Latest news with #UnitedStates-mediated
Gulf Today
12-05-2025
- Business
- Gulf Today
Trump praises India, Pakistan leaders for truce
Full-scale war was averted between India and Pakistan when they agreed to a United States-mediated ceasefire even as fighting between the traditional South Asian rivals was ratcheting up since Wednesday (May 7) when India struck at nine terrorist camps in Pakistan. India was responding to the terrorists killing 26 civilians in Pahalgam in Jammu and Kashmir on April 22. The two sides were firing drone bombs at each other across the border, in which civilians were killed on both sides. India said that it had targeted only the terrorist bases. The United States had quietly done a back-channel exercise with Secretary of State Marc Rubio talking to Ishaq Dar, foreign minister of Pakistan and Dr. External Affairs Minister of India. The Americans said that the decision of the ceasefire was announced by the two sides themselves. President Donald Trump wrote on his social media portal, Truth Social: 'After a long night of talks mediated by the United States, I am pleased to announce that India and Pakistan have agreed to a FULL AND IMMEDIATE CEASEFIRE. Congratulations to both Countries on using Common Sense and Great Intelligence.' However, there were explosions in Srinagar, the capital of Jammu and Kashmir in India and in other places along the border, and this is being seen as violation of the ceasefire agreed to by Pakistan. Indian Minister for External Affairs said that India keeps its options to counter terrorist attacks. The US-mediated ceasefire may appear to be fragile, and that it is being broken from the moment that it has been agreed to by both India and Pakistan. It is however interesting that Pakistan sought the ceasefire a day after the International Monetary Fund (IMF) had released an economic bailout of $1 billion. India had objected to the relief package and abstained from the voting. It would appear that the US could have asked Pakistan to agree to the ceasefire in return for the IMF bailout. This is in the realm of speculation, but a connection can be made. There is also the argument that India could have agreed to the American offer of ceasefire because India is in the process of working out a trade deal with the United States and get a better deal over the tariffs that Trump seeks to impose on India. What is surprising about the development is the fact that two days ago, Vice President J.D. Vance had said in a television news interview that the fight between India and Pakistan was 'none of our business' though he did add that the US would want the two countries to settle the issues through diplomatic dialogue. So, he did keep the door open for American mediation in a way because the implication was that Washington would want to push the two rivals to the negotiating table. The American foreign policy has been flip-flopping quite a bit ever since Trump was sworn in as president for a second term in January. At one level, Trump wants to pull back Americans from all the trouble spots, including the one in Ukraine. On the other hand, he had been coaxing and nudging to Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky and Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to a ceasefire. And though he failed in his attempts to end the war in Ukraine, he managed to sign an agreement with Ukraine over rare earth minerals. He wants America to engage with the world so that America gains, and at the same time he wants to focus on domestic policies rather than foreign policy. The reason Trump pushed America into the mediatory process with India and Pakistan is that he would not want China to gain an upper hand in South Asia because of American absence.
Hindustan Times
12-05-2025
- Politics
- Hindustan Times
Govt agreed to ceasefire to protect beloved industrialist friend: Raut
Mumbai: Like the opposition at the national level, the opposition in Maharashtra too has slammed the Narendra Modi-led central government and demanded an all-party meeting to discuss the United States-mediated ceasefire between India and Pakistan and other related issues. On Sunday, the Shiv Sena (UBT) led the charge, with MP Sanjay Raut accusing the Modi government of acceding to US president Donald Trump's mediation efforts and agreeing to a ceasefire to protect the interests of its 'beloved industrialist friend', without mentioning any names. Vanchit Bahujan Aghadi (VBA) chief Prakash Ambedkar too questioned the intervention by the US president. Trump was the first to announce on Saturday (May 10) that India and Pakistan had agreed to 'full and immediate ceasefire' after 'a long night of talks mediated by the United States'. In a post later on social media platform Truth Social, he said he was 'very proud' of the leadership in India and Pakistan 'for having the strength, wisdom, and fortitude to fully know and understand that it was time to stop the current aggression that could have led to the death and destruction of so many, and so much'. Raut referred to Trump's role in the ceasefire deal while addressing a press conference on Sunday. 'On what grounds did the US president intervene in the bilateral issue and why did we agree to his directions regarding a ceasefire,' he asked. 'India is sovereign country of 140 crore people and the decision has damaged the country's image. It does not suit the prime minister who has been speaking about teaching Pakistan a lesson.' While India had an opportunity to teach 'a lesson of a lifetime' to Pakistan, the Modi government agreed to a ceasefire under the guise of intervention by the US president to protect its 'beloved industrialist friend', he said. 'If Trump is so powerful, why didn't he stop the war between Israel and Palestine? This is an insult of the whole of India. PM Modi should call an all-party meeting and he should be present to answer our questions,' said Raut. He also said that Modi should resign as prime minister as he had betrayed the country. Raut also said that while countries like Turkey and Azerbaijan had extended support to Pakistan following escalation of the military conflict, no country had come out in support of India. 'What was use of PM Modi's world tours? He visited so many countries but not a single country has stood with India. It's failure of Modi's foreign policy too,' Raut said. VBA chief Prakash Ambedkar too wondered why the Modi government agreed to a US-mediated ceasefire although the Indian armed forces had the upper hand. 'Why did everyone get to know about the ceasefire from the US president? Did the US pressurise India,' Ambedkar asked. BJP leaders in Maharashtra did not respond to the comments, saying the matter related to national security and would be addressed by the national leadership.
Al Jazeera
10-04-2025
- Politics
- Al Jazeera
Russian advances in Ukraine slow down despite growing force size
Russia's territorial gains in Ukraine are slowing down dramatically, two analyses have found, continuing a pattern from 2024 at a time when both nations are trying to project strength in the face of United States-mediated negotiations aimed at ending the war. Britain's Ministry of Defence last week estimated that Russian forces seized 143sq km (55sq miles) of Ukrainian land in March, compared with 196sq km (76sq miles) in February and 326sq km (126sq miles) in January. The Institute for the Study of War, a Washington, DC-based think tank, spotted the same trend, estimating Russian gains at 203sq km (78sq miles) in March, 354sq km (137sq miles) in February and 427sq km (165sq miles) in January. These estimates are based on satellite imagery and geolocated open-source photography rather than claims by either side. Should this trend continue, Russian forces could come to a standstill by early summer, roughly coinciding with US President Donald Trump's self-imposed early deadline for achieving a ceasefire. Russia's diminishing returns have come even as it has greatly expanded the size of its forces from an estimated 150,000 soldiers who carried out its initial invasion in February to May 2022. 'Since the beginning of the aggression, the enemy has increased its group fivefold,' Ukrainian Commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskii told the online publication Livyi Bereg this week. He estimated that Russia has been adding 120,000 to 130,000 soldiers a year to its forces in Ukraine and it today has about 623,000 military personnel in the country. Despite this, almost all of the Ukrainian territory Russia occupies, about a fifth of the country, was the result of the seizure of Crimea in 2014 and its initial, full-scale invasion in 2022. A Ukrainian counteroffensive in 2023 took back about 20,000sq km (7,722sq miles). Russia has so far failed to recapture that. Its grinding advances in Ukraine's eastern region of Donetsk last year succeeded in wresting away just 4,168sq km (1,609sq miles) of fields and abandoned villages – equivalent to 0.69 percent of Ukraine, the Institute for the Study of War determined in January. Those gains also came at a significant cost in men and materiel. Ukraine's Ministry of Defence put Russia's losses of soldiers at 430,790. That's the equivalent of 36 Russian motorised rifle divisions and outnumbers Russia's losses in 2022 and 2023 combined. While Russia has recruited enough soldiers to more than make up for its losses, its performance on the battlefield suggests it is struggling to train and equip its forces. Moscow's announcement of each capture, however small, has helped create an impression of inevitability to its conquest of Ukraine. On Monday, for example, Russia's Ministry of Defence said it had taken the settlement of Katerinovka in Donetsk. But these conquests have been small. The Institute for the Study of War estimated that even at 2024 rates of advance, Russia would have needed two years to capture the remaining parts of Donetsk alone. And that was before Russia's pace of territorial gains slipped further in 2025. Despite these trends, Russian President Vladimir Putin has escalated his aggression since US-Russian ceasefire talks kicked off on February 18. An analysis by The Telegraph found that the number of Russian drone strikes against Ukraine rose by more than 50 percent from January to February. In the first week of March, Russia launched a concerted effort that mostly pushed Ukrainian soldiers out of Kursk, a Russian border region Ukraine invaded in August. On April 9, Russia said only two settlements – Gornal and Oleshnya – remained in Ukrainian hands in Kursk, and it was locked in fierce battles to recapture them. Russia's March success in Kursk coincided with a US intelligence and military aid cut-off for Ukraine. During the past week, Russia was building up forces to follow up its success in Kursk by opening new fronts in Kharkiv and Sumy, two regions in northeastern Ukraine on the border with Russia, Syrskii said. 'For several days, almost a week, we have been observing an almost doubling of the number of enemy offensive actions in all main directions,' he said. Syrskii also said he believed Russia could use joint military exercises with Belarus planned for the autumn as cover to mobilise more forces, a tactic Moscow used in late 2021. 'The visibility of exercises is the most acceptable way to rebase, transfer troops, concentrate in a certain direction and create a troop group,' Syrskii said. Moscow also went on the diplomatic offensive this week, doubling down on efforts to vilify Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy as an unreliable leader. Russian officials said Ukraine was continuing to defy a ceasefire on energy infrastructure Kyiv never agreed to but that Moscow declared unilaterally on March 18 after a phone call between Trump and Putin. On Friday, Russia's Defence Ministry said Ukraine carried out half a dozen attacks on energy facilities in the Bryansk, Tambov and Lipetsk regions, causing gas outages to three cities and two electricity blackouts. 'More than 100 Ukrainian unmanned aerial vehicles sent to bomb civilian targets on Russian soil in one night alone are a thousand times more telling than Zelensky's wails about his 'aspiration for peace',' Russian special envoy Rodion Miroshnik wrote on his Telegram channel. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov on Monday said ceasefire negotiations were complicated by the 'lack of control over the Kyiv regime, about the impossibility of the Kyiv regime to control the actions of a number of extremist and nationalist units that simply do not obey Kyiv'. That was a reference to the alleged existence of far-right elements in the Ukraine military. Russia and the US are expected to hold a round of negotiations in Istanbul on Thursday. On Wednesday, Russia's Defence Ministry said two drones were shot down while trying to strike the gas distribution plant of the city of Temryuk, which sits on a neck of land on the Russian side of the Crimean Peninsula. That same night, the ministry said, eight Ukrainian drones were shot down before reaching the Korenovskaya electrical plant, which powers the TurkStream gas pipeline. Ukraine has twice this year tried to shut the pipeline down by targeting its compressors. In total, Russia's Defence Ministry said it had intercepted 107 Ukrainian drones over 10 regions on the night of April 3 to early April 4 in one of the biggest such attacks. But Russia, too, targeted the Kherson thermal power plant with a short-range first-person view (FPV) drone on Friday, Zelenskyy said. FPV drones generally carry up to 5kg (11lb), a much smaller payload than long-range strike drones, which usually ranges from 20kg to 50kg (44lb to 110lb). The Kremlin gave less publicity to the fact that a Ukrainian drone barrage on Saturday struck the fibre optic systems plant in Saransk in Russia's Mordovia. It is Russia's only plant manufacturing optical fibre used in FPV drones and other defence systems. Russia also did not mention that Ukrainian drones struck industrial explosives manufacturer Promsintez in the Samara region, causing 20 explosions and fires. The plant reportedly stopped production after the attack. Syrskii said in his interview that drones had destroyed a $100m long-range Tupolev-22M3 bomber days earlier. Ukraine has targeted these bombers because they are used to launch thousands of glide bombs against Ukraine's front lines every month. Syrskii also said strikes against Russian airfields had pushed back the Russian air force, reducing its effectiveness. Unlike Ukraine, which has consistently targeted defence and energy infrastructure, Russia has kept up long-range air attacks targeting Ukrainian cities. In retaliation for Saturday's attacks, Russia launched 18 cruise missiles, six ballistic missiles and 109 attack drones on Saturday night – its largest strike in a month. Ukraine said it intercepted 93 of the drones, one ballistic and 12 cruise missiles but five ballistic missiles struck residential areas. One of them killed 20 people in Kryvyi Rih, including nine children, prompting the United Nations Security Council to hold an emergency meeting. 'This is why the war must end,' US Ambassador to Kyiv Bridget Brink wrote on social media. 'Such a strong country, such a strong people – and such a weak reaction,' Zelenskyy responded on Telegram. 'They are even afraid to say the word 'Russian' when talking about the missile that killed children.' Russia accused Zelenskyy of deliberately framing the attack as an indiscriminate massacre of civilians whereas it was really targeting a meeting of foreign mercenaries with Ukrainian commanders at a restaurant. But Russia followed up the ballistic missile strike in Kryvyi Rih with a wave of drones, which hit a playground and residential buildings. Until this strike, Russia and Ukraine had observed an unofficial ceasefire over the Black Sea. This had apparently come to an end because Zelenskyy said several of the Russian missiles were launched from ships and submarines. The attacks continued this week. Russia's Defence Ministry on Monday said it shot down 19 Ukrainian drones overnight. Ukraine's air force said it intercepted 31 drones on Tuesday out of an attack totalling 46. The drones followed a strike by an Iskander ballistic missile in a tactic reminiscent of that on Kryvyi Rih. The following night, Russia launched 55 Shahed drones at Ukraine. Ukraine's air force said it downed 32 and disoriented eight. Russia said it downed 158 Ukrainian drones over 11 regions. Ukraine's 81st Separate Airmobile Sloboda Brigade on Tuesday said it captured two Chinese soldiers on Ukrainian soil. Zelenskyy confirmed it at a news conference, saying, 'Ukrainians engaged in combat with six Chinese service members in the Donetsk region – in Tarasivka and Bilohorivka.' He later wrote on social media: 'We have information suggesting that there are many more Chinese citizens in the occupier's units.' US Department of State spokesperson Tammy Bruce said Chinese soldiers' involvement was 'disturbing'. Chinese Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Lin Jian on Wednesday denied Beijing's involvement. But Russian television channels showed further evidence of Chinese troops in Ukraine weeks earlier.
