said. Other drones attacked "a chemical enterprise" in the Ivanovo region, around 150 miles northeast of Moscow, he added. The facility "creates components for Russian equipment and weapons, including missiles," Kovalenko said. Near-nightly cross-border strikes have become a prominent feature of Russia's war on Ukraine, now more than three years old with little sign of an imminent ceasefire or peace deal. Recent months have seen the bombardments grow in size. On Saturday night into Sunday, for example, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as its largest aerial attack of the war. The assault included 367 drones and missiles and killed at least 18 people, officials said. The attack prompted Trump to rebuke Putin while speaking with reporters and later on social media. MORE: Russia hits Ukraine with massive drone, missile barrage amid prisoner exchange "I'm not happy with what Putin is doing," the president said. "He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all." Trump reiterated his close relationship with Putin but suggested that "something has happened" which has made him "crazy." "I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that's proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump also attacked Zelenskyy, who he has repeatedly framed as an impediment to a U.S.-brokered peace deal. "Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does," Trump wrote. "Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop," Trump continued. Zelenskyy and his officials have cited Russia's continued massed strikes as evidence that Moscow is not genuine in its public appeals for peace. Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly appealed to Trump to impose new, tougher sanctions on Moscow to push the Kremlin to downgrade its maximalist war goals. Those include the annexation of swaths of Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian demilitarization and a permanent block on the country's accession to NATO. Ukrainian requests have so far gone unanswered, despite Trump's threats to introduce new measures to press Putin into negotiations. Kyiv is pushing for a 30-day ceasefire during which time peace talks can take place. Russia has so far refused the proposal. Following the latest round of Russian strikes, Andriy Yermak -- the head of Zelenskyy's presidential office -- wrote on Telegram on Monday morning, "Russia should speed up the ceasefire, now Moscow is slowing down even with the discussion of proposals, no specifics, only delaying time." "Moscow can be speeded up with sanctions and weapons," he added. Russia, Ukraine exchange drone attacks after Trump rebukes leaders originally appeared on
26-05-2025
- Politics
Russia, Ukraine exchange drone attacks after Trump rebukes leaders
LONDON -- Russia and Ukraine continued long-range cross-border drone attacks on Sunday night into Monday morning, despite President Donald Trump's criticism of presidents Vladimir Putin and Volodymyr Zelenskyy -- the latest signal of Trump's frustration at his inability to bring Moscow's 3-year-old invasion of its neighbor to a close. Ukrainian officials said air defenses engaged targets across the country, including in the capital Kyiv where damage was reported to buildings. Russia's Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said its forces downed 108 drones over 12 regions overnight. Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine's National Security and Defense Council, said "unknown drones" attacked the city of Yelabuga in Russia's Tatarstan Republic -- more than 500 miles east of Moscow and some 740 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory. The target was a facility producing Russia's Iranian-designed Shahed strike drones, Kovalenko said. Other drones attacked "a chemical enterprise" in the Ivanovo region, around 150 miles northeast of Moscow, he added. The facility "creates components for Russian equipment and weapons, including missiles," Kovalenko said. Near-nightly cross-border strikes have become a prominent feature of Russia's war on Ukraine, now more than three years old with little sign of an imminent ceasefire or peace deal. Recent months have seen the bombardments grow in size. On Saturday night into Sunday, for example, Russia launched what Ukrainian officials described as its largest aerial attack of the war. The assault included 367 drones and missiles and killed at least 18 people, officials said. The attack prompted Trump to rebuke Putin while speaking with reporters and later on social media. "I'm not happy with what Putin is doing," the president said. "He's killing a lot of people, and I don't know what the hell happened to Putin. I've known him a long time. Always gotten along with him, but he's sending rockets into cities and killing people, and I don't like it at all." Trump reiterated his close relationship with Putin but suggested that "something has happened" which has made him "crazy." "I've always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that's proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!" Trump wrote on Truth Social. Trump also attacked Zelenskyy, who he has repeatedly framed as an impediment to a U.S.-brokered peace deal. "Likewise, President Zelenskyy is doing his Country no favors by talking the way he does," Trump wrote. "Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don't like it, and it better stop," Trump continued. Zelenskyy and his officials have cited Russia's continued massed strikes as evidence that Moscow is not genuine in its public appeals for peace. Ukrainian leaders have repeatedly appealed to Trump to impose new, tougher sanctions on Moscow to push the Kremlin to downgrade its maximalist war goals. Those include the annexation of swaths of Ukrainian territory, Ukrainian demilitarization and a permanent block on the country's accession to NATO. Ukrainian requests have so far gone unanswered, despite Trump's threats to introduce new measures to press Putin into negotiations. Kyiv is pushing for a 30-day ceasefire during which time peace talks can take place. Russia has so far refused the proposal. Following the latest round of Russian strikes, Andriy Yermak -- the head of Zelenskyy's presidential office -- wrote on Telegram on Monday morning, "Russia should speed up the ceasefire, now Moscow is slowing down even with the discussion of proposals, no specifics, only delaying time."
