It is “premature” to talk about specific plans for a summit between Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Joe Biden, Putin’s spokesman, Dmitri Peskov, said after an announcement on Sunday from French President Emmanuel Macron that his Russian and US counterparts had agreed in principle to attend talks aimed at de-escalating the Ukraine crisis.
The Elysee Palace had put out a statement after last-minute diplomatic efforts by Macron to try to dissuade Russia from invading Ukraine amid further US warnings that war was imminent.
The White House has confirmed Biden’s readiness to hold a summit, but made clear that it was wary about the sincerity of the offer.
Photo: Reuters
Earlier yesterday, Russia’s FSB security service said that a shell fired from Ukrainian territory had completely destroyed a border guard post in Russia’s Rostov region, but caused no casualties.
Ukraine denied responsibility for the incident.
“At 9:50am an unidentified projectile fired from Ukrainian territory completely destroyed a service point of the FSB border guards in the Rostov region, located about 150m away from the Russia-Ukraine border,” the FSB said in a statement. “There are no casualties. Sappers are working there.”
The RIA news agency shared video footage published by the FSB, which showed that a small outhouse had been torn apart. The footage did not show the projectile.
Ukraine said that it had not shelled Russian territory.
Its military has previously accused Russia of faking pictures of shells to make out they were Ukrainian, and said that mercenaries have arrived in separatist-held eastern Ukraine to stage provocations in collaboration with Russian special forces.
Shelling across the line dividing Ukrainian government forces and pro-Russian separatists in eastern Ukraine has intensified since Thursday, and diplomatic efforts have increased.
On Sunday evening, US satellite imagery company Maxar said that satellite images show new deployments of Russian troops and military equipment near the Ukrainian border.
The pictures show “multiple new field deployments of armored equipment and troops” departing from existing military sites into forests and fields about 15 to 30km from Russia’s border with Ukraine, Maxar said in an e-mail.
The photographs, taken on Sunday, appear to show vehicle tracks cutting through snow-covered fields that are surrounded by woodland and bordered by roads.
“Forty to 50 percent [of Russian troops] are in an attack position. They have uncoiled in tactical assembly in the last 48 hours,” a US official told reporters on Friday, insisting on anonymity.
In related news, the US has warned the UN it has information that Russia has lists of Ukrainians “to be killed or sent to camps” in the event of an invasion, according to a letter sent to UN High Commissioner for Human Rights Michelle Bachelet.
The note, signed by Bathsheba Nell Crocker, US ambassador to the UN in Geneva, Switzerland, said that a Russian invasion of Ukraine could bring with it abuses such as kidnappings or torture, and could target political dissidents and religious and ethnic minorities, among others.
Additional reporting by Reuters, AFP
AIR SUPPORT: The Ministry of National Defense thanked the US for the delivery, adding that it was an indicator of the White House’s commitment to the Taiwan Relations Act Deputy Minister of National Defense Po Horng-huei (柏鴻輝) and Representative to the US Alexander Yui on Friday attended a delivery ceremony for the first of Taiwan’s long-awaited 66 F-16C/D Block 70 jets at a Lockheed Martin Corp factory in Greenville, South Carolina. “We are so proud to be the global home of the F-16 and to support Taiwan’s air defense capabilities,” US Representative William Timmons wrote on X, alongside a photograph of Taiwanese and US officials at the event. The F-16C/D Block 70 jets Taiwan ordered have the same capabilities as aircraft that had been upgraded to F-16Vs. The batch of Lockheed Martin
GRIDLOCK: The National Fire Agency’s Special Search and Rescue team is on standby to travel to the countries to help out with the rescue effort A powerful earthquake rocked Myanmar and neighboring Thailand yesterday, killing at least three people in Bangkok and burying dozens when a high-rise building under construction collapsed. Footage shared on social media from Myanmar’s second-largest city showed widespread destruction, raising fears that many were trapped under the rubble or killed. The magnitude 7.7 earthquake, with an epicenter near Mandalay in Myanmar, struck at midday and was followed by a strong magnitude 6.4 aftershock. The extent of death, injury and destruction — especially in Myanmar, which is embroiled in a civil war and where information is tightly controlled at the best of times —
Taiwan was ranked the fourth-safest country in the world with a score of 82.9, trailing only Andorra, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar in Numbeo’s Safety Index by Country report. Taiwan’s score improved by 0.1 points compared with last year’s mid-year report, which had Taiwan fourth with a score of 82.8. However, both scores were lower than in last year’s first review, when Taiwan scored 83.3, and are a long way from when Taiwan was named the second-safest country in the world in 2021, scoring 84.8. Taiwan ranked higher than Singapore in ninth with a score of 77.4 and Japan in 10th with
China's military today said it began joint army, navy and rocket force exercises around Taiwan to "serve as a stern warning and powerful deterrent against Taiwanese independence," calling President William Lai (賴清德) a "parasite." The exercises come after Lai called Beijing a "foreign hostile force" last month. More than 10 Chinese military ships approached close to Taiwan's 24 nautical mile (44.4km) contiguous zone this morning and Taiwan sent its own warships to respond, two senior Taiwanese officials said. Taiwan has not yet detected any live fire by the Chinese military so far, one of the officials said. The drills took place after US Secretary
RSS