• EU, UK summon Russian envoys to protest over Kyiv attacks.
• White House spox says Trump will have more to say about strikes.
• Says perhaps both sides are not ready to end it themselves.

KYIV: US President Donald Trump has said that he was “not surprised” after Russia rained down missiles and drones on Kyiv, killing at least 21 people in the Ukrainian capital early on Thursday. 

The deadly strikes came as the US president continues to push for peace talks between Moscow and Kyiv, even as the war grinds on.

White House press secretary Karoline Leavitt said Trump “was not happy about this news, but he was also not surprised,” given that the two countries had been at war for a long time.

Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky said the strike, the second-largest attack since Russia launched a full-scale invasion in February 2022, was Moscow’s answer to diplomatic efforts to end its war.

US special envoy Keith Kellogg commented on X: “The targets? Not soldiers and weapons but residential areas in Kyiv – blasting civilian trains, the EU & British mission council offices, and innocent civilians.”

The European Union and Britain summoned Russian envoys to protest. There were no reports of casualties at either site.

Zelensky said the strikes also damaged a Turkish enterprise and the Azerbaijan embassy.

Leavitt told a regular briefing that Trump would have more to say about the situation later.

Leavitt said the Russian attacks had been deadly and that Ukrainian attacks had done significant damage in August to Russian oil refineries.

“Perhaps both sides of this war are not ready to end it themselves,” she said. 

“The president wants it to end but the leaders of these two countries need it to end and want it to end.”

The strikes took place less than two weeks after Trump hosted Russian President Vladimir Putin at a summit in Alaska, a meeting the US president hoped would advance his peace efforts.

“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table,” Zelensky said on X, calling for new sanctions on Russia. “It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war.”

Russia said its attack had hit military industrial facilities and air bases, and that Ukraine had attacked Russian targets. The Kremlin said it was still interested in pursuing peace talks.

Moscow has regularly denied targeting civilians. Ukrainian officials say scores of civilians have died in Russian strikes on densely populated areas in recent months, and thousands since the start of the war.

During the attack on Kyiv, explosions rang out as clouds of smoke rose into the night sky. Drones whirred overhead.

Mayor Vitali Klitschko described it as one of the biggest attacks on the city in recent months. At least 63 people were wounded in the hours-long assault, which damaged buildings in all city districts, officials said.

Across the country, Ukraine’s military said Russian attacks struck 13 locations. National grid operator Ukrenergo said energy facilities were hit, causing power cuts.

A push by Ukraine and its allies to end the invasion has yielded little, despite Trump’s meetings this month with Putin, then Zelensky.

Russia has stepped up air strikes on Ukrainian towns and cities far behind the front lines and pushed a grinding offensive across much of the east in an effort to pressure Ukraine into giving up territory.

‘Another grim reminder’

“This is another grim reminder of what is at stake. It shows that the Kremlin will stop at nothing to terrorise Ukraine, blindly killing civilians and even targeting the European Union,” EU Commission President Ursula von der Leyen told reporters in Brussels.

She said two missiles had struck near the EU office within 20 seconds of each other.

EU countries would soon come up with a 19th package of sanctions against Russia and were advancing work on how to use frozen Russian assets to help Ukraine, she added.

“We discussed our diplomatic efforts to stop the killings, to end this unprovoked Russian aggression, and to guarantee real security for our people,” Zelensky wrote on X after talks with von der Leyen.

Zelensky also said that he had discussed security guarantees for Ukraine with Turkey’s President Tayyip Erdogan and they would be set out on paper next week.

British Prime Minister Keir Starmer condemned the assault, which he said had damaged the British Council building. “Putin is killing children and civilians and sabotaging hopes of peace,” he wrote on X.

Ukraine’s military said air defences downed 563 of nearly 600 drones and 26 of 31 missiles launched by Russia across the country.

Russia’s Defence Ministry said Russian air defences destroyed 102 Ukrainian drones overnight in at least seven regions.

Ukraine’s drone force said it had struck the Afipsky and Kuybyshevskyi oil refineries as part of that attack.

• Britain, France, Germany send letter to UN Security Council.
• E3 hopes move will push Iran to make commitments.
• “E3’s commitment to diplomatic solution remains steadfast.”

Britain, France and Germany launched a 30-day process to reimpose UN sanctions on Iran over its nuclear programme on Thursday, a step likely to stoke tensions two months after Israel and the United States bombed Iran, according to a letter sent by E3 to the UN Security Council seen by Reuters.

The trio, known as the E3, said in a statement they had decided to trigger the so-called snapback mechanism before they lose the ability in mid-October to restore sanctions on Tehran that were lifted under a 2015 nuclear accord with world powers.

They have held several rounds of talks with Iran since Israel and the United States struck its nuclear installations in mid-June, aiming to agree to defer the mechanism but they deemed that talks in Geneva on Tuesday did not yield sufficiently tangible commitments from Iran.

The E3 have pressed ahead now over accusations that Iran has violated the 2015 deal that aimed to prevent Tehran from developing a nuclear weapon. The United States, which was party to that deal, pulled out under President Donald Trump in 2018, and held failed indirect negotiations earlier this year with Tehran.

The E3, whose ministers informed US Secretary of State Marco Rubio of their decision on Wednesday, said they hoped that Iran would engage by the end of September to provide commitments over its nuclear programme that will convince them to defer concrete action.

“The E3 are committed to using every diplomatic tool available to ensure Iran never develops a nuclear weapon. That includes our decision to trigger the ‘snapback’ mechanism today through this notification,” they said in the letter.

“The E3’s commitment to a diplomatic solution nonetheless remains steadfast. The E3 will fully make use of the 30-day period following the notification in order to resolve the issue giving rise to the notification.”

Meanwhile, Britain, France, and Germany’s move to reimpose all UN sanctions on Iran is “illegal and regrettable”, a senior Iranian official told Reuters, adding that Tehran was reviewing its options including withdrawing from the Non-Proliferation Treaty.

“The move is an action against diplomacy, not a chance for it … However, Iran will continue diplomacy with the E3 … (But) Iran will not concede under pressure,” added the senior official.

The E3 had offered to extend the snapback for as much as six months to enable serious negotiations if Iran resumes full UN inspections — which would also seek to account for Iran’s large stock of enriched uranium that has not been verified since the June strikes — and engages in talks with the United States.

Growing frustration in Iran

The UN process takes 30 days before sanctions that would cover Iran’s financial, banking, hydrocarbons and defence sectors are restored.

Growing fears of renewed United Nations sanctions under the snapback mechanism are fuelling frustration in Iran, where economic anxiety is rising and political divisions are deepening, three insiders close to the government said.

As the prospect of tighter international restrictions threatens to further isolate the Islamic Republic, officials in Tehran remain split — with hardliners urging defiance and confrontation, while moderates advocate diplomacy.

Iran’s rial weakened sharply since Wednesday after a Reuters report about the E3 moving to trigger the return of United Nations sanctions.

Iran has been enriching uranium to up to 60% fissile purity, a short step from the roughly 90% of weapons-grade, and had enough material enriched to that level, if refined further, for six nuclear weapons, before the strikes by Israel started on June 13, according to the IAEA.

Actually producing a weapon would take more time, however, and the IAEA has said that while it cannot guarantee Tehran’s nuclear programme is entirely peaceful, it has no credible indication of a coordinated weapons project.

The West says the advancement of Iran’s nuclear programme goes beyond civilian needs, while Tehran denies it is seeking nuclear weapons.

US President Donald Trump’s administration moved on Thursday to impose stricter limits on how long foreign students and journalists can stay in the United States, the latest bid to tighten legal immigration in the country.

Under a proposed change, foreigners would not be allowed to stay for more than four years on student visas in the US.

Foreign journalists would be limited to stays of just 240 days, although they could apply to extend by additional 240-day periods — except for Chinese journalists who would get just 90 days.

The US, until now, has generally issued visas for the duration of a student’s educational programme or a journalist’s assignment, although no non-immigrant visas are valid for more than 10 years.

The proposed changes were published in the Federal Register, initiating a short period for public comment before they can go into effect.

Trump’s Department of Homeland Security alleged that an unspecified number of foreigners were indefinitely extending their studies so they could remain in the country as “‘forever’ students.”

“For too long, past administrations have allowed foreign students and other visa holders to remain in the US virtually indefinitely, posing safety risks, costing untold amount of taxpayer dollars and disadvantaging US citizens,” the department said in a press statement Wednesday.

The department did not explain how US citizens and taxpayers were hurt by international students, who according to Commerce Department statistics contributed more than $50 billion to the US economy in 2023.

The United States welcomed more than 1.1 million international students in the 2023-24 academic year, more than any other country, providing a crucial source of revenue as foreigners generally pay full tuition.

A group representing leaders of US colleges and universities denounced the latest move as a needless bureaucratic hurdle that intrudes on academic decision-making and could further deter potential students who would otherwise contribute to research and job creation.

“This proposed rule sends a message to talented individuals from around the world that their contributions are not valued in the United States,” said Miriam Feldblum, president and CEO of the Presidents’ Alliance on Higher Education and Immigration.

“This is not only detrimental to international students — it also weakens the ability of US colleges and universities to attract top talent, diminishing our global competitiveness.”

Backlash

The announcement came as universities were starting their academic years with many reporting lower enrollments of international students after earlier actions by the Trump administration.

But Trump also heard rare criticism within his base when he mused Monday that he would like to double the number of Chinese students in the United States to 600,000 as he hailed warm relations with counterpart Xi Jinping.

His remarks marked a sharp departure from Secretary of State Marco Rubio’s earlier vow to “aggressively” rescind visas of Chinese students.

The State Department said last week it had overall revoked 6,000 student visas since Trump took office, in part due to Rubio’s targeting of campus activists who led demonstrations against Israel.

Trump has also suspended billions of dollars in federal research funds to universities, with his administration contending they have not acted against antisemitism, and Congress has sharply raised taxes on private universities’ endowments.

In a speech before he was elected, Vice President JD Vance said conservatives must attack universities, which he described as “the enemy.”

Trump, at the end of his first term, had proposed curbing the duration of journalist visas, but his successor Joe Biden scrapped the idea.