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Tag: President Vladimir Putin

  • Zelensky slams Russia after three generations killed in drone strike

    Zelensky slams Russia after three generations killed in drone strike

    A Russian drone slammed into a residential house in central Ukraine overnight Thursday, killing three members of one family, including a one-year-old baby, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

    He accused Moscow of trying to “buy time for itself to continue killing” and called for the West to put “maximum sanctions” and “pressure” on Moscow, after Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for a full and unconditional ceasefire.

    A total of five people were killed in Pryluky, a city in central Ukraine, including victims from three generations of the same family.

    A local firefighting chief was responding to an earlier attack when his own house was hit by a Russian drone, officials said.

    “His wife, daughter and one-year-old grandson were killed,” Zelensky said.

    Photos showed houses on fire, billowing grey smoke into the pitch black sky as rescuers battled the blaze.

    A picture at dawn, published by the emergency services, showed a firefighter standing in the burned-out carcass of a residential home, the roof gone, surrounded by charred ashes and debris.

    “Russia is constantly trying to buy time for itself to continue killing. When it does not feel strong enough condemnation and pressure from the world, it kills again,” Zelensky said.

    “This is yet another reason to impose maximum sanctions and put pressure together. We expect action from the United States, Europe, and everyone in the world who can really help change these terrible circumstances,” he added.

    Fighting and aerial attacks have escalated in recent weeks, even as the sides have held two rounds of talks in Istanbul that they say are aimed at finding an end to the three-year war.

    But Russian President Vladimir Putin on Wednesday told US President Donald Trump that Moscow would respond to an audacious Ukranian drone attack that destroyed several Russian nuclear-capable military jets over the weekend, Trump said after a call between the pair.

    Another attack on the northeastern city of Kharkiv wounded 18 people, including four children, Interior Minister Igor Klymenko said in a post on social media.

    Tens of thousands of people have been killed, swaths of eastern and southern Ukraine destroyed, and millions forced to flee their homes since Russia invaded in February 2022.

  • Zelensky accuses Russia of buying time to stall peace talks

    Zelensky accuses Russia of buying time to stall peace talks

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Tuesday accused Russia of delaying peace talks in a bid to press on with its three-year invasion, even as US President Donald Trump pushes for an immediate ceasefire.

    Trump spoke by phone Monday with Zelensky and Russian leader Vladimir Putin, while Russian and Ukrainian officials met in Istanbul Friday for their first direct talks on the conflict in more than three years.

    But they failed to yield a truce, and Zelensky accused Putin of sending “empty heads” to the negotiating table.

    “It is obvious that Russia is trying to buy time in order to continue its war and occupation,” Zelensky said in a post on social media.

    Trump framed his two-hour conversation with Putin, the third so far this year, as a breakthrough.

    The Republican is seeking an elusive deal to end the war that he had promised on the campaign trail to solve in 24 hours.

    But Putin again rebuffed the call for a full, immediate and unconditional ceasefire, instead saying only that he was ready to work with Ukraine on a “memorandum” outlining a possible roadmap and different positions on ending the war.

    Moscow is feeling confident with its troops advancing on the battlefield and Trump having resumed dialogue with Putin after almost three years of the West shunning the Kremlin chief.

    “The memorandum buys time for Russia,” Russian political analyst Konstantin Kalachev told AFP, adding “the cessation of hostilities is not a condition for it, which means that Russia can continue its offensive”.

    Zelensky said Monday he had no details of what this “memorandum” would be, but was willing to look at Russia’s ideas.

    On a rainy morning in Moscow, some were sceptical about the prospect of any progress.

    “I don’t think anything will come of it,” said Anastasiya, 40, a freelancer, “they want to cheat us as usual”.

    “I believe that we don’t need these negotiations, we will win anyways,” said Marina, 70, a retired woman who used to work as an engineer.

    Germany’s defence minister Boris Pistorius said the call between the two leaders showed Putin was not “genuinely interested in peace”.

    Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 and has since destroyed swathes of the country’s east, killed tens of thousands and now controls around one-fifth of its territory.

    – Sanctions push –
    Ukraine and Europe are trying to put pressure on Trump to hit Moscow with a new package of massive sanctions after Putin refused to travel to Turkey for face-to-face talks with Zelensky.

    “Ukraine is ready for any negotiation format that delivers results. And if Russia continues to put forward unrealistic conditions and undermine progress, there must be tough consequences,” the Ukrainian leader said.

    Kyiv accused Moscow’s negotiators of making unrealistic demands at the Istanbul talks, including sweeping territorial claims that Ukraine has repeatedly rejected.

    “America said that if Russia doesn’t agree on an unconditional ceasefire, then there are going to be consequences. So we want to see those consequences, also from the US side,” EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas told ministers in Brussels.

    Zelensky said Monday that Kyiv and its allies needed to “work hard” to convince Trump of the need for more sanctions.

    “Banking and energy sanctions from America will greatly determine whether Putin and the Russian army will continue to profit from this war or not,” he said.

    The EU on Tuesday formally adopted its 17th round of sanctions on Moscow, targeting 200 vessels of Russia’s so-called shadow fleet, and drawing ire from Russia.

    “Western politicians and the media are making titanic efforts to disrupt the constructive dialogue between Russia and the United States,” said Kirill Dmitriev, the head of Russia’s Direct Investment Fund and lead economic negotiator with the United States.

    Putin has revelled in Russia’s ability to withstand sanctions, with Moscow having rerouted its vital oil and gas supplies to India and China.

    Russia’s key ally China also on Tuesday said it backed direct dialogue between the warring sides.

    “It is hoped that the parties concerned will carry on with the dialogue… to reach a fair, lasting and binding peace agreement acceptable to all parties,” foreign ministry spokeswoman Mao Ning said.

  • ‘Vladimir, STOP!’: Trump turns on Putin after deadly Kyiv strike

    ‘Vladimir, STOP!’: Trump turns on Putin after deadly Kyiv strike

    Donald Trump on Thursday called on Vladimir Putin to halt attacks on Ukraine, in a rare rebuke of the Russian leader after Moscow fired a barrage of missiles and drones at Kyiv, killing at least 12 in the deadliest attack on the capital in months.

    The direct appeal to Putin came after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky urged his allies to put Russia under more pressure to halt its invasion.

    The Ukrainian leader cut short a trip to South Africa to deal with the aftermath of the deadly strikes, the latest in a wave of large-scale Russian aerial attacks that have killed dozens of civilians.

    “I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV,” Trump said on social media.

    “Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP!” he said. “Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!”

    Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff is due in Russia this week where he is expected to hold talks with Putin on a possible deal, his fourth since Trump returned to the White House in January.

    Ukraine has been battered with aerial attacks throughout Russia’s three-year invasion but deadly strikes on Kyiv, better protected by air defences than other cities, are less common.

    The attacks threw more doubt on already fraught US efforts to push Russia and Ukraine to agree to a ceasefire, with Trump having lashed out at Zelensky this week for not being willing to accept Russian occupation of Crimea, annexed by Moscow in 2014.

    “We do everything that our partners have proposed, only what contradicts our legislation and the Constitution we cannot do,” Zelensky told reporters in South Africa in response to a question about Crimea.

    Zelensky also questioned whether Kyiv’s allies were themselves doing enough to force Putin to agree to a full and unconditional ceasefire.

    “I don’t see any strong pressure on Russia or any new sanctions packages against Russia’s aggression,” Zelensky said, highlighting that Trump had previously warned of repercussions if Moscow did not agree to pause the fighting.

    “The strikes must be stopped immediately and unconditionally,” Zelensky said, calling Thursday morning’s aerial assault “one of the most sophisticated, most brazen” of the entire war.

    – ‘Pulled out of the rubble’ –
    Loud blasts sounded over the Ukrainian capital at around 1:00 am (2200 GMT) after air raid sirens rang out across Kyiv, AFP journalists on the ground said.

    Russia fired at least 70 missiles and 145 drones at Ukraine between late Wednesday and early Thursday, the main target being Kyiv, the Ukrainian air force said.

    “As of 5:30 pm, the death toll in Kyiv’s Sviatoshinsky district has risen to 12,” Ukraine’s state emergency services said on social media, adding that the number of wounded had risen to 90.

    Russia said it had targeted Ukraine’s defence industry, including plants that produced “rocket fuel and gunpowder”.

    Olena Davydiuk, a 33-year-old lawyer in Kyiv, told AFP she saw windows breaking and doors “falling out of their hinges” during the barrage.

    “People were being pulled out of the rubble. They said that there were dead people there too,” she added.

    – Crimea –
    In Sviatoshinsky, west of Kyiv, an AFP journalist saw a body bag with one of the victims lain out on a strip of grass.

    A woman sat on a small folded-out chair stroking the arm of another person killed in the attack, the body covered in a striped blue sheet.

    Moscow’s army has launched some of its most deadly aerial strikes at Ukraine over the last month — defying Trump’s push to bring about a rapid end to the bloodshed.

    A ballistic missile strike on the centre of northeastern city of Sumy killed at least 35 on April 13.

    And an attack on Zelensky’s home town of Kryvyi Rig in early April killed at least 19 — including nine children after a missile slammed into a residential area near a children’s playground.

    Trump had on Wednesday accused Zelensky of frustrating peace efforts by ruling out recognising Russia’s claim over Crimea, a territory the US president said was “lost years ago”.

    Russia annexed the Black Sea peninsula in 2014 and then backed rebels in eastern Ukraine.

    Asked about Trump’s comments the Kyiv had “lost” Crimea, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Thursday: “This completely corresponds with our understanding, which we have been saying for a long time.”

  • Zelensky says Russian attacks ongoing despite Putin’s Easter truce

    Zelensky says Russian attacks ongoing despite Putin’s Easter truce

    Ukraine’s Volodymyr Zelensky on Sunday said Russian forces were continuing their shelling and assaults along the front line despite Russian President Vladimir Putin announcing a surprise but brief Easter truce.

    The 30-hour truce would be the most significant pause in the fighting throughout the three-year conflict.

    But just hours after the order was meant to have come into effect, air-raid sirens sounded in Kyiv and several other Ukrainian regions, with Zelensky accusing Russia of having maintained its attacks.

    “Across various frontline directions, there have already been 59 cases of Russian shelling and five assaults by Russian units,” Zelensky said on social media, citing a report as of 6:00 am (0300 GMT) from Ukrainian commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrsky.

    He said that in the six hours up to midnight (2100 GMT) Saturday, there were “387 instances of shelling and 19 assaults by Russian forces,” with drones “used by Russians 290 times”.

    “Overall, as of Easter morning, we can state that the Russian army is attempting to create the general impression of a ceasefire, while in some areas still continuing isolated attempts to advance and inflict losses on Ukraine,” Zelensky’s post said.

    Putin’s order to halt all combat over the Easter weekend came after months of efforts by US President Donald Trump to get Moscow and Kyiv to agree a ceasefire.

    On Friday, Washington even threatened to withdraw from talks if no progress was made.

    – ‘Give peace a chance’ –
    “Today from 1800 (1500 GMT Saturday) to midnight Sunday (2100 GMT Sunday), the Russian side announces an Easter truce,” Putin said in televised comments during a meeting with the Russian chief of the general staff Valery Gerasimov.

    Zelensky responded by saying Ukraine would follow suit, and proposed extending the truce beyond Sunday, despite accusing Russia of having already broken its promises.

    “Russia must fully comply with the conditions of the ceasefire. Ukraine’s proposal to implement and extend the ceasefire for 30 days after midnight tonight remains on the table,” Zelensky’s post said Sunday.

    Earlier he suggested that “30 days could give peace a chance” — while pointing out that Putin had already rejected a proposed 30-day full and unconditional ceasefire.

    Putin had said the truce for the Easter holiday celebrated on Sunday was motivated by “humanitarian reasons”.

    While he expected Ukraine to comply, he said that Russian troops “must be ready to resist possible breaches of the truce and provocations by the enemy”.

    Putin said the latest truce proposal would show “how sincere is the Kyiv’s regime’s readiness, its desire and ability to observe agreements and participate in a process of peace talks”.

    – Captives swapped –
    Russia launched its full-scale invasion of neighbouring Ukraine in February 2022.

    Previous attempts at holding ceasefires for Easter in April 2022 and Orthodox Christmas in January 2023 were not implemented after both sides failed to agree on them.

    “For millions of Ukrainians, Easter is one of the most important holidays. And millions of Ukrainians will go to church,” said Zelensky in his Saturday evening address.

    “Over the years of this full-scale war, Russian attacks have destroyed or damaged more than 600 churches, prayer houses and places of worship.”

    Soldiers in the eastern Ukrainian city of Kramatorsk close to the front line earlier greeted the truce announcement with scepticism.

    Putin “might do it to give some hope or to show his humanity,” said Dmitry, a 40-year-old soldier. “But either way, of course, we don’t trust (Russia).”

    Soldier Vladislav, 22, added: “I feel like it’s going to start again after a while, and it’s going to go on and on.”

    On the streets of Moscow, Yevgeny Pavlov, 58, did not think Russia should give Ukraine a breather.

    “There is no need to give them respite. If we press, it means we should press to the end,” he told AFP.

    On Saturday, Ukraine and Russia said they had each returned 246 soldiers being held as prisoners of war, in a swap mediated by the United Arab Emirates.

    Zelensky said the total number of returned POWs now stood at 4,552.

    The UAE’s foreign ministry said 31 wounded Ukrainians and 15 wounded Russians were also exchanged.

    The UAE said it was committed to “finding a peaceful solution” to the conflict and “mitigating the humanitarian impacts”.

    Russia said it had retaken the penultimate village still under Ukrainian control in its Kursk frontier region.

    Kyiv had hoped to use its hold on the region as a bargaining chip in the talks.

  • Ukraine war: No choice for Ukrainians-more Putin means more war

    Ukraine war: No choice for Ukrainians-more Putin means more war

    When Ukrainians write about Russia’s presidential “election” they put the word in quote marks.

    The vote was entirely engineered, so people here were not holding their breath for the result.

    The only unknown was how much support Vladimir Putin would claim, and even for him 87% was quite something.

    But no-one in Ukraine was laughing.

    Whatever the supposed result on paper, the meaning here is clear: more deadly missile attacks, more drones, more shelling. The full-scale invasion that Vladimir Putin ordered two years ago will go on.

    Ukraine’s President, Volodymyr Zelensky, gave his response to the official result last night, describing the Russian leader as “sick with power”, a man who would stop at nothing.

    He called on Ukraine’s allies to ensure Putin was held to account.

    “This person must end up on the dock in The Hague,” Ukraine’s president wrote in English on Twitter, referring to the International Criminal Court.

    Putin is already a wanted man in the Hague: the war crimes court has issued an arrest warrant for him, for the forced deportation of children from occupied areas of Ukraine.

    Russian elections have been tightly controlled for a long time, increasingly so each year. This time, there were no genuine opposition candidates on the ballot at all.

    The Kremlin has spent years creating the impression that there is no other choice: that Putin is Russia.

    But for Ukraine, Putin is Mariupol, Bucha and Bakhmut.

    He’s the reason for the rows of fresh graves at every town cemetery; for the displacement of millions from their homes and the nights in bomb shelters and basements for those who’ve stayed.

    It was Vladimir Putin who launched the war that badly injured a young girl I met in Chernihiv, after a missile attack, then killed her brother at the front line, where he had gone to fight as a volunteer.

    That same war sent another Ukrainian soldier back to the front today. Before he left, he told me he’s the only one of his original group of some 30 men “still walking”.

    Of course, Putin hasn’t done all this alone.

    That’s why it’s hard to find Ukrainians these days who speak well of any Russians. Relations between two neighbours have been ruined for decades, perhaps longer.

    Many here feel Russians didn’t do enough to stop a war that was years in the making, and that Ukraine is now paying the price.

    I know Russians who feel the same, even those who have gone to prison in their own country for protesting against Putin: his repression at home and aggression abroad.

    There are Russians in exile, too, who help Ukraine however they can. One is even here, fighting on the front line against his own countrymen. He told me it was a matter of conscience. He felt guilty.

    That man will fight on. But so will Russia, under Vladimir Putin.

    And so, then, will Ukraine. It’s been left with no choice.

  • Ukraine denies Russian capture of key town near Donetsk

    Ukraine denies Russian capture of key town near Donetsk

    Russian Defence Minister Sergei Shoigu has said his troops have seized the key town of Mariinka in eastern Ukraine – a claim immediately denied by Kyiv.

    Mr Shoigu told President Vladimir Putin assault units had taken the “powerfully fortified” area just outside Donetsk, a Russian-held regional capital.

    But Ukrainian military spokesman Oleksandr Shtupun said “fighting for Mariinka” continued.

    Mariinka – seen as a gateway to Donetsk – has been almost completely destroyed.

    In a separate development, the Russian-installed head of Crimea, Ukraine’s southern peninsula seized by Moscow in 2014, reported an “enemy attack” and a fire in the port of Feodosiya in the early hours of Tuesday.

    The head of the Ukrainian Air Force said his warplanes had destroyed a landing warship, the Novocherkassk, in the city.

    Footage has emerged on social media purportedly showing a huge explosion in the port area.

    The claims by both Russia and Ukraine have not been independently verified.

    At a televised meeting with President Putin on Monday, Mr Shoigu said: “The assault detachments of the South group today completely liberated the settlement of Mariinka, which is five kilometres [three miles] south-west of Donetsk.

    “For nine years, the armed forces of Ukraine have made a powerful fortified area, which is connected by underground passages. Each street has its own well-fortified and fairly well-protected structures from all attacks, both from the air and artillery, long-term firing points, complex underground communication systems.

    “Thanks to the decisive actions of our servicemen, the fortified area has been cracked.”

    Mr Putin hailed the reported capture as “success”, saying that Ukrainian troops had now been pushed further away from Donetsk, which they have been regularly shelling from Mariinka.

    The Kremlin leader also said Russian forces now had the “opportunity to move into a wider operational area” in the Donetsk region.

    Later on Monday, the Ukrainian military denied the Russian claim.

    It was “incorrect to say that Mariinka is fully seized”, Mr Shtupun told Ukrainian TV.

    “Our soldiers are currently within the administrative borders of Mariinka,” the military spokesman added.

    Ukrainian military bloggers earlier reported that Ukrainian troops were holding out in a small area of western Mariinka.

    The town has been used by Ukraine as a defensive barrier since 2014, when Russia-backed fighters seized large swathes of the eastern Donetsk and Luhansk regions.

    President Putin launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

    In recent weeks, Russian forces intensified their attacks in several key areas of a more than 1,200km-long (745 miles) battlefront.

    Alongside Mariinka, they have been trying to encircle Avdiivka – another key town near Donetsk.

    Ukrainian forces are seeking to extend their bridgehead on the left (eastern) bank of the Dnipro river in southern Ukraine.

    Last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said the country’s military were planning to mobilise up to 500,000 extra people.

    His comments come as Ukraine is facing an ammunition shortage amid aid setbacks from its key allies in the US and the EU.

    Kyiv’s counter-offensive ground to a halt at the start of winter and there are fears that the Russians could simply outgun Ukraine.

  • US rejects Putin claim that West organised anti-Jewish airport mob

    US rejects Putin claim that West organised anti-Jewish airport mob

    The US has dismissed as “absurd” claims by Russia that an anti-Israel riot at a Dagestan airport on Sunday was organised by Ukraine and the West.

    In a televised meeting on Monday, Russian President Vladimir Putin said the incident had been part of an attempt to spread “chaos” in Russia.

    Hundreds stormed the Makhachkala airport ahead of the arrival of a flight from Tel Aviv, Israel.

    Many waved Palestinian flags and chanted antisemitic slogans.

    Dagestan, a constituent republic of Russia, has a majority Muslim population, and the incident is thought to have been sparked by anger over the conflict in Gaza.

    Security forces eventually brought the situation under control, and more than 60 people have since been arrested, according to local authorities.

    “The events in Makhachkala last night were instigated through social networks, not least from Ukraine, by the hands of agents of Western special services,” Mr Putin told a meeting of Russia’s Security Council.

    “Who is organising the deadly chaos and who benefits from it today, in my opinion, has already become obvious.

    “It is the current ruling elites of the US and their satellites who are the main beneficiaries of world instability.”

    Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told reporters that “against the backdrop of TV footage showing the horrors of what is happening in the Gaza Strip – the deaths of people, children, old people – it is very easy for enemies to take advantage of and provoke the situation”.

    The governor of Dagestan, Sergei Melikov, also said the riots had been incited “from the territory of Ukraine by traitors” using a Telegram channel called Morning Dagestan.

    Morning Dagestan is an Islamist channel that opposes Russian control of the region and has been associated with Ilya Ponomarev, a former Russian MP who defected to Ukraine in 2016 and was granted Ukrainian citizenship.

    On Sunday, the channel posted the details of a flight arriving in Makhachkala from Tel Aviv and told its followers to “meet the unexpected visitors”.

    Following Mr Melikov’s comments, the channel posted a statement saying it had no connection to Mr Ponomarev or Ukraine. Mr Ponomarev has said he stopped supporting the channel last year, although his own statements in recent months contradict this claim.

    Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has condemned the airport riot.

    Asked about Russia’s claims at a White House briefing, John Kirby, spokesperson for the US National Security Council, described them as “classic Russian rhetoric”.

    “When something goes bad in your country, you blame somebody else,” he said.

    “The West had nothing to do with this. This is just hate, bigotry and intimidation, pure and simple.”

    He also said comparisons between footage from the airport and the pogroms of the late 19th and early 20th century were “apt”.

    Video circulated widely on social media showed a large crowd of people storming through the airport, forcing open doors and spilling out onto the runway.

    Some were also seen stopping cars outside and demanding to see the passengers’ documents in an apparent search for Israeli passports.

    Russia’s health ministry said 20 people, including some police officers, had sustained injuries and that two were in a critical condition.

    After the incident, Mr Melikov said that “all Dagestanis empathise with the suffering of victims by the actions of unrighteous people” but described the events at the airport as “outrageous”.

    A statement from the office of Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu said the Israeli government viewed “with utmost gravity attempts to harm Israeli citizens and Jews anywhere”.

    “Israel expects the Russian legal authorities to safeguard the well-being of all Israeli citizens and Jews wherever they are and to take strong action against the rioters,” it said.