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Next week, Donald Trump is likely to meet Mr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine’s war
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US President Donald Trump said he has talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine.
In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday Trump said that he had “better not say,” when asked how many times the two leaders have spoken.
“He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying,” Trump told the New York Post.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday he could “neither confirm nor deny” reports of a conversation between the two leaders.
Next week, Trump is likely to meet Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky to discuss Ukraine‘s war to repel Russian invaders.
It comes as North Korean dictator Kim Jong Un made his first admission of its the country’s support of Putin’s invasion.
North Korean army will “invariably support and encourage the just cause of the Russian army and people to defend their sovereignty, security and territorial integrity in keeping with the spirit of the treaty on the comprehensive strategic partnership” with Russia, Kim said in latest comments.
Russia is yet to see any positive steps from the new US administration on disarmament, Russia’s permanent representative to the United Nations in Geneva has said.
“We are ready to maintain smooth relations of cooperation with any American administration,” Gennady Gatilov said, according to RIA Novosti.
“We would be ready to do this within the framework of the Conference on Disarmament,” he was quoted as saying. “So far, we do not see any positive progress in this regard in Geneva.”
The conference, an international disarmament forum that meets in the Swiss city, has negotiated a number of major multilateral arms limitation and disarmament agreements, including on non-proliferation of nuclear weapons.
After last month’s inauguration of Donald Trump as US president, Russian President Vladimir Putin indicated that he sees Trump’s second term as a chance for a new era in US-Russian relations.
“We are, of course, closely monitoring the rhetoric and first steps of the representatives of the new U.S. administration,” Gatilov said. “We expect that the Americans will move from words to action, especially since they have said a lot since January 20.”
Ukraine’s military has said that Russia launched 151 drones to attack Ukraine overnight.
Ukraine’s air force shot down 70 drones, while 74 more did not reach their targets, likely due to electronic warfare, and two are still in air, it said in a statement.
US President Donald Trump said that he has talked to Russian President Vladimir Putin on the phone to discuss an end to the war in Ukraine, the New York Post reported late on Saturday.
In an interview aboard Air Force One on Friday Trump said that he had “better not say,” when asked how many times the two leaders have spoken.
“He (Putin) wants to see people stop dying,” Trump told the New York Post.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Sunday he could “neither confirm nor deny” reports of a conversation between Putin and Trump.
An underwater Russian Baltic Sea telecoms cable was damaged by an “external impact”, Russia’s TASS news agency cited the country’s state-owned Rostelecom company as saying on Saturday.
“Rostelecom’s submarine cable was damaged in the Baltic Sea as a result of an external impact some time ago,” TASS cited Rostelecom as saying.
Restoration work is underway and the incident has had no impact on subscribers so far, Rostelecom added.
Rostelecom did not provide further details and it was unclear when the damage occurred. Finland’s coast guard said earlier on Saturday on platform X that it was monitoring a Russian vessel repairing a broken Russian cable in the Gulf of Finland.
The Baltic Sea region has been on high alert after a string of outages affecting power cables, telecom links and gas pipelines between the Baltics and Sweden or Finland, leading to increased surveillance operations by Nato members.
All were believed to have been caused by ships dragging anchors along the seabed following Russia’s invasion of Ukraine. Russia has denied any involvement.
Kim Jong Un sent roughly 11,000 soldiers to join Vladimir Putin’s troops in November last year
The man was rescued deep in the freezing mountains of Romania
Russian air defence units intercepted and destroyed 35 Ukrainian drones overnight, the Russian defence ministry said on Sunday.
About half of the drones were destroyed over the Kursk region that borders Ukraine, while the rest were intercepted over various other regions in Russia’s west and south, the ministry said in a post on the Telegram messaging app.
Putin and North Korean leader Kim Jong Un signed a “comprehensive strategic partnership” pact in Pyongyang on 19 June 2024, including a mutual defence clause in case of aggression against either country.
Kim expressed “unconditional support” for “all of Russia’s policies”, including “a full support and firm alliance” for Russia’s war in Ukraine. Putin has said Russia would help North Korea build satellites.
The US and South Korea say North Korea has shipped ballistic missiles, anti-tank rockets and millions of rounds of ammunition for Russia to use in the war. Moscow and Pyongyang have denied weapons transfers.
Ukraine, South Korea and the US say Kim has sent more than 11,000 troops to fight for Russia in its western Kursk region, part of which has been held by Ukraine since August. Ukraine says many North Korean soldiers have been killed and wounded. Moscow has never confirmed or denied their presence.
Ukraine’s $1.3 billion drone war is now being led by a rap artist who has been fighting on the front line – and in his music – since the start of the war, Sam Kiley reports
Ukraine’s $1.3 billion drone war is now being led by a rap artist who has been fighting on the front line – and in his music – since the start of the war, Sam Kiley reports
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