Politics
Russia hits seat of Ukraine govt in war’s biggest air attack
- Russia unleashes biggest aerial barrage on Ukraine, killing four.
- Kyiv govt complex roof burns after direct Russian strike.
- Macron, Starmer, EU condemn strikes as “terror” and “cowardly”.
Russia fired its biggest-ever aerial barrage at Ukraine early Sunday, killing four people and setting the seat of the Ukrainian government in Kyiv ablaze in an attack President Volodymyr Zelensky warned would prolong the war.
The Sunday attack was the first to hit Ukraine’s cabinet of ministers, a sprawling government complex at the heart of Kyiv.
An AFP reporter saw the roof of the building in flames and smoke billowing over the capital.
Drone strikes also damaged several high-rise buildings in Kyiv, according to emergency services.
Russia has shown no sign of halting its three-and-a-half-year invasion of Ukraine, pushing hardline demands for ending the war despite efforts by the United States to broker a peace deal.
Residents in Kyiv spoke of their frustration following the strikes.
“This is already routine for us, unfortunately,” Olga, a 30-year-old resident of a damaged building told AFP.
The Russians first “grab the Shaheds (Iranian-designed drones), then the rockets come,” she said.
An AFP reporter saw helicopters dropping what buckets of water over its roof, as emergency services rushed to the scene.
European condemnation
Russia, which denies targeting civilians in Ukraine, said it had struck a plant and a logistics hub in Kyiv.
Its defence ministry said “no strikes were carried out on other targets within the boundaries of Kyiv”, explicitly denying responsibility for the government building strike.
Police cordoned off the area surrounding the building, the roof and upper floors of which sustained damage.
“We will restore the buildings. But we cannot bring back lost lives. The enemy terrorises and kills our people every day throughout the country,” Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko said.
She later posted a video from inside the damaged floor showing shattered offices and burned walls.
Russia fired at least 810 drones and 13 missiles at Ukraine between late Saturday and early Sunday, in a new record, according to the Ukrainian air force.
“Such killings now, when real diplomacy could have already begun long ago, are a deliberate crime and a prolongation of the war,” Zelensky said.
He discussed the attack in a call with French President Emmanuel Macron and said that France would help Ukraine strengthen its defence.
Macron, on X, condemned the attack and said Russia “is locking itself ever deeper into the logic of war and terror”. France stood by Ukraine, he said.
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer and EU chief Ursula von der Leyen also slammed the attack.
“Once again, the Kremlin is mocking diplomacy,” von der Leyen wrote on X.
The “cowardly strikes” show that Russian President Vladimir Putin “is not serious about peace”, Starmer said in a statement.
Strikes kills four
AFP reporters heard explosions over the capital early Sunday.
A strike on a nine-story residential building in the west of Kyiv killed at least two people, a mother and her two-month-old son, prosecutors said.
More than two dozens others were wounded in Kyiv, according to the emergency service.
Among them was a 24-year-old pregnant woman, who delivered a premature baby shortly after the attack, and doctors were fighting for her life and that of her baby, state TV Suspilne reported.
Two more died and dozens other wounded in overnight strikes across the country´s east and southeast, authorities said.
The attack also killed seven horses at an equestrian club in Kyiv’s suburbs, according to Ukraine’s foreign ministry.
“The world cannot stand aside while a terrorist state takes lives — human or animal — every single day,” it wrote on X.
The barrage came after more than two dozen European countries pledged to patrol any agreement to end the war, some of whom said they were willing to deploy troops on the ground.
Kyiv insists on Western-backed security guarantees to prevent future Russian attacks, but Putin warns that any Western troops in Ukraine would be unacceptable and legitimate targets.
Efforts in recent weeks by US President Donald Trump to end the war have so far yielded little progress.
Meantime, on the front line in the east, Moscow continued to claim territory in costly grinding battles, capturing another village in the Dnipropetrovsk region. Russia occupies around 20% of the country in total.
Tens of thousands have been killed in three-and-a-half years of fighting, which has forced millions from their homes and destroyed much of eastern and southern Ukraine in Europe’s bloodiest conflict since World War II.
A fire at a nursing home on the Indonesian island of Sulawesi killed more than a dozen people, with three others injured, a local official said Monday.
Firefighters received the report of the blaze at 8:31pm Sunday at a nursing home in the North Sulawesi provincial capital Manado, said the city’s fire and rescue agency chief Jimmy Rotinsulu.
“There were 16 deaths; three (people) had burn injuries,” he told AFP.
Many bodies of the victims were found inside their rooms, Jimmy said, adding that many of the elderly residents were likely resting in their rooms in the evening when the fire broke out.
Authorities managed to evacuate 12 people — all unhurt — and transfer them to a local hospital, he said.
Footage aired by local broadcaster Metro TV showed the fire engulfing the nursing home, while locals helped to evacuate an elderly person.
Deadly fires are not uncommon in Indonesia, a Southeast Asian archipelago of more than 17,000 islands.
A fire tore through a seven-storey office building in Indonesia´s capital Jakarta this month, killing at least 22 people.
In 2023, at least 12 people were killed in the country´s east after an explosion at a nickel-processing plant.
US President Donald Trump said that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries’ leaders.
Trump, who had promised a peace deal on day one of his nearly year-old presidency, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people since February 2022.
In a pre-New Year’s diplomatic sprint, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Florida, where the two met with top aides over lunch, a day after Russia unleashed major new attacks on residential areas of the capital Kyiv.
Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke shortly beforehand by telephone with the US leader, who immediately insisted that Moscow was “serious” about peace despite the assault.
“I really believe we’re, Mr President, probably closer than — far closer than — ever before with both parties,” Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Everybody wants it ended,” Trump said.
After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by telephone with key European leaders, who have been particularly alarmed about any decisions that would embolden Russia.
Zelensky said that he and European leaders could return jointly for talks with Trump in Washington in January.
The Ukrainian president stayed studiously polite throughout his visit, mindful of his disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated him for not being sufficiently grateful.
Territory impasse
Trump, for all his stated optimism, gave few details on the progress he cited, instead digressing into familiar grievances about his predecessor Joe Biden, who committed billions of dollars for Ukraine’s defense, and speaking of his own friendly rapport with Putin.
Trump acknowledged continued disagreement between Kyiv and Moscow on territory. The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarized area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.
“It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved,” Trump said.
Trump offered to address the Ukrainian parliament to promote the plan — an idea, however unlikely, that Zelensky was quick to welcome.
Zelensky has voiced an openness to the revised US plan, marking Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, although Ukrainians voters would need to approve it in a referendum.
By contrast, Russia has shown no signs of compromise, as it sees hope in the grinding gains it has made over four years against tough Ukrainian defenses.
The Kremlin in its readout of talks between Putin and Trump called on Kyiv to make a “brave decision” and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas, casting European leaders as the impediment to peace.
“Russia and the United States share the same position which is that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire (…) would only prolong the conflict and lead to a resumption of hostilities,” the Kremlin’s diplomatic advisor Yuri Ushakov told reporters.
’90 percent’ agreed by Ukraine
Trump’s advisors have previously floated the idea of offering NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance’s members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.
Zelensky said that the peace framework laid out by Trump was “90 percent agreed” and that “US-Ukraine security guarantees: 100 percent agreed.”
Zelensky said the two sides were still finalizing a “prosperity plan” for Ukraine as well as the sequencing of the various actions.
Russia had adamantly rejected any entrance of the former Soviet republic into NATO.
In its latest assault with drones and missiles, Russia knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents during freezing temperatures.
“If the authorities in Kyiv don’t want to settle this business peacefully, we’ll resolve all the problems before us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday.
- US and Ukraine “a lot closer” on peace deal: Trump.
- Trump says to be clear within “weeks” if Ukraine war can end.
- Zelenskiy sees agreement on security guarantees for Ukraine.
FLORIDA: US President Donald Trump said Sunday that a deal was closer than ever to end Russia’s invasion of Ukraine, but reported no apparent breakthrough on the flashpoint issue of territory after new talks with the warring countries’ leaders.
Trump, who had promised a peace deal on day one of his nearly year-old presidency, said it would become clear within weeks whether it was possible to end the war that has killed tens of thousands of people since February 2022.
In a pre-New Year’s diplomatic sprint, Trump brought Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky to Florida, where the two met with top aides over lunch, a day after Russia unleashed major new attacks on residential areas of the capital Kyiv.
Much like when Zelensky last met Trump in October, Russian President Vladimir Putin also spoke shortly beforehand by telephone with the US leader, who immediately insisted that Moscow was “serious” about peace despite the assault.
“I really believe we’re, Mr. President, probably closer than — far closer than — ever before with both parties,” Trump said with Zelensky at his side in the tea room of his Mar-a-Lago estate.
“Everybody wants it ended,” Trump said.
After their talks, Zelensky and Trump spoke jointly by telephone with key European leaders, who have been particularly alarmed about any decisions that would embolden Russia.
Zelensky said that he and European leaders could return jointly for talks with Trump in Washington in January.
The Ukrainian president stayed studiously polite throughout his visit, mindful of his disastrous White House meeting on February 28 where Trump and Vice President JD Vance publicly berated him for not being sufficiently grateful.
Territory impasse
Trump, for all his stated optimism, gave few details on the progress he cited, instead digressing into familiar grievances about his predecessor Joe Biden, who committed billions of dollars for Ukraine’s defence, and speaking of his own friendly rapport with Putin.
Trump acknowledged continued disagreement between Kyiv and Moscow on territory. The current plan, revised after weeks of intense US-Ukrainian negotiations, would stop the war at the current frontlines in the eastern Donbas region and set up a demilitarised area, while Russia has long demanded territorial concessions.
“It’s unresolved, but it’s getting a lot closer. That’s a very tough issue, but one that I think will get resolved,” Trump said.
Trump offered to address the Ukrainian parliament to promote the plan — an idea, however unlikely, that Zelensky was quick to welcome.
Zelensky has voiced an openness to the revised US plan, marking Kyiv’s most explicit acknowledgement yet of possible territorial concessions, although Ukrainian voters would need to approve it in a referendum.
By contrast, Russia has shown no signs of compromise, as it sees hope in the grinding gains it has made over four years against tough Ukrainian defences.
The Kremlin in its readout of talks between Putin and Trump called on Kyiv to make a “brave decision” and immediately withdraw troops from Donbas, casting European leaders as the impediment to peace.
“Russia and the United States share the same position which is that the Ukrainian and European proposal for a temporary ceasefire (…) would only prolong the conflict and lead to a resumption of hostilities,” the Kremlin’s diplomatic advisor, Yuri Ushakov, told reporters.
‘90%’ agreed by Ukraine
Trump’s advisors have previously floated the idea of offering NATO-like security guarantees to Ukraine, meaning in theory that the alliance’s members would respond militarily if Russia attacks again.
Zelensky said that the peace framework laid out by Trump was “90% agreed” and that “US-Ukraine security guarantees: 100% agreed.”
Zelensky said the two sides were still finalising a “prosperity plan” for Ukraine as well as the sequencing of the various actions.
Russia had adamantly rejected any entrance of the former Soviet republic into NATO.
In its latest assault with drones and missiles, Russia knocked out power and heating to hundreds of thousands of residents during freezing temperatures.
“If the authorities in Kyiv don’t want to settle this business peacefully, we’ll resolve all the problems before us by military means,” Putin said on Saturday.
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