Latest news with #easternUkraine
Malay Mail
2 hours ago
- Business
- Malay Mail
No quick peace: Russia rules out breakthrough in ‘complex' Ukraine talks
MOSCOW, June 4 — Russia on Tuesday said it was wrong to expect a quick breakthrough in Ukraine talks, a day after Moscow rejected Kyiv's call for an unconditional ceasefire at negotiations in Istanbul. The sides agreed on a large-scale swap of captured soldiers and exchanged their roadmaps to peace, or so-called 'memorandums', at the discussions, which lasted less than two hours. More than three years into Russia's offensive — which has killed tens of thousands on both sides and forced millions from their homes in eastern Ukraine — the two sides appear as irreconcilable as ever. 'The settlement issue is extremely complex and involves a large number of nuances,' Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Tuesday. 'It would be wrong to expect immediate solutions and breakthroughs,' he added. Moscow demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of four eastern and southern regions that Moscow claims to have annexed as a precondition to pausing its offensive, according to the document handed to the Ukrainians that was published by Russian state media. Kyiv had pressed for a full and unconditional ceasefire. Russia instead offered a partial truce of two to three days in some areas of the frontline, its top negotiator said after the talks. Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga on Tuesday denounced Russia for presenting 'old ultimatums that do not move the situation any closer to true peace' and for having 'so far rejected any meaningful formats for a ceasefire'. Peskov earlier also dismissed the idea of a summit between the presidents of Russia, Ukraine and the United States. 'In the near future, it is unlikely,' Peskov told reporters when asked about the chances of the leaders meeting, adding that such a summit could only happen after Russian and Ukrainian negotiators reach an 'agreement'. The White House had said on Monday that US President Donald Trump was 'open' to the idea, which is also backed by Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky and Turkey's Recep Tayyip Erdogan. Targeting civilians Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of 'deliberately' targeting civilians in a rocket attack on the city of Sumy, some 30 kilometres from the Russian border, that killed four people. Russian troops have accelerated their advance, seeking to establish what Putin called a 'buffer zone' inside Ukraine's north-eastern Sumy region. Zelensky posted a video from the emergency services showing destroyed cars and the body of one victim lying on the road. The attack 'says everything one needs to know about Russia's so-called 'desire' to end this war', he added, calling for 'decisive actions' from the United States and Europe to push Russia into a ceasefire. 'Every day, Russia gives new reasons for tougher sanctions and stronger support for our defence,' he said. A seven-year-old girl was among 20 wounded, with doctors 'fighting for her life', Sumy's Acting Mayor Artem Kobzar said. Three people were also killed in a rocket attack in the northeastern Kharkiv region. Moscow's army said it had captured the village of Andriivka in the Sumy region, located around five kilometres from the Russian border. Zelensky said last week that Russia was massing some 50,000 soldiers for an offensive on the region. Meanwhile, Ukraine's SBU security service claimed it had hit a pillar of the Crimean bridge linking the annexed peninsula to Russia with an underwater explosive device. The extent of the damage was unclear following a temporary closure to the bridge after the attack. A delegation of top Ukrainian officials also landed in Washington for talks with US officials on defence and economic issues, including the possibility of new sanctions, Zelensky's office said. Trump, who said he could end the conflict swiftly when he returned to the White House in January, has repeatedly expressed anger at both Putin and Zelensky as the fighting drags through its fourth year with no end in sight. But he has held off from imposing new economic penalties on Moscow. — AFP
Yahoo
2 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
'My duty': Young Ukrainian women reporting from the front
When Russia invaded Ukraine in early 2022, Olha Kyrylenko was at home watching images from her colleagues risking their lives to cover the siege of the port city of Mariupol. "I asked myself whether I could work in such conditions at all," said Kyrylenko, now a 26-year-old reporter for the leading media outlet Ukrainska Pravda. "And I was like, well, I have to at least try," she told AFP during a rare break in war-torn eastern Ukraine. She went to cover the front lines for the first time shortly after Russia invaded, and noticed that she was far from the only woman. "All my friends, journalists working in the war, are women," Kyrylenko said. While women journalists had already been covering fighting between Ukraine and Kremlin-backed separatists since 2014, a new generation emerged in 2022. - 'Truth of this war' - Mobilisation in Ukraine's army is obligatory only for men, but the country has seen more and more women joining its ranks. Two Ukrainska Pravda journalists have been drafted into the army, including the photographer Kyrylenko worked with on her first reporting trip to the front in 2022. Since then, she has been working on her own. That was also the case for Viktoria Roshchyna, whose death in Russian detention last year highlighted the risks taken by Ukrainian journalists covering the war. The 27-year-old went missing in 2023 during a high-risk trip to territory occupied by Russian forces. Her body was sent back only in February and bearing signs of torture, according to a media investigation. Kyrylenko worked with Roshchyna and remembers her as "tenacious" and ready to work where no one else would. But Kyrylenko said her death had forced her to think hard about whether journalism "is worth risking your life". In April, Kyrylenko was reporting in Pokrovsk, a vital front-line logistics hub where fighting is fierce, on her mother's birthday. She promised her mother that nothing would happen to her. But, she said, "my life right now is not the highest value in my life". The main thing is "that my country as a country should survive and that the truth about this war, whatever it is, should be present in the information space". - 'A woman in this war' - Keeping a professional distance as a Ukrainian journalist covering the war can be difficult. Alina Yevych, a 25-year-old reporter, said she had managed -- for a while. Then she met a woman who said she had been kidnapped and raped for a week by Russian soldiers in Mariupol. After hearing her words, "I don't know how to be objective", said Yevych, who works along with her boss Maria Davydenko for Vchasno, an independent news outlet. Yevych said soldiers they interview sometimes found it hard to believe that women could understand how tanks work or listen to their stories without flinching. Mentalities are changing, Yevych said, but "for some people, you really remain a girl in this war". - 'Play Rambo' - Vyacheslav Maryshev, editor in chief of the visuals department at Suspilne, a state-funded news organisation, in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine, said his female employees tended to take less unnecessary risks. The men sometimes want to act like "Rambo" to prove their bravery, he said, but in his team of war reporters there are more women than men. One of them, Oleksandra Novosel, said she had just convinced her bosses to invest in bulletproof jackets more suited to women's body shapes. At the start of the invasion, one of the vests available at Suspilne weighed 12 kilogrammes (26 pounds) -- around a quarter of her weight. "I walked around in it and wobbled," Novosel recalled. The 30-year-old said she would prefer not to need a bulletproof vest, and had not imagined working in a war zone until her country became one. She would rather be covering courts or investigating corruption, she said, but for the moment, reporting on the war is "my duty". led-dt/jbr/djt/js
Yahoo
5 days ago
- General
- Yahoo
Russian drone attack targets Kharkiv in eastern Ukraine
The Russian military launched a large-scale drone attack on the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv, authorities reported early on Friday. At least eight people were injured in the attack, including two teenagers, military governor Oleh Syniehubov wrote on Telegram. The strike, which involved at least eight combat drones, targeted a "municipal enterprise," Mayor Ihor Terekhov said, without providing further details. He added that a major fire broke out on the company premises. The Russian military has been intensifying its attacks on major Ukrainian cities for several weeks, with civilians bearing the brunt of the violence, which started in February 2022, when Russia launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
Free Malaysia Today
7 days ago
- Business
- Free Malaysia Today
Zelensky says Russia gathered 50,000 troops on northern Ukraine
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky views Turkey, the Vatican and Switzerland as the most realistic venues for further negotiations with Russia. (AFP pic) KYIV : Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near Ukraine's northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there. The build-up comes as Russia appears to be gearing up for a summer offensive in Ukraine while Kyiv waits for Moscow to present a memorandum laying out its conditions to proceed with ceasefire talks. Sumy lies across the border from Russia's Kursk region where Ukraine previously seized and held a pocket of land for months, before being almost fully pushed out last month, although it says it still holds some areas there. 'Their largest, strongest forces are currently on the Kursk front,' Zelensky told reporters on Tuesday. 'To push our troops out of the Kursk region and to prepare offensive actions against the Sumy region.' Putin has said he wants a 'buffer zone' along Russia's border with Ukraine. Zelensky said he believed Russia wanted a buffer zone of about 10km. Russia has captured at least four border villages in the region recently, and has been creeping slowly forwards over the past several weeks on parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine near the city of Kostyantynivka. However, Zelensky said that the Russians had been pushed back in that area by 4km over two days. Ukraine and Russia swapped 1,000 captives each after a meeting of the two countries' delegations in Istanbul nearly two weeks ago which failed to produce a ceasefire sought by Ukraine, the US and Europe. Zelensky said that he viewed Turkey, the Vatican and Switzerland as the most realistic venues for further negotiations with Russia. He said interest in hosting talks had also been expressed by Malta, as well as unspecified African nations. Reuters previously reported that Moscow does not see the Vatican as a serious venue for talks. Zelensky said that he will attend the next G7 summit after being invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency. He added that he will likely take part in the next EU summit. Speaking about Ukraine's domestic arms production, Zelensky said he wanted US$30 billion for Ukraine to fully fund the available capacity of the rapidly expanding sector.
Yahoo
7 days ago
- Business
- Yahoo
Zelenskiy says Russia has gathered 50,000 troops for offensive on northern Ukraine
By Max Hunder KYIV (Reuters) -Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that Russia has gathered 50,000 troops near Ukraine's northern Sumy region, but added that Kyiv had taken steps to prevent Moscow from conducting a large-scale offensive there. The build-up comes as Russia appears to be gearing up for a summer offensive in Ukraine while Kyiv waits for Moscow to present a memorandum laying out its conditions to proceed with ceasefire talks. Sumy lies across the border from Russia's Kursk region where Ukraine previously seized and held a pocket of land for months, before being almost fully pushed out last month, although it says it still holds some areas there. "Their largest, strongest forces are currently on the Kursk front," Zelenskiy told reporters on Tuesday. "To push our troops out of the Kursk region and to prepare offensive actions against the Sumy region." Putin has said he wants a "buffer zone" along Russia's border with Ukraine. Zelenskiy said he believed Russia wanted a buffer zone of about 10 kilometres (6 miles). Russia has captured at least four border villages in the region recently, and has been creeping slowly forwards over the past several weeks on parts of the frontline in eastern Ukraine near the city of Kostyantynivka. However, Zelenskiy said that the Russians had been pushed back in that area by 4 km (2.5 miles) over two days. Ukraine and Russia swapped 1,000 captives each after a meeting of the two countries' delegations in Istanbul nearly two weeks ago which failed to produce a ceasefire sought by Ukraine, the U.S. and Europe. Zelenskiy said that he viewed Turkey, the Vatican and Switzerland as the most realistic venues for further negotiations with Russia. He said interest in hosting talks had also been expressed by Malta, as well as unspecified African nations. Reuters previously reported that Moscow does not see the Vatican as a serious venue for talks. Zelenskiy said that he will attend the next G7 summit after being invited by Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, whose country currently holds the bloc's rotating presidency. He added that he will likely take part in the next EU summit. Speaking about Ukraine's domestic arms production, Zelenskiy said he wanted $30 billion for Ukraine to fully fund the available capacity of the rapidly expanding sector.
