Latest news with #Zelenskiyy
Business Recorder
4 days ago
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Russia says it has captured two villages in Ukraine
MOSCOW: Russia's Defence Ministry said on Saturday its forces had captured two villages in eastern Ukraine: Zelenyi Hai in the Donetsk region and Maliivka in the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian state news agency RIA Novosti reported. Zelenskiyy says Ukraine, Russia to hold peace talks in Turkey on Wednesday Reuters could not independently confirm the battlefield report.
Business Recorder
22-07-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Zelenskiyy says Ukraine, Russia to hold peace talks in Turkey on Wednesday
Peace talks between Ukraine and Russia - the first in seven weeks - are planned for Wednesday in Turkey, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy quoted a senior Kyiv official as saying on Monday. Zelenskiyy appealed earlier in the day for greater momentum in negotiations. Russia's state TASS news agency quoted a source in Turkiye as saying the talks would take place on Wednesday. The RIA news agency, also quoting a source, said they would take place over two days, Thursday and Friday. The Kremlin said it was waiting for confirmation of the date of the talks but said the two sides were 'diametrically opposed' in their positions on how to end the war. Zelenskiyy said in his nightly video address that he spoke with Rustem Umerov, secretary of Ukraine's National Security and Defence Council, on Monday in preparation for a prisoner exchange and another meeting with Russia in Turkiye. 'Umerov reported that the meeting is planned for Wednesday. More details will follow tomorrow,' Zelenskiyy said. Umerov, previously defence minister, was appointed to his current role last week and headed the first two rounds of talks with Russia. Ukraine has backed U.S. calls for an immediate ceasefire. Moscow says certain arrangements must be put in place before a ceasefire can be introduced. Russian forces have launched sustained attacks on Ukrainian cities in recent weeks, including missiles and hundreds of drones on Monday night that killed two people and injured 15. Ukraine has also launched long-range drone attacks. Zelenskiyy said: 'The agenda from our side is clear: the return of prisoners of war, the return of children abducted by Russia, and the preparation of a leaders' meeting.' Russian President Vladimir Putin, who is under increasing pressure from U.S. President Donald Trump to show progress towards ending the conflict, turned down a previous challenge from Zelenskiyy to meet him in person. Putin has said he does not see Zelenskiyy as a legitimate leader because Ukraine, which is under martial law, did not hold new elections when his five-year mandate expired last year. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: 'There is our draft memorandum, there is a draft memorandum that has been handed over by the Ukrainian side. There is to be an exchange of views and talks on these two drafts, which are diametrically opposed so far.' No ceasefire breakthrough Ukraine and Russia have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul, on May 16 and June 2, that led to the exchange of thousands of prisoners of war and the remains of dead soldiers. But the two sides have made no breakthrough towards a ceasefire or a settlement to end almost three and a half years of war. The Kremlin says Ukraine must abandon four regions Moscow says have been incorporated into Russia. Ukraine 'shouldn't target' Moscow: Trump Trump said last week he would impose new sanctions in 50 days on Russia and countries that buy its exports if there is no deal before then to end the conflict. French Foreign Minister Jean-Noël Barrot, speaking in Kyiv after talks with Zelenskiyy, noted Russia's refusal to implement an immediate ceasefire as well as its 'maximalist' demands. 'Discussions must begin, but on a basis that respects the interests of both parties, because diplomacy is not submission,' he told a news conference. 'And diplomacy begins with meetings at the level of heads of state and government, something Volodymyr Zelenskiyy has repeatedly called for.' Barrot said he favoured devising an even tougher sanctions package if Putin did not agree to a ceasefire.
New Straits Times
28-05-2025
- Politics
- New Straits Times
Ukraine's Zelenskiyy lands in Berlin for talks with Merz on ending the war
BERLIN: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy landed in Berlin today for talks with German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, his office said, part of a diplomatic drive to end the war in Ukraine, Europe's deadliest since World War Two. Merz will receive Zelenskiyy with military honours at the federal chancellery at noon (1000 GMT) for a visit focused on German support for Ukraine as well as efforts to achieve a ceasefire, a government spokesperson said in a statement. Ukrainian and Russian officials met this month for their first face-to-face negotiations since Russia's full-scale invasion of its former Soviet neighbour in 2022, under pressure from US President Donald Trump to end the war. The talks failed however to produce a ceasefire agreement and Russia unleashed three nights of massive aerial attacks on Ukraine over the weekend. Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near Ukraine's northern Sumy region, Zelenskiyy told reporters. With Trump signalling wavering support for Ukraine in recent months, Germany could play an increasingly important role as Ukraine's biggest military and financial backer after the United States. Merz, a conservative who took office this month, has vowed to take more of a leadership role in ensuring support for Ukraine than his Social Democrat predecessor Olaf Scholz. He visited Ukraine with other European leaders within days of becoming chancellor and on Monday endorsed Ukraine's right to launch long-range missile strikes into Russian territory - in contrast with Scholz's cautious rhetoric on the issue. Zelenskiyy said on Tuesday he was grateful to Merz for coming to Kyiv but there were "things that we could not discuss because we did not have a long one-on-one. And we agreed that the time will come when I will come to Berlin and we will talk about it." Washington and Kyiv are waiting for Russia's draft of a memorandum on a peace accord and Merz has dampened hopes for a quick resolution to the war. "Putin and Russia clearly have at the moment no interest in a ceasefire, or a peace deal," he said on Tuesday. "This means, as a consequence, that Ukraine must continue to defend itself — and that we must actually intensify our efforts to enable Ukraine to do so." Germany is not expected, however, to announce new weapons deliveries to Ukraine given that the new government has said it would no longer publicly detail what arms it is sending Ukraine, preferring a stance of "strategic ambiguity."
Business Recorder
29-04-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Zelenskiyy praises killing of top Russian military figures
President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy praised Ukraine's foreign intelligence service on Monday for the killing of top Russian military figures since the start of the war, but made no mention of a car bomb that killed a senior Russian officer last week. The Kremlin has blamed Ukraine for last Friday's car bomb outside Moscow that killed Yaroslav Moskalik, 59, deputy head of the Main Operations Directorate of the General Staff of the Russian Armed Forces. Authorities in Kyiv have made no direct comment on the attack on Moskalik, the latest in a series of Russian military officers and pro-war figures killed since the February 2022 invasion of Ukraine. Zelenskiyy's remarks, on the Telegram messaging app, made no reference to any specific instance of Russian military officers being killed. 'The head of Ukraine's Foreign Intelligence reported on the liquidation of persons from the top command of the Russian armed forces. Justice inevitably is done,' Zelenskiyy said, referring to the agency's head, Oleg Ivashchenko. 'The head reported on further measures to counter Russian agent networks in Ukraine and saboteurs. Good results. Thank you for your work,' the president said. Ukraine's SBU intelligence service said it killed Lieutenant General Igor Kirillov, a top Russian general accused by Ukraine of being responsible for the use of chemical weapons against Ukrainian troops, last December in Moscow. Trump and Ukraine's Zelenskiy have 'very productive' meeting in Rome, says US official A Moscow court at the weekend ordered a Ukrainian national facing terrorism charges in connection with the attack on Moskalik to be remanded in custody. A Moskalik obituary published on Tuesday in the Russian defence ministry's official newspaper, Krasnaya Zvezda and signed by Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov, his deputies and top army commanders, described Moskalik as a 'loyal son' of Russia. It said that since the start of the war, which the obituary in line with the Kremlin's stance called 'a special military operation', Moskalik supervised the works of the General Staff's combat control group. It did not provide details on what that position involved. According to the obituary, from 2015 to 2021 Moskalik was involved in Russian defence ministry's international delegations working on issues relating to southeastern Ukraine. He was 'responsible for preparing materials for the Russian president on the situation in southeastern Ukraine', the obituary said.
Business Recorder
28-04-2025
- Politics
- Business Recorder
Trump urges Russia to stop attacks; Rubio says US might walk away from peace efforts
MORRISTOWN: President Donald Trump urged Russia on Sunday to stop its attacks in Ukraine while his top diplomat said the United States might walk away from peace efforts if it does not see progress. Speaking to reporters in New Jersey, Trump said he was disappointed that Russia has continued to attack Ukraine, and said his one-on-one meeting with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiyy at the Vatican on Saturday had gone well. 'I see him as calmer. I think he understands the picture, and I think he wants to make a deal,' Trump said of Zelenskiyy. U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio, meanwhile, said the Trump administration might abandon its attempts to broker a deal if Russia and Ukraine do not make headway. 'It needs to happen soon,' Rubio told the NBC program 'Meet the Press.'' 'We cannot continue to dedicate time and resources to this effort if it's not going to come to fruition.' Trump and Zelenskiyy, in Rome for the funeral of Pope Francis, met in a Vatican basilica on Saturday to try to revive faltering efforts to end the war in Ukraine. The meeting was the first between the two leaders since an angry encounter in the White House Oval Office in February and comes at a critical time in negotiations aimed at bringing an end to the conflict. Trump rebuked Russian President Vladimir Putin after that meeting, saying on social media that there is 'no reason' for Russia to shoot missiles into civilian areas. In a pre-taped interview that aired on the CBS program 'Face the Nation' on Sunday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia would continue to target sites used by Ukraine's military. Trump says Ukraine willing to negotiate, Russia 'ready for peace' When asked about a Russian strike on Kyiv last week that killed civilians, Lavrov said that 'the target attacked was not something absolutely civilian' and that Russia targets only 'sites which are used by the military.' Zelenskiyy wrote on the messaging app Telegram that his top military commander reported that Russia had already conducted nearly 70 attacks on Sunday. 'The situation at the front and the real activity of the Russian army prove that there is currently insufficient pressure on Russia from the world to end this war,' Zelenskiyy said. Differing proposals Ukrainian and European officials pushed back last week against some U.S. proposals on how to end the war, making counterproposals on issues from territory to sanctions. American proposals called for U.S. recognition of Russia's control over Crimea, the Ukrainian peninsula that Moscow seized and annexed in 2014, as well as de facto recognition of Russia's hold on other parts of Ukraine. In contrast, the European and Ukrainian proposal defers detailed discussion about territory until after a ceasefire is concluded. German Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said on Sunday that Ukraine should not agree to the American proposal, saying it went too far in ceding swathes of territory in return for a ceasefire. Mike Waltz, Trump's national security adviser, said the U.S. president has 'expressed his frustration' at both Putin and Zelenskiyy but remains determined to help negotiate an agreement. Waltz also said the United States and Ukraine would eventually reach an agreement over rare earth minerals. Chuck Schumer, the top U.S. Senate Democrat, said on Sunday that he is concerned Trump will 'cave in to Putin.' 'To just abandon Ukraine, after all the sacrifice that they made, after so much loss of life, and with the rallying of the whole West against Putin, it would just be a moral tragedy,' Schumer said on CNN's 'State of the Union' program.
