Author: Daily Sabah With Reuters
Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said on Sunday that Gazans should be given the choice to leave the enclave, if they wanted to. Speaking at an event in Jerusalem, he said that U.S. President Donald Trump’s plan for Gaza was “right on the dot”.
A woman was killed in Russia’s Belgorod border region on Sunday when a Ukrainian drone struck the car she was in, the regional governor said. Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov said the woman had died on the spot. Belgorod has frequently come under Ukrainian shelling during the nearly three-year-old conflict.
The Ukrainian military said on Sunday that Russia launched 143 drones to attack the country overnight. The air force said it shot down 95 of the drones and 46 did not reach their targets likely due to electronic countermeasures.
Israeli hostages Iair Horn, Sagui Dekel-Chen and Sasha Troufanov are expected to return from Gaza on Saturday after Egyptian and Qatari mediators helped avert a standoff that threatened to sink a fragile ceasefire that has halted fighting for almost a month. Palestinian resistance group Hamas said the three would be returned, in exchange for 369 Palestinian prisoners and detainees, easing fears that the agreement could collapse before the end of a 42-day ceasefire. Dekel-Chen, a U.S.-Israeli, Troufanov, a Russian Israeli, and Horn, whose brother Eitan was also abducted, were seized in Kibbutz Nir Oz, one of the communities around the…
A Russian court ruled to place a U.S. citizen, suspected of drug smuggling, in custody for 30 days, Moscow courts press service said on Saturday. The U.S. citizen, Kalob Wayne Byers, was detained by customs officers at Moscow’s Vnukovo airport during a baggage check, the statement said. Russia’s Federal Customs Service confirmed on Friday that a 28-year-old U.S. citizen had been detained after customs officials found cannabis-laced marmalade in his luggage, the Interfax news agency reported.
Russian troops have taken control of the settlement of Berezivka in Ukraine’s eastern Donetsk region, Russia’s Defence Ministry said on Saturday.
Ukraine has a low chance of surviving Russia’s assault without U.S. support, President Volodymyr Zelensky said in an interview with NBC’s “Meet the Press with Kristen Welker” program. “Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance — low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelensky said in the interview. An excerpt from the program was released on Friday and the full show will be broadcast on Sunday. His comments come after phone calls held earlier in the week by…
China urged NATO to adopt a “rational and pragmatic” attitude and establish an “objective and correct understanding” of China, the foreign ministry said on Saturday. Foreign Minister Wang Yi made the comment to NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte on Friday on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference, the ministry said. Wang said Beijing will continue to work with other parties to play a constructive role in promoting a political solution to the war in Ukraine.
Russian President Vladimir Putin would not dare to attack a NATO country, NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said at the Munich Security Council on Saturday, adding that Moscow would face the “full onslaught” of the alliance if that were to happen.
Ukraine is ready to discuss “deeply” with the United States how to proceed in ending the war with Russia, its foreign minister said at the Munich Security Council on Saturday, adding that transatlantic and Ukrainian security were indivisible. Andrii Sybiha also said there was a “very simple recipe for how to end the war – leadership of the United States”.