Latest news with #VolodymyrZelenskiyy
Business Recorder
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Russia launches war's largest air attack on Ukraine, kills at least 12 people
KYIV: Russian forces launched a barrage of 367 drones and missiles at Ukrainian cities overnight, including the capital Kyiv, in the largest aerial attack of the war so far, killing at least 12 people and injuring dozens more, officials said. The dead included three children in the northern region of Zhytomyr, local officials there said. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy called on the United States, which has taken a softer public line on Russia and its leader, Vladimir Putin, since President Donald Trump took office, to speak out. 'The silence of America, the silence of others in the world only encourages Putin,' he wrote on Telegram. 'Every such terrorist Russian strike is reason enough for new sanctions against Russia.' It was the largest attack of the war in terms of weapons fired, although other strikes have killed more people. Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said 12 people had been killed and 60 more wounded. Earlier death tolls given separately by regional authorities and rescuers had put the number of dead at 13. 'This was a combined, ruthless strike aimed at civilians. The enemy once again showed that its goal is fear and death,' he wrote on Telegram. The assault comes as Ukraine and Russia prepared to conduct the third and final day of a prisoner swap in which both sides will exchange a total of 1000 people each. Ceasefire efforts Ukraine and its European allies have sought to push Moscow into signing a 30-day ceasefire as a first step to negotiating an end to the three-year war. Their efforts suffered a blow earlier this week when Trump declined to place further sanctions on Moscow for not agreeing to an immediate pause in fighting, as Kyiv had wanted. Ukraine's air force said Russia had launched 298 drones and 69 missiles in its overnight assault, although it said it was able to down 266 drones and 45 missiles. Damage extended to a string of regional centres, including Ukraine's second-largest city, Kharkiv, as well as Mykolaiv in the south and Ternopil in the west. In Kyiv, Tymur Tkachenko, head of the city's military administration, said 11 people were injured in drone strikes. No deaths were reported in the capital, although four were killed in the region around the city, according to officials. This was the second large aerial attack in two days. On Friday evening, Russia launched dozens of drones and ballistic missiles at Kyiv in waves that continued through the night. In northeastern Ukraine, Kharkiv Mayor Ihor Terekhov said early on Sunday that drones hit three city districts and injured three people. Blasts shattered windows in high-rise apartment blocks. Drone strikes killed a 77-year-old man and injured five people in the southern city of Mykolaiv, the regional governor said. Kyiv mayor says Russian drones, missiles trigger fires, injure eight He published a picture of a residential apartment block with a large hole from an explosion and rubble scattered over the ground. In the western region of Khmelnytskyi, many hundreds of kilometres away from the frontlines of fighting, four people were killed and five others wounded, according to the governor. 'Without pressure, nothing will change and Russia and its allies will only build up forces for such murders in Western countries,' the Ukrainian president's chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote on Telegram. 'Moscow will fight as long as it has the ability to produce weapons.' Russia's Defence Ministry reported that its air defence units had intercepted or destroyed 95 Ukrainian drones over a four-hour period. The Mayor of Moscow, Sergei Sobyanin, said 12 Ukrainian drones had been intercepted on their way to the capital.
Business Recorder
18-05-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Pope Leo to meet Ukraine's Zelenskiyy on Sunday, Vatican says
VATICAN CITY: Pope Leo will have a private meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy later on Sunday following the pope's inaugural Mass, the Vatican said. Leo spoke with Zelenskiyy on Monday in the first known conversation between the newly-elected pontiff and a foreign leader, underscoring his concern for the war in Ukraine. Peace breakthrough unlikely as Putin declines to meet Zelenskiy in Turkey Speaking moments after Sunday's Mass, Leo mentioned the 'martyred' Ukraine and called for a 'just and lasting peace'.
Business Recorder
16-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Europe's STOXX 600 set for fifth straight weekly rise
European shares extended gains on Friday, supported by healthcare stocks, and were on track to end the week in positive territory as benign headlines about a US-China temporary truce sparked risk-on sentiment. The region-wide STOXX 600 index rose 0.4% by 0710 GMT, set for its fifth consecutive weekly advance. Other local bourses also traded in the green at open, with Germany's hovering near a record high. The heavyweight healthcare sub-index led gains with a 1.4% rise, boosted by Novo Nordisk and Novartis. The region was closely monitoring developments from the Russia-Ukraine peace talks, a day after Russian President Vladimir Putin declined to meet face-to-face with Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelenskiyy. According to Vladimir Medinsky, the head of the Russian delegation, talks between the representatives of the two warring countries are scheduled for the day. Investors awaited euro zone trade balance figures for March as well as Italy's inflation rate, due later in the day. European shares pull back after rally Among individual stocks, reinsurance company Swiss Re fell 1.2%. The company posted claims of $570 million from deadly wildfires in Los Angeles earlier this year. Luxury group Richemont reported a slightly stronger-than-forecast 7% rise in quarterly sales, taking its shares 4% higher in early trading.
Business Recorder
12-05-2025
- Business
- Business Recorder
Stocks, dollar up on US-China trade hope, details awaited
SYDNEY: Wall Street stock futures climbed and the dollar firmed against safe haven peers on Monday as signs of progress in U.S.-China trade talks boosted hopes a global recession might be avoided, though details of any deal were still to come. Geopolitical tensions also looked to be easing as a fragile ceasefire held between India and Pakistan, while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy said he was ready to meet Vladimir Putin in Turkey on Thursday for talks. Over in Geneva, U.S. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent touted 'substantial progress' in trade discussions, while Chinese officials said the sides had reached 'important consensus' and agreed to launch another new economic dialogue forum. A joint statement is expected later on Monday, though it was notable that neither side mentioned tariff rates specifically. 'What we seem to have here, then, is a broad framework under which the two nations can conduct further talks, with the aim of reaching a broader trade agreement,' said Michael Brown, a senior research strategist at Pepperstone. 'Not the worst case outcome that was possible from this weekend's talks, far from it, but not a concrete deal either,' he added. 'Does this progress allow for any tariffs to be paused, reduced, or rolled back, and if so for how long?' Investors are hoping the White House will soon scale back the 145% tariff on Chinese goods, even if only back to the 60% first flagged by President Donald Trump. Trump still seems wedded to keeping broad tariffs in place no matter what, which will drag on economic growth and push up prices, but any trade progress could help dodge a sharp downturn. Markets reacted by pushing S&P 500 futures up 1.2%, while Nasdaq futures rose 1.4%. EUROSTOXX 50 futures firmed 0.9%, while FTSE futures added 0.4% and DAX futures 0.7%. Japan's Nikkei edged up 0.3%, while South Korea gained 0.4%. The dollar added 0.4% on the safe haven yen to reach 145.90 , though it was off an early five-week peak of 146.31. The euro dipped 0.2% to $1.1224 and the dollar index edged up 0.2% to 100.60. The dollar also dipped 0.2% on the offshore Chinese yuan to 7.2278 , and back toward last week's low of 7.1846. Japanese stocks jump, dollar firms on trade hopes; bitcoin soars Trump's erratic trade policies have put the dollar under pressure in recent weeks, though it gained some support last week when the Federal Reserve signalled it was in no rush to cut interest rates again. Data on U.S. consumer prices for April due this week could offer an early hint of the impact of import levies on inflation, while retail sales are seen flatlining in April after a pre-tariff surge the month before. Earnings from retail giant Walmart on Thursday should provide colour on demand and how soon shelves might start to empty of Chinese goods. 'We expect it will not be until the May CPI data are out before we see broad evidence of tariffs showing up in inflation data,' analysts at ANZ wrote in a note. 'In this regard, we think June is too early for the Fed to cut rates and maintain our view that Q3, and most probably September, is a more realistic time frame,' they added. 'That would give the opportunity to observe the impact of higher tariffs on both the price level and inflation persistence.' Markets further trimmed the outlook for easing on Monday, with Fed fund futures down between 3 and 7 ticks. The chance of a rate cut in June is now only 17%, down from more than 60% a month ago, while a July move is seen as a 59% chance. A host of Fed officials speak this week, led by Chair Jerome Powell on Thursday. The general increase in risk appetite hurt gold, which has been on a tear in recent weeks as investors sought the safety in the physical metal. Gold was off 1.7% at $3,268 an ounce , short of the April all-time peak of $3,500. Oil prices went the other way on hopes progress in trade talks would lessen the risk of a major economic downturn, though plans for increased supply by OPEC+ remain a headwind. Brent rose 23 cents to $64.14 a barrel, while U.S. crude added 25 cents to $61.27 per barrel.
Business Recorder
21-04-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Russia launches missiles, drones as Putin's Easter ceasefire ends, Ukraine says
Russia launched missiles and drones targeting Ukraine early on Monday, waking up Kyiv and the eastern half of the country, hours after the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by Russian President Vladimir Putin came to an end. There were no immediate reports of injuries or major damages from the attacks, regional Ukrainian officials said on social media. The scale of the attack was not immediately clear. Both Kyiv and Moscow had accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the truce that the Kremlin indicated on Sunday would not be extended. Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy reiterated several times Ukraine's willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war. But Putin, who launched Russia's invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 and who ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday, did not give orders to extend it. 'There were no other commands,' Russia's TASS state news agency cited Kremlin's spokesman Dmitry Peskov as saying when asked whether the ceasefire could be prolonged. While eastern Ukraine was placed under air raid alerts starting minutes after midnight on Monday that are yet to be called off, according to data from the Ukrainian air force, Kyiv and the central regions were placed on alert for about an hour, starting at 0140 GMT. There were no reports of strikes on the Ukrainian capital, but officials in the port city of Mykolaiv said that it had been hit by Russian missiles. There were no immediate reports of damages. Russia's Voronezh region that borders Ukraine was also under air raid alerts for two hours overnight, and the borders regions of Kursk and parts of Belgorod were briefly under missile threat as well, regional officials said. While there were no air raid alerts in Ukraine on Sunday, Ukrainian forces reported nearly 3,000 violations of Russia's own ceasefire with the heaviest attacks and shelling seen along the Pokrovsk part of the frontline, Zelenskiyy said earlier on Monday. Russia's defence ministry said on Sunday that Ukrainian forces had shot at Russian positions 444 times and said it had counted more than 900 Ukrainian drone attacks, saying also that there were deaths and injuries among the civilian population. Russian missile attack kills one, wounds 112 in Ukraine's Kharkiv, officials say Reuters could not independently verify the battlefield reports. US President Donald Trump, hoping to clinch a lasting peace deal, struck an optimistic note Sunday, saying that 'hopefully' the two sides would make a deal 'this week' to end the conflict. On Friday, Trump and his Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, said the US would walk away from peace efforts unless there are clear signs of progress soon.
