Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump softens demands for aid repayments by Kyiv as part of mineral deal talks

The US seems to have tempered calls for for Ukraine to repay help, as mineral deal talks between the 2 international locations proceed.

Following a spherical of negotiations in Washington final week, Donald Trump’s administration decreased its estimate of US help supplied to Kyiv to about $100 billion from $300 billion, sources informed Bloomberg.

The US sees the bilateral minerals deal it’s searching for as a strategy to get well the billions of {dollars} spent on help in Ukraine – regardless that the funds weren’t a mortgage.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky stated on Tuesday that talks with the US.relating to a minerals deal had been “constructive”, and that extra conferences had been anticipated.

Russia’s intelligence chief has threatened Poland and the Baltic states, saying they would be the “first to undergo” in a direct struggle between Nato and Russia.

Russia’s international intelligence service director Sergey Naryshkin stated that any Nato aggression in opposition to Russia or Belarus would have damaging penalties for Poland and the Baltic international locations – Latvia, Lithuania and Estonia.

“They need to perceive, however don’t but perceive, that within the occasion of aggression by the North Atlantic Alliance in opposition to (Russia and Belarus), harm can be completed, after all, to all the Nato bloc, however to a larger extent, the primary to undergo would be the bearers of such concepts among the many political circles of Poland and the Baltic international locations,” Mr Naryshkin informed the TASS information company.

He claimed that these nations have proven “excessive aggressiveness” in the direction of Russia and accused Poland and the Baltics of “continually rattling their weapons”.

Dozens of Ukrainian households gathered on Tuesday to mourn the lifeless after Vladimir Putin’s forces carried out a missile assault killing a minimum of 35 folks.

As a number of the victims of Sunday’s assault had been laid to relaxation yesterday, Viktor Voitenko, 56, described to AP how he ended up paralysed in a hospital mattress.

He was working as a safety guard when the second missile hit and shattered his backbone.

As he spoke, his spouse Hanna, 40, lovingly utilized his deodorant – a easy act he might now not carry out.

The assault in Sumy, which had a prewar inhabitants of about 250,000, got here simply over per week after a Russian missile strike killed about 20 folks, together with 9 youngsters, within the central Ukrainian metropolis of Kryvyi Rih.

Russia stated it was concentrating on a gathering of troopers, however there is no such thing as a proof to help the declare.

The drone assault sparked fires and broken houses and civilian infrastructure, officers of the southern Ukrainian area stated early right now.

“The enemy has once more attacked Odesa with a large drone assault,” Oleh Kiper, governor of the area whose administrative centre is town of Odesa, stated on his Telegram channel, although the total scale of the assault was not clear.

Russia’s assault on the Ukrainian port metropolis got here simply hours after Nato secretary normal Mark Rutte was visiting the area with president Volodymyr Zelensky.

Russian defence items destroyed 26 Ukrainian drones in a single day, Russia’s defence ministry stated this morning.

Of those, 9 drones had been destroyed over the southern Voronezh area and eight over the border Belgorod area, and the remainder had been downed over the Kursk, Lipetsk and Moscow areas, and over the Crimean Peninsula, the ministry stated in a submit on Telegram.

Russian officers don’t element the whole variety of drones launched or the drones that induced harm.

Financial partnerships between the US and Russia might show to be an incentive to Russian president Vladimir Putin to finish the struggle in Ukraine, White Home press secretary Karoline Leavitt stated.

“There may be an incentive for Russia to finish this struggle and maybe that might be financial partnerships with the US. However we have to see a ceasefire first and the president and the presidential envoy, Witkoff, made that very clear to the Russians,” Ms Leavitt stated final evening at a press briefing.

She additionally confirmed that the US particular envoy Steve Witkoff’s one-on-one assembly with Mr Putin final week was “productive”.

“(Witkoff) believes that Russia needs to finish this struggle and the president believes that as nicely,” she stated.

A Russian soldier has been jailed for 15 years after he abandoned the military and voluntarily surrendered to Ukraine.

In what’s a Russian navy courtroom’s first such prosecution, the crime of voluntary give up, which is punishable by between three and 10 years in jail, was first launched in September 2022.

In keeping with the Kommersant newspaper, a courtroom on the far japanese Russian island of Sakhalin discovered soldier Roman Ivanishin responsible of voluntary give up, of making an attempt to voluntarily give up, and of desertion.

Ivanishin, who was reported to have denied all the fees, will serve his sentence in a most safety facility. Native media reported that his trial was held behind closed doorways.

Quickly after the massacre in Sumy, the place two Iskander missiles slammed into the provincial Ukrainian capital killing 35 folks, together with two youngsters, Trump sloughed off the atrocity by claiming it had been a Russian mistake. Stunning, however not stunning, as Trump has persistently taken the Russian facet at each alternative this yr.