Ukraine yesterday said that talks with the US in Saudi Arabia began “very constructively,” with a partial ceasefire with Russia on the table hours after Kyiv conducted its largest drone attack on Moscow in three years of war.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andriy Sybiga attended the meeting in Jeddah — which Russia was not participating in — as US President Donald Trump ramped up the pressure on Ukraine to end the war that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion.
The talks come just days after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s public dressing-down at the White House, after which the US cut off military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery. Ukraine is hoping the offer of a partial ceasefire in the sky and at sea would persuade Washington to restore the assistance.
Photo: AFP / Ukrainian Presidential Press Service
“We are ready to do everything to achieve peace,” Ukrainian presidency chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters as he entered the meeting at a luxury hotel.
Kyiv officials said the “largest drone attack in history,” in which hundreds of drones slammed into Moscow and other areas overnight, was intended to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to the aerial and naval ceasefire.
“This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a ceasefire in the air,” said Andriy Kovalenko, a Ukrainian official responsible for countering disinformation.
Zelenskiy, who met Saudi Arabian Crown Prince Mohammad bin Salman in Jeddah on Monday, left the White House late last month without signing an agreement pushed by Trump that would give the US control over Ukraine’s rare earths.
Zelenskiy has said he is still willing to sign, although Rubio said it would not be the focus of yesterday’s meeting.
Rubio, who was accompanied by US National Security Adviser Mike Waltz, said the aid suspension was “something I hope we can resolve” in the talks.
“Hopefully, we’ll have a good meeting and good news to report,” Rubio said.
Rubio said that the US had not cut off intelligence for defensive operations.
“The meeting with the US team started very constructively, we continue our work,” Yermak wrote on social media.
Asked whether the overnight drone attack could derail peace talks, Kremlin spokesman Dmitri Peskov said: “There are no [peace] negotiations yet, so there is nothing to disrupt here.”
In the infamous White House meeting last month, Zelenskiy refused to bite his tongue in the face of criticism from US Vice President J.D. Vance, with the Ukrainian president questioning why his nation should trust promises from Russia.
He has since written a repentant letter to Trump.
The Legislative Yuan’s Finance Committee yesterday approved proposed amendments to the Amusement Tax Act (娛樂稅法) that would abolish taxes on films, cultural activities and competitive sporting events, retaining the fee only for dance halls and golf courses. The proposed changes would set the maximum tax rate for dance halls and golf courses at 50 and 20 percent respectively, with local governments authorized to suspend the levies. Article 2 of the act says that “amusement tax shall be levied on tickets sold or fees charged by amusement places, facilities or activities” in six categories: “Cinema; professional singing, story-telling, dancing, circus, magic show, acrobatics
Tainan, Taipei and New Taipei City recorded the highest fines nationwide for illegal accommodations in the first quarter of this year, with fines issued in the three cities each exceeding NT$7 million (US$220,639), Tourism Administration data showed. Among them, Taipei had the highest number of illegal short-term rental units, with 410. There were 3,280 legally registered hotels nationwide in the first quarter, down by 14 properties, or 0.43 percent, from a year earlier, likely indicating operators exiting the market, the agency said. However, the number of unregistered properties rose to 1,174, including 314 illegal hotels and 860 illegal short-term rental
INFLATION UP? The IMF said CPI would increase to 1.5 percent this year, while the DGBAS projected it would rise to 1.68 percent, with GDP per capita of US$44,181 The IMF projected Taiwan’s real GDP would grow 5.2 percent this year, up from its 2.1 percent outlook in January, despite fears of global economic disruptions sparked by the US-Iran conflict. Taiwan’s consumer price index (CPI) is projected to increase to 1.5 percent, while unemployment would be 3.4 percent, roughly in line with estimates for Asia as a whole, the international body wrote in its Global Economic Outlook Report published in the US on Monday. The figures are comparatively better than the IMF outlook for the rest of the world, which pegged real GDP growth at 3.1 percent, down from 3.3 percent
ECONOMIC COERCION: Such actions are often inconsistently applied, sometimes resumed, and sometimes just halted, the Presidential Office spokeswoman said The government backs healthy and orderly cross-strait exchanges, but such arrangements should not be made with political conditions attached and never be used as leverage for political maneuvering or partisan agendas, Presidential Office spokeswoman Karen Kuo (郭雅慧) said yesterday. Kuo made the remarks after China earlier in the day announced 10 new “incentive measures” for Taiwan, following a landmark meeting between Chinese President Xi Jinping (習近平) and Chinese Nationalist Party (KMT) Chairwoman Cheng Li-wun (鄭麗文) in Beijing on Friday. The measures, unveiled by China’s Xinhua news agency, include plans to resume individual travel by residents of Shanghai and China’s Fujian
RSS