Ukraine-Russia battle newest: Ceasefire talks resume in Saudi Arabia as Trump envoy Steve Witkoff praises Putin

Firefighters continued for the fifth day to struggle a fireplace at an oil depot in Russia’s Krasnodar area, sparked final week by a drone assault that authorities blamed on Ukraine, the regional administration stated.

“One of many tanks and oil merchandise inside the ability are burning,” the administration stated in a put up on the Telegram yesterday.

“As of 1700 GMT on Sunday, the realm of the fireplace on the depot close to the village of Kavkazskaya was round 2,000sqm (21,500sqft)”, the administration stated on Telegram.

The fireplace space practically doubled the night time earlier than following an oil merchandise spill.

The Russian overseas ministry stated the incident amounted to a violation of an settlement to halt assaults on vitality infrastructure beneath efforts to safe a ceasefire within the battle in Ukraine.

Native authorities had introduced in firefighting trains loaded with water to assist to battle the blaze until yesterday.

The depot is a rail terminal for Russian oil provides for a pipeline to Kazakhstan.

The digital hum within the sky above advised him that the Russians had been on a searching safari and that he was the prey. Leaping from his bicycle, Oleksandr left its wheels spinning as he bolted by a gap in a fence hoping to seek out cowl.

Horrified to find he was nonetheless within the open air, he threw himself towards the fence, hoping to mix in, to one way or the other disguise. The drone tracked sideways, hung above him, and dropped its bomb.

The explosion tore a piece of his leg away.

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Officers from Ukraine and Russia are holding ceasefire talks in Saudi Arabia, as US president Donald Trump reportedly pushes to safe a truce in time for Easter.

Kyiv’s delegation sat down with Washington’s group in Riyadh on Sunday night time, with Moscow set to individually observe go well with on Monday – in what are believed to be the primary such parallel peace talks for the reason that early days of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

Right here, The Impartial takes a have a look at what to anticipate from the US-led talks in Saudi Arabia, which got here simply hours after Russia killed seven folks – together with a five-year-old baby – in in a single day drone strikes on Kyiv, and 4 folks in Donetsk:

Russian president Vladimir Putin’s high safety adviser Sergei Shoigu has landed in North Korea and plans to fulfill its chief Kim Jong Un, the TASS information company reported on Friday, his newest go to amid dramatic advances in safety relations between the 2 nations.

The TASS report didn’t present additional particulars and North Korea’s state media didn’t report on Mr Shoigu’s arrival.

Mr Shoigu, Russia’s defence minister till final Might and secretary of the Safety Council since then, had earlier made visits to Pyongyang as North Korea allegedly geared as much as deploy troopers to struggle for Russia in its battle towards Ukraine.

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In remarks that can do little to assuage European fears that the White Home is more and more parroting Kremlin propaganda, Donald Trump’s particular envoy has claimed that the “elephant within the room” in peace talks is whether or not Ukraine’s president Volodymyr Zelensky can acknowledge Moscow’s claimed proper to Crimea and 4 “Russian-speaking” areas in jap Ukraine.

Regardless of being unable to call two of the 4 mainland areas – which Mr Putin partly occupies, and tried to illegally annex following sham referenda in September 2022 – and utilizing the Russian identify for a 3rd, Steve Witkoff stated he believed the “central concern” within the battle was whether or not Ukraine would relent management of them to Moscow.

Claiming an “overwhelming majority” of residents within the contested areas had indicated a desire for Russian rule, regardless of stories of ballots being solid at gunpoint, Mr Witkoff went on to say that “the Russians are de facto accountable for these territories”.

Many 1000’s of Ukrainians have given their lives to defend territory in Donetsk and Luhansk since 2014, and in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson since Russia’s full-scale invasion three years in the past. Whereas Moscow at present controls most of Donetsk and Luhansk, they maintain minimal territory in Zaporizhzhia and Kherson, with fierce combating nonetheless ongoing in all 4 areas.

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Ukraine’s defence minister Rustem Umerov stated talks with the US delegation in Saudi Arabia on Sunday had been “constructive and significant”.

“We mentioned key points, notably the vitality sector,” Mr Umerov stated in a put up on social media.

Mr Umerov led the Ukrainian delegation for the talks on Sunday, which might be adopted by a gathering between Russian and US officers on Monday – marking the primary such parallel peace talks for the reason that early days of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion.

On the this second of peril for our continent, it has by no means been extra vital for politicians to say what we actually assume.

So once I give my speech to Liberal Democrat convention, it received’t shock you that I’ll be speaking quite a bit about Donald Trump and Nigel Farage. Nevertheless it may shock you that I’m additionally going to speak about church roofs. (Stick with me on this please… I do know it sounds bizarre, however I’m a Liberal Democrat.)

I do know what you’re considering and also you’re proper. It’s straightforward for me to criticise Trump, since I’m not the prime minister and I don’t have to sit down throughout from him within the Oval Workplace. However let me inform you one thing: week after week I have a look at the Labour benches as I inform Keir Starmer that Donald Trump is an unreliable ally, and I see a lot of the cupboard making an attempt desperately to not nod in settlement.

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The Ukrainian delegation at Sunday’s assembly with the U.S. might be led by defence minister Rustem Umerov. President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier stated this reality would enable Kyiv to behave in a “very fast and really substantive” method.

Nevertheless, Ukrainian officers have stated they nonetheless see Sunday’s assembly in Riyadh as purely technical.

Heorhii Tykhyi, overseas ministry spokesperson, stated on Friday the Ukrainian and American sides had been due “to make clear the modalities, the nuances of attainable totally different ceasefire regimes, easy methods to monitor them, easy methods to management them, usually, what’s included of their scope”.

Final Tuesday, Russian President Vladimir Putin agreed to Trump’s proposal for Russia and Ukraine to cease assaults on one another’s vitality infrastructure for 30 days and ordered the Russian army to stop them.

The settlement fell quick, nevertheless, of a wider settlement that the U.S. had sought, and which Kyiv backed, for a blanket 30-day truce within the battle.

Russia’s Safety Council secretary Sergei Shoigu thanked Kim Jong Un for North Korea’s ongoing assist in its battle towards Ukraine throughout a go to at present, Russian state-owned information company Tass reported.

In late February, South Korea’s spy company stated North Korea appeared to have despatched extra troops to Russia. South Korean media put the variety of newly despatched North Korean troopers at about 1,000 to three,000.

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