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Trump says Keith Kellogg, his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, is going to Ukraine soon
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A senior Russian official has said that all of president Vladimir Putin‘s conditions must be met in full before the war in Ukraine can end.
Russian deputy foreign minister Sergei Ryabkov said it would not be possible to reach a US-brokered peace deal if Mr Trump undermines Mr Putin’s fundamental aims.
“Without solving the problems which were the root causes of what is happening, it will not be possible to reach an agreement,” Mr Ryabkov said. “So variations and half-measures are not the path we are prepared to go along.”
He suggested the non-negotiables for Mr Putin include Ukraine abandoning hopes of joining Nato and its withdrawal of troops from the four regions Russia illegally annexed in September 2022. All four regions remain partially unoccupied.
US president Donald Trump said his special envoy for Ukraine and Russia, Keith Kellogg, is going to Ukraine soon.Mr Trump also said he would speak with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky this week.
This comes a day after the US president said that he has been in contact with Mr Putin and believed the US was making progress in its talks to end the war between Russia and Ukraine.
Polish and allied aircraft were activated early today to ensure safety in areas bordering the threatened zones after Russia launched air strikes on Ukraine, the Operational Command of the Polish armed forces said.
“The Operational Command of the Armed Forces is monitoring the current situation, and its forces and resources remain in full readiness for immediate response,” the Command said on X.
Donald Trump claimed during campaign that he would be able to end war in 24 hours but has yet to reveal detailed peace plan
President Donald Trump’s senior advisers are expected to meet with Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky this week on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference to discuss the path toward ending Russia’s nearly three-year war in Ukraine.
Retired Lt Gen Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, said that the White House is ironing out details of the highly anticipated talks during the annual summit for international security discussions.
US vice president JD Vance, secretary of state Marco Rubio and Mr Kellogg are among the Trump administration officials traveling to Germany for the summit, and all could be involved in the critical talks with Zelenskyy and his team on the sidelines of the event.
“Knowing how the process works, it would probably be better for Zelensky if we all met together and talked through it as a group,” Mr Kellogg said in an interview.
Mr Trump yesterday said he’d “probably” speak with the Ukrainian president this week.
Ukraine imposed emergency power restrictions after overnight and morning attacks by Russia on gas infrastructure, said Ukraine energy minister, German Galushchenko.
“The enemy launched an attack on gas infrastructure overnight,” Galushchenko said in a post on social media. “As of this morning, the energy sector continues to be under attack.”
To minimize possible consequences for the energy system, emergency power restrictions were being imposed, he said.
Ukraine’s attack into Kursk has left Vladimir Putin’s forces scrambling
A Russian official claimed that Russia is sending hundreds of experienced Russian military personnel to North Korea for medical treatment, a US-based think tank has said.
The medical treatment, according to Russia’s ambassador to North Korea Aleksandr Matsegora is free, as North Korea has “refused Russia’s offer of financial compensation for the medical care, food, and other expenses related to the Russians’ stay in North Korea”.
The Institute for the Study of War said that the Russian military command has reportedly been “sending wounded personnel back into assault groups without treatment, demonstrating a general disregard for soldiers’ health in the Russian military and calling into question official Russian claims to be sending Russian soldiers abroad for treatment, particularly to North Korea”.
Russia’s air defence units intercepted and destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones over Russian territory, Russia’s defence ministry said today.
Of these, 18 of the drones were destroyed over the Saratov region, the ministry said on its Telegram channel. The rest were downed over four other regions in Russia’s south and west, it said.
A Ukrainian drone attack damaged an industrial facility in Russia’s southern region of Saratov, its governor said early today, while a Ukrainian official said an oil refinery had been hit.
“There are no casualties,” Roman Busargin, the governor of Saratov, said in a post on his Telegram channel, citing initial details, but without identifying the damaged facility.
Russia’s defence ministry said its air defences destroyed 40 Ukrainian drones overnight, 18 of them over Saratov.
As a safety measure, the aviation watchdog Rosaviatsia said it was suspending flights at the regional airport as well as those in Kazan, Ulyanovsk and Kirov.
Ukrainian lieutenant Andriy Kovalenko, an official of the National Security and Defence Council, said the Saratov oil refinery that supplies the Russian army with fuel was hit.
But Kovalenko, who heads the council’s Centre for Countering Disinformation, did not directly say that it was the result of a Ukrainian attack.
Ukraine’s $1.3bn drone war is now being led by a rap artist who has been fighting on the frontline – and in his music – since the start of the war, Sam Kiley reports
Kim Jong Un sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to join Vladimir Putin’s troops in November last year
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