Russia and Ukraine yesterday said they were ready for more talks with the US to end almost four years of war, after US envoy Steve Witkoff and US President Donald Trump’s son-in-law Jared Kushner left the Kremlin with no breakthrough on a peace deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin’s talks with the US officials ended early yesterday, with neither side announcing concrete progress.
The Kremlin said that no “compromise” had been found on the crucial question of territories.
Photo: Reuters
The morning after the meeting, the Kremlin said it told the Americans what was “unacceptable” to it.
Witkoff and Kushner brought an updated version of a US plan to end Europe’s bloodiest war in 80 years, after the US held talks with Kyiv.
The Kremlin insisted it was incorrect to say Putin had rejected the plan in its entirety, and that Russia was still committed to diplomacy — despite the Russian leader issuing a stark warning that Moscow was “ready” to fight Europe if it wanted war.
“We are still ready to meet as many times as is needed to reach a peace settlement,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said that any deal should offer lasting peace and ensure Moscow does not attack again.
As the Americans returned from Moscow, Zelenskiy announced that his top negotiator, Rustem Umerov, and Ukrainian Chief General Staff of the Armed Forces General Andriy Gnatov were headed for Brussels, where NATO foreign ministers were gathering.
They would also travel to the US to meet with Trump’s envoys, Zelenskiy said on social media.
Witkoff has held a string of Kremlin meetings, but has so far not met with Ukrainian officials.
“Ukrainian representatives will brief their colleagues in Europe on what is known following yesterday’s contacts by the American side in Moscow,” Zelenskiy said.
The fresh talks come as NATO pledges to buy hundreds of millions of dollars of US arms for Kyiv.
“The peace talks are ongoing, that’s good, but at the same time, we have to make sure that whilst they take place — and we are not sure when they will end — that Ukraine is in the strongest possible position to keep the fight going,” NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte said.
European countries have expressed fears Washington and Moscow would reach agreements without them, and have spent the past few weeks trying to amend the US plan so that it does not force Kyiv to capitulate.
The Russian leader “should end the bluster and the bloodshed and be ready to come to the table and to support a just and lasting peace,” British Secretary of State for Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Affairs Yvette Cooper said.
Ukrainian Minister of Foreign Affairs Andrii Sybiha urged Putin to “stop wasting the world’s time.”
Additional reporting by AP
SILENCING CRITICS: In addition to blocking Taiwan, China aimed to prevent rights activists from speaking out against authoritarian states, a Cabinet department said The Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MOFA) yesterday condemned transnational repression by Beijing after RightsCon, a major digital human rights conference scheduled to be held in Zambia this week, was abruptly canceled due to Chinese pressure over Taiwanese participation. This year’s RightsCon, the world’s largest conference discussing issues “at the intersection of human rights and technology,” was scheduled to take place from tomorrow to Friday in Lusaka, and expected to draw 2,600 in-person attendees from 150 countries, along with 1,100 online participants. However, organizers were forced to cancel the event due to behind-the-scenes pressure from China, the ministry said, expressing its “strongest condemnation”
Taiwan’s economy grew far faster than expected in the first quarter, as booming demand for artificial intelligence (AI) applications drove a surge in exports, spilling over into investment and consumption, the Directorate-General of Budget, Accounting and Statistics (DGBAS) said yesterday. GDP growth was 13.69 percent year-on-year during the January-to-March period, beating the DGBAS’ February forecast by 2.23 percentage points and marking the most robust growth in nearly four decades, DGBAS senior official Chiang Hsin-yi (江心怡) told a news conference in Taipei. The result was powered by exports, which remain the backbone of Taiwan’s economy, Chiang said. Outbound shipments jumped 51.12 percent year-on-year to
DELAYED BUT DETERMINED: The president’s visit highlights Taiwan’s right to international engagement amid regional pressure from China President Willaim Lai (賴清德) yesterday arrived in Eswatini, more than a week after his planned visit to Taiwan’s sole African ally was suspended because of revoked overflight permits. “The visit, originally scheduled for April 22, was postponed due to unforeseen external factors,” Lai wrote on social media. “After several days of careful arrangements by our diplomatic and national security teams, we successfully arrived today.” Lai said he looked forward to further deepening Taiwan-Eswatini relations through closer cooperation in the economy, agriculture, culture and education, as well as advancing the nation’s international partnerships. The president was initially scheduled to arrive in time to celebrate
Iran’s Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corp (IRGC) yesterday said the US faced a choice between an “impossible” military operation or a “bad deal” with Tehran, after US President Donald Trump disparaged Iran’s latest peace proposal. Negotiations between the two countries have been deadlocked since a ceasefire came into effect on April 8, with only one round of direct peace talks held so far. Iran’s Tasnim and Fars news agencies reported that Tehran had submitted a 14-point proposal to mediator Pakistan, but Trump was quick to cast doubt on it. “I will soon be reviewing the plan that Iran has just sent to us, but
RSS