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Two people were injured in a Ukrainian drone attack on a Russian city as Vladimir Putin mocked potential peace talks to end the war.
Six drones struck Russia’s Belgorod oblast near Ukraine’s border on Friday morning, according to the region’s governor Vyacheslav Gladkov.
Russian air defence shot down four of the drones, he said. One caused a grass fire on the outskirts of Belgorod city while the other struck the administrative building.
Switzerland said it would host a peace conference in June to help chart a path toward peace in Ukraine after more than two years of fighting.
But Mr Putin claimed Moscow hadn’t been invited to join the talks while noting the Swiss recognition that a peace process can’t happen without Russia.
“They aren’t inviting us there. Moreover, they think there is nothing for us to do there, but at the same time they say that’s it’s impossible to decide anything without us. It would have been funny if it weren’t so sad,” he said.
Key Points
- Two people injured in Ukrainian drone attack on Russian city
- Putin mocks peace conference
- Aborted peace deal could be basis for Ukraine talks, says Kremlin
- Zelensky ‘rules out’ 2022 talks as basis for peace negotiations
- Russia brands two BBC journalist as ‘foreign agents’
Russian armoured assaults ramp up pressure on Ukraine's east, army chief says
Ukraine’s army chief said on Saturday the situation on the eastern front had deteriorated in recent days with Russia intensifying its armoured assaults.
The statement by Colonel General Oleksandr Syrskyi more than two years since Russia’s invasion evoked the increasingly grim mood in Kyiv.
It comes as vital US military aid that Kyiv expected to receive months ago remains stuck in Congress.
“The situation on the eastern front in recent days has grown considerably more tense. This is linked primarily to the significant activisation of offensive action by the enemy after the presidential elections in Russia,” he wrote on the Telegram app.
Since President Vladimir Putin won a new term in a mid-March election, Russia has stepped up its attacks and unleashed three massive aerial strikes on its energy system, pounding power stations and substations.
The slowdown in military assistance from the West has left Ukraine more exposed to aerial attacks and more outgunned on the battlefield.
Athena Stavrou13 April 2024 12:09 1713006397Russia says it has taken village in Ukraine's Donetsk region
Russia’s defence ministry on Saturday said its forces had taken control of the village of Pervomaiske in Ukraine‘s Donetsk region and improved its tactical position on the front line there.
Reuters was not able to independently verify the situation at the front.
Athena Stavrou13 April 2024 12:06 1713006372Russia claims eight dead in shelling of Russia-controlled town
A Russian-installed official that shelling by Ukraine’s military had killed eight people, including two children, in the town of Tokmak.
The attack is said to have happened in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region said on Saturday.
Reuters could not independently verify the account of events.
Moscow-installed official Yevgeny Balitsky, said that 18 people had been wounded in the shelling on Friday night.
Another Russian-installed local official, Vladimir Rogov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said that five houses had been partially destroyed.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces and formally annexed by Moscow since the February 2022 invasion.
Athena Stavrou13 April 2024 12:06 1712998814Zelensky ‘rules out’ 2022 talks as basis for peace negotiations
President Vladimir Zelensky, meeting with students in western Ukraine yesterday, appeared to rule out using the 2022 talks as a basis for further discussions, saying the meetings at the time were not talks in a true sense.
The Ukrainian president said “no” when asked whether the 2022 talks in Belarus and Turkey had the potential to stop the war.
“Negotiations are when two sides want to come to an agreement. There are different aspects, but when there are two sides,” he said in a video posted on his website.
“But when one side in any case, regardless of the country or the city, gives you an ultimatum, that is not negotiations.”
Athena Stavrou13 April 2024 10:00 1712995214Ukraine and Russia were close to peace agreement in 2022. What went wrong?
A senior Ukrainian official has acknowledged that the two sides were close to an agreement in Turkey in 2022 but said Kyiv took the proposal no further because it did not trust the Russian side to carry out any agreement.
Dmitry Peskov, Putin’s spokesperson, said a lot had changed since 2022, including what he said was the addition to Russian territory of four new regions, a reference to the parts of Ukraine which Moscow has claimed as its own.
But Mr Peskov said the aborted Istanbul deal could still be the basis for new talks and that Russia was ready for that. When asked if Moscow sensed any readiness from the Ukrainian side for talks, however, Mr Peskov said: “No, we don’t sense that.”
Ukraine says it wants all of its territory back, including Crimea, which Moscow annexed in 2014, and for every Russian soldier to leave its territory. It is trying to drive international talks on its stance which exclude Russia.
Athena Stavrou13 April 2024 09:00 1712989844Six killed in Ukranian shelling of occupied town, local official says
A Russia-installed official in Ukraine’s southern Zaporizhzhia region said yesterday that shelling by Ukraine’s military had killed six people, including a child, in the town of Tokmak.
Vladimir Rogov, writing on the Telegram messaging app, said at least 20 people had been injured. Mr Rogov posted pictures of damaged houses, one of which was all but reduced to rubble.
The account of events could not be independently verified.
Zaporizhzhia is one of four Ukrainian regions that have been partially occupied by Russian forces and formally annexed by Moscow since the February 2022 invasion.
Namita Singh13 April 2024 07:30 1712988503ICYMI: Russia’s glide bombs are devastating Ukraine’s border towns
Askold Krushelnycky travels between the cities of Sumy and Kharkiv, dodging craters left by Moscow’s onslaught. He speaks to residents who say the Kremlin will never drive them out, despite trying to bomb the area into an uninhabitable ‘grey zone’.
Read the ground report here:
Kyiv’s troops dig in as hundreds of Putin’s bombs hit northeastern border with Russia
Askold Krushelnycky travels between the cities of Sumy and Kharkiv, dodging craters left by Moscow’s onslaught. He speaks to residents who say the Kremlin will never drive them out, despite trying to bomb the area into an uninhabitable 'grey zone'
Namita Singh13 April 2024 07:08 1712988060China boosting Russia’s war machine in Ukraine, says US
China is backing Russia’s war effort in Ukraine by helping Moscow in its biggest military build-up since the Soviet era, providing drone and missile technology, satellite imagery and machine tools, senior US officials say.
The officials said US president Joe Biden raised the issue with Chinese president Xi Jinping in their recent phone call and that it is a topic of discussion with allies in Europe and around the world.
One official said Chinese materials were filling critical gaps in Russia’s defence production cycle and helping Moscow undertake its “most ambitious defence expansion since the Soviet era and on a faster timeline than we believed possible early on in this conflict”.
“Our view is that one of the most game-changing moves available to us at this time to support Ukraine is to persuade the PRC (China) to stop helping Russia reconstitute its military industrial base,” the official said.
US intelligence finding shows China surging equipment sales to Russia to help war effort in Ukraine
China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry
Jane Dalton13 April 2024 07:01 1712987281
China increasing equipment sales to Russia to help war effort in Ukraine, US intelligence claims
China has increased sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry to wage its war in Ukraine, according to a US intelligence assessment.
Two senior Biden administration officials, who discussed the sensitive findings yesterday on the condition of anonymity, said that in 2023 about 90 per cent of Russia’s microelectronics came from China, which Russia has used to make missiles, tanks and aircraft. Nearly 70 per cent of Russia’s approximately $900m in machine tool imports in the last quarter of 2023 came from China.
Report:
US intelligence finding shows China surging equipment sales to Russia to help war effort in Ukraine
China has surged sales to Russia of machine tools, microelectronics and other technology that Moscow in turn is using to produce missiles, tanks, aircraft and other weaponry
Namita Singh13 April 2024 06:48 1712984460Editorial: Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine means no peace at all
In case you missed it:
Editorial: Donald Trump’s plan for peace in Ukraine means no peace at all
Editorial: The outlook is poor, for Ukraine and the cause of freedom. America under Trump would recede into isolationism and protectionism – and its foreign policy would be the appeasement of Russia, if not China
Jane Dalton13 April 2024 06:01 Newer1 / 8OlderDisclaimer: The copyright of this article belongs to the original author. Reposting this article is solely for the purpose of information dissemination and does not constitute any investment advice. If there is any infringement, please contact us immediately. We will make corrections or deletions as necessary. Thank you.
