Author: AFP
Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky denied Saturday any “encirclement” of his troops by Moscow’s forces in Russia’s Kursk region, a day after US President Donald Trump made the claim. “There is no encirclement of our troops,” Zelensky said on social media, adding: “Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region.”
Russia should back a ceasefire deal with Ukraine that could lead to durable peace, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen said on Saturday after a virtual meeting with other leaders. “We reiterate our support to Ukraine’s agreement to a ceasefire. Now Russia has to show that it is willing to support a ceasefire leading to a just and lasting peace,” she said in a message on X, formerly Twitter. She thanked UK premier Keir Starmer for hosting a virtual call with some 25 fellow leaders as they sought to keep up the pressure on Russia and protect any eventual…
Syrians gathered on Saturday to commemorate the 14th anniversary of their uprising in public demonstrations in Damascus for the first time since Baath regime leader Bashar al-Assad was toppled. The demonstration in Damascus’s Umayyad Square is the first in the capital after years of repression under Assad, during which the square was the sole preserve of the ousted president’s supporters. Activists also called on people to gather in the cities of Homs, Idlib and Hama at demonstrations under the slogan “Syria is victorious”. By the afternoon, dozens of people had gathered in the capital’s Umayyad Square, amid a heavy security…
Hamas accused Israel of a “blatant violation” of the Gaza ceasefire agreement, after the Palestinian territory’s civil defence agency reported that nine people were killed Saturday in Israeli strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia. “The occupation (Israel) has committed a horrific massacre in the northern Gaza Strip by targeting a group of journalists and humanitarian workers, in a blatant violation of the ceasefire agreement,” Hamas spokesman Hazem Qassem said in a statement.
Gaza’s civil defence agency reported that nine people, including several journalists, were killed in Israeli strikes in the northern town of Beit Lahia on Saturday. “Nine martyrs have been transferred (to hospital), including several journalists and a number of workers from the Al-Khair Charitable Organisation, as a result of the occupation targeting a vehicle with a drone in the town of Beit Lahia, coinciding with artillery shelling on the same area,” civil defence spokesman Mahmoud Bassal told AFP.
Russia has committed enforced disappearances and torture in its war in Ukraine, both crimes against humanity, a United Nations investigation concluded. The crimes “were perpetrated as part of a widespread and systematic attack against the civilian population and pursuant to a coordinated state policy”, the UN’s Independent International Commission of Inquiry on Ukraine said in a new report.
Russia on Friday said President Vladimir Putin had sent “additional” signals to counterpart Donald Trump about a Washington-proposed ceasefire in Ukraine, adding it was “cautiously optimistic” about the prospect of a deal. US envoy Steve Witkoff met Putin late Thursday to lay out the details of the joint US-Ukrainian plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities between Moscow and Kyiv after three years of fighting. The Kremlin said Putin conveyed “additional” signals to Trump via Witkoff, and that the two leaders could speak once Trump had been briefed on these messages. “When Mr Witkoff brings all the information to…
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Thursday condemned Russian President Vladimir Putin’s ambivalent response to a proposed ceasefire as “very manipulative”. “We now have all heard from Russia Putin’s very predictable, very manipulative words in response to the idea of a ceasefire,” Zelensky said in his nightly address. Putin said Thursday in his first public comments on a 30-day ceasefire proposed by the United States and backed by Ukraine that he was in favour but had “serious questions” about how it would work. Washington has called for Russia to accept a ceasefire without preconditions but Putin listed a number of obstacles…
US President Donald Trump said Thursday he would not “bend” on tariffs that have sparked trade wars against competitors and partners alike since returning to office. “We’ve been ripped off for years and we’re not going to be ripped off anymore. No, I’m not going to bend at all — aluminum or steel or cars,” Trump told reporters when asked if he would back down.
The US plan for a 30-day truce in Ukraine only reflects Kyiv’s position on ending the fighting and needs Russia’s input, a top Kremlin aide said Thursday. “It will be necessary to work on it, think and take into account our position too. Only the Ukrainian approach is outlined in it,” Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said, as US officials arrived to present the plan in Moscow.