Politics
Zelensky, European leaders head to US for talks on peace deal terms
- Trump says Nato and Crimea “off the table” for Ukraine.
- Ukraine fears pressure to accept Russian land demands.
- No ceasefire breakthrough after Trump-Putin summit.
WASHINGTON: US President Donald Trump said reclaiming Crimea or entering Nato were off the table for Ukraine, as President Volodymyr Zelensky arrived in Washington for Monday talks aimed at ending the war with Russia.
Zelensky, who has repeatedly rejected territorial concessions, will meet Trump in Washington on Monday, accompanied by European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen and other leaders.
The meeting comes on the heels of a summit between Trump and Russia’s Vladimir Putin in Alaska on Friday, which failed to yield a ceasefire breakthrough but produced promises from both leaders to provide “robust security guarantees” to Ukraine.
Zelensky was not invited to the Alaska meeting, after which Trump pivoted to the long-held Russian position that a ceasefire was not needed before a final peace deal.
“President Zelenskyy of Ukraine can end the war with Russia almost immediately, if he wants to, or he can continue to fight,” Trump posted on his social media platform. “Remember how it started. No getting back Obama given Crimea (12 years ago, without a shot being fired!), and NO GOING INTO NATO BY UKRAINE. Some things never change!!!”
Trump and Zelensky are expected to meet one-on-one before being joined by a cohort of European leaders on Monday, according to the White House schedule.
Along with von der Leyen, Nato chief Mark Rutte and the leaders of Britain, Finland, France, Germany and Italy will be present.
It will be the first time Zelensky visits Washington since a bust-up with Trump and Vice President JD Vance in February when the two men berated the Ukrainian leader for being “ungrateful.”
On Sunday night, after arriving in Washington, Zelensky said: “We all share a strong desire to end this war quickly and reliably.”
Security guarantees
Since the Oval Office row in February, Trump has grown more critical of Putin and shown some signs of frustration as Russia repeatedly stalled on peace talks.
But Washington has not placed extra sanctions on Moscow and the lavish welcome offered to Putin in Alaska on his first visit to the West since he invaded Ukraine in 2022 was seen as a diplomatic coup for Russia.
Speaking in Brussels on the eve of his visit to the United States, Zelensky said he was keen to hear more about what Putin and Trump discussed in Alaska.
He also hailed Washington’s offer of security guarantees to Ukraine as “historic.”
Trump said he spoke to Putin about the possibility of a Nato-style collective defense guarantee for Ukraine.
The promise would be outside of the framework of the Western military alliance that Ukraine wants to join and which is seen as an existential threat by Russia.
French President Emmanuel Macron said European leaders would ask Trump “to what extent” Washington is ready to contribute to security guarantees for Ukraine.
Discussion on land
Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had made “some concessions” regarding five Ukrainian regions that Russia fully or partially controls, and said that “there is an important discussion with regard to Donetsk and what would happen there.
“That discussion is going to specifically be detailed on Monday,” he said, without giving details.
Russia annexed Crimea in 2014 following a sham referendum and did the same in 2022 for four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Kherson, Lugansk and Zaporizhzhia — even though its forces have not fully captured them.
A source briefed on a phone call between Trump and European leaders on Saturday told AFP that the US leader was “inclined to support” a Russian demand to be given territory it has not yet captured in the Donbas, an area that includes the Donetsk and Lugansk regions and which has seen the deadliest battles of the war.
In exchange, the source cited Trump as saying, Moscow would agree to “freeze” the front line in the Kherson and Zaporizhzhia, where Russian forces hold swathes of territory but not the regional capitals.
Russia has until now insisted that Ukraine pull its forces out of all four regions as a precondition to any deal.
‘Capitulation’
There is concern in Europe that Washington could pressure Ukraine to accept Russia’s terms.
“For peace to prevail, pressure must be applied to the aggressor, not the victim of aggression,” Polish Foreign Minister Radoslaw Sikorski said Sunday.
Macron said: “There is only one state proposing a peace that would be a capitulation: Russia.”
Zelensky has repeatedly pushed back against ceding territory, but said he is ready to discuss the issue in the context of a trilateral summit with Trump and Putin.
Trump has raised the possibility of such a meeting, but Russia has played down the prospect.
Moscow’s forces have been advancing gradually but steadily in Ukraine, particularly in the Donetsk region.
Russian attacks on Kharkiv killed three people and wounded dozens more, Ukrainian authorities said Monday, while a separate overnight attack on the Sumy region near the border wounded two others.
ATHENS: Fraudulent messages promising safe passage through the Strait of Hormuz in exchange for cryptocurrency have been sent to some shipping companies whose vessels are stranded west of the waterway, Greek maritime risk management firm MARISKS has warned.
The US has maintained its blockade of Iranian ports, while Iran has lifted and then re-imposed its blockade of the Strait of Hormuz, through which roughly a fifth of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas passed before war broke out in the Middle East.
Amid ceasefire talks, Tehran, which controls the chokepoint, has proposed tolls on vessels to safely transit.
MARISKS on Monday issued an alert warning shipowners that unknown actors, claiming to represent Iranian authorities, had sent some shipping companies a message demanding transit fees in cryptocurrencies, Bitcoin or Tether, for “clearance”.
“These specific messages are a scam,” the firm said, adding the message was not sent by Iranian authorities.
There was no immediate comment from Tehran.
Hundreds of ships and about 20,000 seafarers remain stranded in the Gulf.
On April 18, when Iran briefly opened the strait subject to checks, ships tried to pass but at least two of them, including a tanker, reported that Iranian boats had fired shots at them, forcing the vessels to turn around.
MARISKS said that it believed that at least one of the vessels, which tried to exit the strait on Saturday and was hit by gunfire, was a victim of the fraud.
Reuters was not able to verify the information or track companies that had received the message.
“After providing the documents and assessing your eligibility by the Iranian Security Services, we will be able to determine the fee to be paid in cryptocurrency (BTC or USDT). Only then will your vessel be able to transit the strait unimpeded at the pre-agreed time,” said the message cited by MARISKS.
The UN Security Council on Monday condemned the recent killing of a French peacekeeper in Lebanon, whose death France has blamed on Hezbollah.
The Frenchman was killed and three others wounded when their unit was ambushed on Saturday as it headed to a UN Interim Force in Lebanon (UNIFIL) outpost cut off from the fighting between Hezbollah and Israel.
“The members of the Security Council condemned in the strongest terms the attack…(and) reaffirmed their full support for UNIFIL” a statement from the UN body said.
TOKYO: At least six people were reported injured on Tuesday, a day after a powerful quake rattled northern Japan, but there appeared to be no major damage from the tremor that also triggered tsunami waves up to 80 centimetres (31 inches).
However, the Japan Meteorological Agency (JMA) also warned of an increased risk of a megaquake — a tremor with a magnitude of 8.0 or stronger — hours after Monday’s 7.7 magnitude quake in Pacific waters off northern Iwate prefecture.
The jolt was so intense that it shook large buildings in the capital Tokyo, hundreds of kilometres from the epicentre.
Six people were reported injured by 8am (2300 GMT Monday), two seriously, the Fire and Disaster Management Agency (FDMA) said in a statement.
There were no reported fire outbreaks or damage to important facilities, it said.
Japan issued a warning for tsunami waves of up to three metres (10 feet) but it was lifted hours after an 80-centimetre (31-inch) wave hit a port in Kuji in Iwate, one among a series of small waves that hit elsewhere in northern Japan.
The JMA said that “the likelihood of a new, huge earthquake occurring is relatively higher than during normal times”.
Municipalities in the affected region issued non-compulsory evacuation directives to more than 182,000 residents, the FDMA said.
Japan is one of the world’s most seismically active countries, sitting on top of four major tectonic plates along the western edge of the Pacific “Ring of Fire”.
The archipelago, home to around 125 million people, typically experiences around 1,500 jolts every year and accounts for about 18 percent of the world´s earthquakes.
The vast majority are mild, although the damage they cause varies according to their location and the depth below the Earth´s surface at which they strike.
Japan is haunted by the memory of a massive 9.0 magnitude undersea quake in 2011, which triggered a tsunami that killed or left missing around 18,500 people and caused a devastating meltdown at the Fukushima nuclear plant.
Scam messages offering ships safe transit through Hormuz, warns security firm
UN Security Council denounces killing of French peacekeeper in Lebanon
Apple names new boss to replace Tim Cook after 15 years
-
Fashion5 days agoFrance’s LVMH Q1 revenue falls 6%, shows resilience amid Iran war
-
Sports1 week agoThe case for Man United’s Fernandes as Premier League’s best
-
Entertainment1 week agoPalace left in shock as Prince William cancels grand ceremony
-
Business1 week agoUK could adopt EU single market rules under new legislation
-
Entertainment6 days agoIs Claude down? Here’s why users are seeing errors
-
Fashion1 week agoEnergy emerges as biggest cost driver in textile margins
-
Business1 week agoDelta Air Lines unveils first new Delta One suite in premium cabin arms race
-
Tech1 week agoA Lot of Shops Won’t Fix Electric Bikes. Here’s Why