[🇺🇦] Monitoring Russian and Ukraine War.

[Saif]

Trump and Zelensky hold first of two meetings in Rome

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have met inside St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope Francis' funeral. The White House described the 15-minute meeting as "very productive" and a Ukrainian spokesman said the pair will meet for a second time later on Saturday. Trum

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Trump and Zelensky hold first of two meetings in Rome
BBC
Published :
Apr 26, 2025 17:18
Updated :
Apr 26, 2025 17:18

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US President Donald Trump have met inside St Peter's Basilica ahead of Pope Francis' funeral.

The White House described the 15-minute meeting as "very productive" and a Ukrainian spokesman said the pair will meet for a second time later on Saturday.

Trump and Zelensky are attending the service in Vatican City alongside other heads of state and royals including Prince William, UK Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.

Their meeting comes one day after Trump said Russia and Ukraine were "very close to a deal", following talks between his envoy Steve Witkoff and Russian President Vladimir Putin in Moscow on Friday.

The meeting was the fourth such visit Witkoff had made to Russia since the start of the year, with the three-hour talks later described as "very useful" by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov.

Ushakov also added that it had brought the "Russian and US positions closer together, not just on Ukraine but also on a range of other international issues" of which the "possibility of resuming direct talks between Russian and Ukrainian representatives was in particular discussed".

Steven Cheung, White House communications director, said more details about the Vatican City private meeting between Trump and Zelensky would follow.

Images were later released by a Ukrainian official - Zelensky's head of office Andriy Yermak - of the two leaders sat on chairs inside the basilica.

A separate photo also showed Trump and Zelensky stood in conversation with Sir Keir and Macron inside the basilica.

Saturday's meetings are the first time the two leaders have met face-to-face since February after an unprecedented confrontation occurred in the Oval Office.

During the heated exchange Trump accused the Ukrainian president of "gambling with World War Three" by not going along with ceasefire plans led by Washington.

Kyiv has been on the receiving end of growing pressure from Trump to accept territorial concessions as part of an agreement with Moscow to end the war.

These concessions would reportedly include giving up large portions of land, including the Crimean peninsula which was illegally annexed by Russia in 2014.

Zelensky has repeatedly rejected the idea in the past. He suggested to the BBC on Friday that "a full and unconditional ceasefire opens up the possibility to discuss everything".

During the funeral the pair were not sat near one another due to the seating arrangements being organised in French alphabetical order.​

 

[Saif]

Trump doubts Putin’s intentions to end war

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter’s basilica before Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash and the US president later cast doubt on whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal...

www.newagebd.net

Trump doubts Putin’s intentions to end war
Agence France-Presse . Washington, United States 26 April, 2025, 23:24

Donald Trump | AFP file photo

Donald Trump and Volodymyr Zelensky met briefly in the hush of St Peter’s basilica before Pope Francis’s funeral on Saturday in their first encounter since a noisy White House clash and the US president later cast doubt on whether Russian leader Vladimir Putin wants a peace deal.

Zelensky said they discussed a possible unconditional ceasefire with Russia and was ‘hoping for results’ from a ‘very symbolic meeting that has the potential to become historic’.

After leaving Rome, Trump indicated a new approach to the Russian president.

‘There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days,’ Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform.

‘It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through ‘Banking’ or ‘Secondary Sanctions?’ Too many people are dying!!!’

Trump and Zelensky sat face-to-face, leaning forward in deep discussion in a corner of the basilica, as the pope’s wooden coffin lay in front of the altar before the funeral began, according to images released by the Ukrainian presidency.

The US president flew out of Rome immediately after the funeral mass and there were no further talks. But the two leaders also briefly huddled inside the basilica with British Prime Minister Keir Starmer and Emmanuel Macron.

Macron’s office described the exchanges as ‘positive’ and he later met Zelensky one-on-one.

In St Peter’s Square, Trump rubbed shoulders with dozens of world leaders, many keen to raise the tariffs he has unleashed. Both sides had kept the prospects of a meeting vague ahead of the funeral with Trump saying only it was ‘possible’.

Putin on Friday discussed the ‘possibility’ of direct talks with Ukraine in a meeting with Witkoff, according to a Kremlin aide.

He told Witkoff that Russia is ready to resume talks with Ukraine ‘without preconditions’, the Kremlin added Saturday.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says signal for start of direct peace talks should come from Ukraine

Russia said on Monday it was waiting for a signal from Ukraine to say it was willing to hold direct negotiations to end their war, but had not seen any signs of movement. The Kremlin said last Friday that the possibility of direct talks had been raised during a three-hour meeting between President

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia says signal for start of direct peace talks should come from Ukraine
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 28, 2025 17:20
Updated :
Apr 28, 2025 17:20

Police officers inspect the site of a building hit by a Russian ballistic missile strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kyiv, Ukraine April 24, 2025. Photo : REUTERS/Valentyn Ogirenko

Russia said on Monday it was waiting for a signal from Ukraine to say it was willing to hold direct negotiations to end their war, but had not seen any signs of movement.

The Kremlin said last Friday that the possibility of direct talks had been raised during a three-hour meeting between President Vladimir Putin and US envoy Steve Witkoff.

Moscow and Kyiv have not held direct negotiations since March 2022, soon after the start of Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine. Later that year, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy adopted a decree that ruled out negotiations with Putin, after Russia claimed four regions of Ukraine as its own.

Zelenskiy, who met US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis' funeral, has said Kyiv would be ready to hold talks with Moscow once a ceasefire deal has stopped the fighting.

Zelenskiy's chief of staff, Andriy Yermak, said on Monday that continuing Russian attacks contradicted the Kremlin's statements about wanting peace.

"Russia is not ceasing fire at the front and is attacking Ukraine with Shaheds right now," Yermak wrote on Telegram, referring to Iranian-made drones widely used by Russian forces.

"All the Russians' statements about peace without ceasing fire are just plain lies."

Asked by a reporter if the signal for direct talks should come from Ukraine or the United States, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said: "Well, from Kyiv, at least Kyiv should take some actions in this regard. They have a legal ban on this. But so far we don't see any action."

Meanwhile, Moscow would continue its "special military operation", he said.

Moscow and Kyiv are under pressure from the US to find a settlement to end the war, the deadliest in Europe since World War Two.

Ukraine accuses Russia of playing for time in order to try to seize more of its territory, and has urged greater international pressure to get Moscow to stop fighting.

Russia accuses Ukraine of being unwilling to make any concessions and of seeking a ceasefire only on its own terms.

Putin told Witkoff on Friday that Russia was ready for talks with Kyiv without preconditions, according to a Kremlin aide.

Trump said on Friday that the two sides were "very close to a deal". In recent days he has been more critical than usual of Moscow, saying there was no reason for it to fire missiles into civilian areas and voicing concern that Putin was "just tapping me along".​

 

[Saif]

Kremlin says Putin is open to Ukraine peace but warns against rushing a deal

President Vladimir Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and intense work is going on with the United States, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress that Washington wants is difficult to achieve, the Kremlin said on Wednesday. US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be reme

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Kremlin says Putin is open to Ukraine peace but warns against rushing a deal
REUTERS
Published :
Apr 30, 2025 18:11
Updated :
Apr 30, 2025 18:11

A rescuer works at a site of a Russian drone strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Dnipro, Ukraine in this handout picture released April 30, 2025. Photo : Governor of Dnipropetrovsk Regional Military Civil Administration Serhiy Lysak via Telegram/Handout via REUTERS


President Vladimir Putin is open to peace in Ukraine and intense work is going on with the United States, but the conflict is so complicated that the rapid progress that Washington wants is difficult to achieve, the Kremlin said on Wednesday.

US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, has repeatedly said he wants to end the "bloodbath" of the more than three-year war in Ukraine.

But Washington has been signalling that it is frustrated by the failure of Moscow and Kyiv to reach terms to end the deadliest land war in Europe since World War Two.

"The (Russian) president remains open to political and diplomatic methods of resolving this conflict," Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters.

He noted that Putin had expressed a willingness for direct talks with Ukraine, but that there had been no answer yet from Kyiv.

Russia's aims had to be achieved either way, he added, saying Moscow's preference was to achieve those aims peacefully.

"We understand that Washington is willing to achieve a quick success in this process," Peskov said in English. But news agency TASS quoted Peskov as saying that the root causes of the Ukraine war were too complex to be resolved in one day.

Putin's decision to send tens of thousands of troops into Ukraine in 2022 triggered the worst confrontation between Moscow and the West since the 1962 Cuban Missile Crisis.

Former US President Joe Biden, Western European leaders and Ukraine cast the invasion as an imperial-style land grab and repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces.

Putin casts the war as a watershed moment in Moscow's relations with the West, which he says humiliated Russia after the Soviet Union fell in 1991 by enlarging NATO and encroaching on what he considers Moscow's sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

MORE WAR?

Putin in March said that Russia supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that fighting could not be paused until a number of crucial conditions were worked out or clarified.

On Monday, Putin declared a three-day ceasefire in May to coincide with the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union over the Nazis in World War Two.

Swedish police detained a 16-year-old early on Wednesday on suspicion of murder, authorities said, after three people were shot dead in the town of Uppsala the day before.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy has said that progress in resolving the war depended on Russia taking the first step of agreeing to an unconditional ceasefire.

Trump said on Tuesday he thought that Putin wants to stop the war in Ukraine, adding that if it was not for Trump Russia would try to take the whole of Ukraine.

"If it weren't for me, I think he'd want to take over the whole country," Trump said.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Tuesday that now was the time for concrete proposals from Moscow and Kyiv to end the war and warned that the US will step back as a mediator if there is no progress.

Trump refused to answer a question about whether the United States would halt military aid to Ukraine if Washington walked away from talks.​

 

[Saif]

Russia's Medvedev says nobody can guarantee Kyiv's safety if Ukraine attacks Moscow on May 9

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Saturday that nobody could guarantee that the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv would survive to see May 10 if Ukraine attacked Moscow during World War Two victory celebrations on May 9. Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday decla

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia's Medvedev says nobody can guarantee Kyiv's safety if Ukraine attacks Moscow on May 9
REUTERS
Published :
May 03, 2025 18:19
Updated :
May 03, 2025 18:19

Deputy head of Russia's Security Council Dmitry Medvedev delivers a speech during a session of the educational marathon "Knowledge. First" in Moscow, Russia, April 29, 2025. Photo : Sputnik/Yekaterina Shtukina/Pool via REUTERS

Dmitry Medvedev, deputy chairman of Russia's Security Council, said on Saturday that nobody could guarantee that the Ukrainian capital of Kyiv would survive to see May 10 if Ukraine attacked Moscow during World War Two victory celebrations on May 9.

Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday declared a three-day ceasefire in May in the war with Ukraine to mark the 80th anniversary of the victory of the Soviet Union and its allies in World War Two.

The Kremlin said the 72-hour ceasefire would run on May 8, May 9 - when Putin will host international leaders including Chinese President Xi Jinping for celebrations to commemorate victory over Nazi Germany - and May 10.

Responding to Moscow's offer of the three-day ceasefire, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said he was ready as long as the ceasefire would be 30 days in length, something Putin had already ruled out in the near term, saying he wants a long-term settlement not a brief pause.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine, given the continued war with Russia, could not guarantee the safety of any foreign dignitaries who came to Moscow for the traditional May 9 victory parade.

"We cannot be responsible for what happens on the territory of the Russian Federation. They are responsible for your security, and therefore we will not give you any guarantees," he said.

Medvedev, a former Russian president who has emerged as one of Moscow's most outspoken anti-Western hawks since the start of Russia's war in Ukraine, called Zelenskiy's statement a "verbal provocation" and said nobody had asked for Kyiv's security guarantees for the May 9 events.

"(Zelenskiy) understands that in the event of a real provocation on Victory Day, nobody will be able to guarantee that Kyiv will live to see May 10," Medvedev said on his official Telegram channel.​

 

[Saif]

Ukraine, Russia trade aerial attacks

Russia and Ukraine traded a barrage of drone strikes overnight on Wednesday, in attacks that killed two in Kyiv and forced Moscow to shut major airports hours before a swathe of foreign leaders was to arrive...

www.newagebd.net

Ukraine, Russia trade aerial attacks
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 08 May, 2025, 00:44

Russia and Ukraine traded a barrage of drone strikes overnight on Wednesday, in attacks that killed two in Kyiv and forced Moscow to shut major airports hours before a swathe of foreign leaders was to arrive.

The Kremlin has announced a unilateral three-day truce — set to start at 2100 GMT on Wednesday — to coincide with its grand May 9 military parade on Red Square, marking 80 years since the defeat of Nazi Germany in World War II.

China’s president Xi Jinping and Brazil’s Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva are among 29 foreign leaders expected in Moscow to mark the occasion, which has become Russia’s most important public holiday under president Vladimir Putin.

Ukraine has dismissed Putin’s order to his troops to halt their attacks as a ‘manipulation’ and ‘game’ designed to protect his parade rather than a genuine peace measure.

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky is calling for an unconditional 30-day ceasefire — a proposal back by US president Donald Trump and previously rejected by Putin.

Zelensky called for more pressure on Moscow to end its invasion.

‘Only significantly intensified pressure on Russia and stronger sanctions can pave the way to diplomacy. Any measures depriving the aggressor of resources to wage war must be implemented to bring lasting peace,’ Zelensky said on social media.

Hours before Putin’s order was set to come into effect, Russia unleashed a barrage of drone attacks across Ukraine.

Zelensky said Russia fired 142 drones and four ballistic missiles.

‘Unfortunately, there are fatalities — a woman and her son,’ Zelensky said, referring to the Kyiv attack.

The emergency services said falling debris from a drone attack on the central Shevchenkivsky district sparked a fire in an apartment block.

AFP journalists in the capital heard loud explosions over the city at around 1:00am (2200 GMT).

In the morning, a first-aid tent had been erected next to the charred facade of the building, blackened by the fire and with windows blown out on its top floors.

Men in camouflage were inspecting debris from a fallen drone part.

Attempted drone attacks by Ukraine across Russia triggered hours of travel chaos, as airports across the western part of the country were repeatedly closed on Tuesday and the early hours of Wednesday.

Arrivals and departures from Moscow’s main Sheremetyevo international airport were suspended for hours overnight, aviation authorities said.

‘The restrictions were imposed to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights,’ Artyom Korenyako, press secretary for the Federal Aviation Transport Agency, wrote on Telegram.

Moscow regularly halts air traffic in areas where its air defence systems are operating, but the scale of the forced closures has escalated significantly in the run-up to Friday’s parade.

Russia’s defence ministry reported downing dozens of Ukrainian drones targeting the country, including Moscow, on Tuesday and Wednesday.

Ukraine claimed it had hit a fibre-optic plant in Saransk, a central Russian city far from the borders, where the authorities announced a state of emergency, cancelling all lessons in schools — but without confirming damage to the plant.

Numerous unverified photos and videos on social media shared by locals showed smoke rising from an industrial building and multiple drone flyovers.

On the streets of Moscow, AFP reporters noticed a significant police presence, and mobile internet in the capital was being jammed.

Since Russia invaded in February 2022, Ukraine has on several occasions launched attacks at the Russian capital and other major cities and infrastructure sites hundreds of miles from its border.

Kyiv calls it fair retaliation for Moscow’s daily missile and drone barrages on its own cities.

Tens of thousands have been killed since Russia invaded, with towns and cities across Ukraine’s south and east levelled under intense Russian aerial attacks.

Moscow’s army controls around 20 per cent of the country, including the Crimean peninsula it annexed in 2014.

A wave of deadly Russian ballistic missile strikes on civilian areas in April triggered fresh outrage in Kyiv and saw Trump issue a rare rebuke to Putin.

Ukraine has said it cannot be held responsible for the safety of foreign leaders visiting Moscow for the parade, in an apparent rejection of Putin’s truce proposal.​

 

[Saif]

Russia says Ukraine keeps trying to breach border

Ukrainian troops have made further attempts to breach the Russian border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin hosted world leaders at a major military parade in Moscow. The Defence Ministry said the attacks occurred during a thr

thefinancialexpress.com.bd

Russia says Ukraine keeps trying to breach border
REUTERS
Published :
May 09, 2025 16:56
Updated :
May 09, 2025 16:56

Russian Defence Minister Andrei Belousov attends a meeting of the Military-Industrial Commission in Saint Petersburg, Russia September 19, 2024. Photo : Sputnik/Valery Sharifulin/Pool via REUTERS

Ukrainian troops have made further attempts to breach the Russian border in the Kursk and Belgorod regions, the Russian Defence Ministry said on Friday as President Vladimir Putin hosted world leaders at a major military parade in Moscow.

The Defence Ministry said the attacks occurred during a three-day ceasefire running from May 8-10 that Russia has unilaterally declared to mark the 80th anniversary of victory over Nazi Germany in World War Two.

Kyiv has called the ceasefire proposal a "farce" and did not agree to it, proposing instead that the two countries adopt a 30-day truce.

The Russian Defence Ministry said it had registered four attempts by Ukrainian forces to smash through the border into the Kursk and Belgorod regions in the past week.

In eastern Ukraine, Kyiv's troops had attacked Russian forces 15 times during the ceasefire, the ministry said.

Ukraine has said Russia had repeatedly breached its own truce this week. The governor of the southeastern Zaporizhzhia region said on Friday that Russia hit eight Ukrainian frontline villages 220 times since the ceasefire went into effect.

In Russia's Belgorod border region, the local governor said a Ukrainian drone had attacked a government building on Friday.

In Kursk, Ukrainian troops launched a major incursion last August and held onto a chunk of Russian territory for many months as Moscow's forces battled to eject them with help from North Korean soldiers. Some fighting has continued, even after Putin last month declared "victory" in Kursk.

Rybar, a pro-Russian war blogger, said there was "high-intensity fighting" between Russian and Ukrainian troops near Tetkino, a village in the region. Rybar and other bloggers said Ukrainian attacks on multiple villages in the neighbouring Belgorod region were continuing on Friday.

Reuters could not independently verify statements by war bloggers or battlefield reports from either side.

Ukraine and Russia both accused the other of repeatedly violating a previous 30-hour Easter ceasefire declared by Putin.​

 

[Saif]

Kyiv will meet Russia for talks if it agrees to ceasefire: Zelensky

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv would meet with Moscow for talks in Istanbul on May 15, but that Russia must first commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting from Monday...

www.newagebd.net

Kyiv will meet Russia for talks if it agrees to ceasefire: Zelensky
Agence France-Presse . Kyiv, Ukraine 11 May, 2025, 23:56

A local resident looks at a damaged private house after Russian shelling in Kramatorsk, Donetsk region on Sunday, amid the Russian invasion of Ukraine. | AFP photo

Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that Kyiv would meet with Moscow for talks in Istanbul on May 15, but that Russia must first commit to a 30-day ceasefire starting from Monday.

Zelensky, using rare language since Moscow invaded more than three years ago, described Russia’s proposal to convene direct peace talks as a ‘positive sign’.

Turkish president Recep Tayyip Erdogan said he was ‘ready to host negotiations’, telling Russia’s Vladimir Putin in a phone call that a ‘window of opportunity’ had opened for peace.

Moscow and Kyiv have not held direct talks since March 2022, shortly after the Kremlin launched its invasion in February of that year.

Those talks, which also took place in Istanbul, led to a now-aborted peace deal that would have seen Kyiv adopt neutral status and renounce any NATO ambitions.

Russia’s invasion has since dragged on, resulting in the deaths of tens of thousands of people, the destruction of Ukrainian cities and a total collapse in relations between Moscow and the West.

Moscow now occupies a fifth of the country and has claimed to have annexed four Ukrainian regions as its own, in addition to Crimea, which it seized in 2014.

‘There is no point in continuing the killing even for a single day. We expect Russia to confirm a ceasefire — full, lasting and reliable — starting tomorrow, May 12, and Ukraine is ready to meet,’ Zelensky said on social media.

‘It is a positive sign that the Russians have finally begun to consider ending the war,’ the Ukrainian leader said, in a break of tone.

‘The entire world has been waiting for this for a very long time. And the very first step in truly ending any war is a ceasefire.’

Kyiv and its Western allies have said an unconditional ceasefire to pause the fighting is the only way to advance a diplomatic solution in three-year-old conflict — Europe’s worst since the Second World War.

On a visit to Kyiv on Saturday the leaders of France, the UK, Germany and Poland pressured Russia — with US president Donald Trump’s support — to commit to an unconditional ceasefire in Ukraine starting from Monday.

Zelensky’s chief of staff Andriy Yermak said that Kyiv would only come to the table if Moscow agreed to the ceasefire from Monday.

‘First, a 30-day ceasefire, then everything else,’ he said on social media.

‘A ceasefire is the first step towards ending the war and it will confirm Russia’s readiness to end the killing.’

Russia has hit Ukraine with a string of deadly attacks this spring.

Talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul in 2022 collapsed and fighting has been raging ever since.

Communication channels have only been open for exchanges of prisoners of war and bodies.

At a press conference close to 1:00am (2200 GMT) in the Kremlin, Putin did not respond to the 30-day ceasefire proposal put forward by Kyiv’s allies.

He instead suggested resuming the Istanbul talks scuppered in 2022.

‘We propose to the Kyiv authorities to resume the talks that they broke off in 2022, and, I emphasise, without any preconditions,’ he said.

‘We propose to start (negotiations) without delay on Thursday May 15 in Istanbul,’ Putin said.

‘We do not exclude that during these talks we will be able to agree on some new ceasefire,’ the Russian leader added.

But he also accused Ukraine’s Western backers of wanting to ‘continue war with Russia’ and — without mentioning the specific proposal for a 30-day ceasefire — slammed European ‘ultimatums’ and ‘anti-Russian rhetoric’.

Turkish president Erdogan told Putin in a phone call Sunday that Ankara was ready to host talks ‘aimed at achieving a lasting solution’.

Returning from Ukraine, French leader Emmanuel Macron said he expected Russia to commit to the ceasefire ‘without setting any condition’.

German chancellor Friedrich Merz said Russia’s offer to negotiate directly was a ‘good sign’ but ‘far from sufficient’, pressuring Moscow to agree to a truce.

But US president Donald Trump said it was a ‘potentially great day for Russia and Ukraine’ and vowed to work with both sides to end the fighting.

Kyiv on Sunday accused Moscow of launching more than 100 drones on Ukraine, after a Russian-announced 72-hour ceasefire had ended at midnight.​