Russia’s President Vladimir Putin, left, shakes hands with Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexander Novak. File
| Photo Credit: PTI

Moscow, Russia:

Donald Trump’s return to the White House will not bring a speedy end to the nearly three years of conflict in Ukraine, Russians on the streets of Moscow told AFP. The US President-elect, who will be inaugurated Monday, has pledged a swift end to the fighting, with his team insisting both sides will have to make concessions.

But on the drizzly streets of Moscow just days ahead Trump’s return, there was little belief the real estate mogul-turned-politician could broker a deal.

“Whether it’s Trump or another politician, nothing will change,” said Igor, a 37-year old engineer walking past the US Embassy in the Russian capital.

“Only one person can change things, and we know who that is,” he said, referring to Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“If he wants it, it will stop.”

The Kremlin has said it is open to talks with Trump over Ukraine. But it has also outlined hardline conditions for a ceasefire, demanding Ukraine pull its troops out of four regions in its east and south that Russia claims as its own.

Trump’s pledge for a quick peace has stoked concern in Kyiv that Ukraine could be forced to accept a deal favourable to Moscow.

But in the Russian capital, there was scepticism over what Trump could offer.

“I’m afraid Trump is going to impose conditions that don’t suit us. They want a truce and we want victory,” Anna Petrova, a 75-year-old pensioner, told AFP.

She dismissed the incoming Republican as a “populist”, citing his calls to annex Canada and Greenland.

Elia Antonova, 71, said she was also unsure.

“I think it’s unlikely that he’ll have something acceptable for us. He’ll hold his line unequivocally, and I think we will of course not agree to it,” she said. 

‘Maybe with time’

Both sides’ armies have been trying to secure the upper hand on the battlefield ahead of Trump’s return to power.

Ukraine has increased its strikes on Russian energy and military sites hundreds of kilometres behind the front lines. It has also started using Western-supplied rockets on Russian territory, triggering fury in the Kremlin.

Meanwhile, Russia’s troops are advancing across the eastern Donetsk region, where Ukraine faces manpower and equipment shortages.

Despite Trump’s wishes for a quick peace, the two sides appear far apart on what a possible deal could look like.

Amid the scepticism in Moscow, some held out hope for an agreement — but not on Trump’s timeline.

“I don’t think the situation will change radically anytime soon,” said Anton, 45, who works for a state company.

Before adding: “Maybe with time.”

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kyiv:

Russia has launched a “massive attack” on Ukraine’s energy sector, a Ukrainian minister said on Wednesday, without specifying which cities were under fire. Russian cruise and ballistic missiles also struck several residential areas in the Ukrainian cities of Kryvyi Rih and Kharkiv, with reports suggesting several people were killed in the attacks.

Air raid sirens rang out over Ukraine on Wednesday morning, with the air force reporting that Russia launched Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea. 

Energy Sector Attacked

“The enemy is again massively attacking the energy sector,” Ukraine’s Minister of Energy German Galushchenko wrote on the social media platform Telegram.

Ukraine faces its toughest winter of the almost three-year war as Moscow stepped up its aerial bombardment, with its troops advancing on the frontlines in the east.

“The transmission system operator is taking the necessary measures to limit consumption to minimise the negative consequences for the energy system,” he added.

Attacks on Cities

A ballistic missile also struck an apartment building in the central Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih on Tuesday, killing one person and injuring 15, of which, four are serious. “The monsters landed a direct hit on a four-storey residential block with 32 apartments,” the head of the city’s military administration, Oleksandr Vilkul, wrote on Telegram.

One man whose body had been pulled from under the rubble could not be revived by medics, regional governor Serhiy Lysak said.

Kryvyi Rih, a steelmaking city with a pre-war population of more than 600,000, is President Volodymyr Zelenskiy’s hometown.

City of Kharkiv was also pummelled by a “massive missile attack”, Mayor Igor Terekhov said on Wednesday morning. “Kharkiv is under a massive missile attack. A series of explosions were heard in the city and there are still ballistic missiles heading towards the city,” he wrote on Telegram.

The regional governor counted seven Russian strikes, Terekhov saying at least three people were wounded in a missile attack on Kharkiv in northeastern Ukraine on Wednesday morning, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said.

The regional governor counted seven Russian strikes and said casualties were still being assessed.

Christmas Attacks

“While other countries of the world are celebrating Christmas, Ukrainians are continuing to suffer from endless Russian attacks,” Ukraine’s human rights ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets wrote on Telegram.

Russia has accelerated its advance across eastern Ukraine in recent months, looking to secure as much territory as possible before US President-elect Donald Trump comes to power in January. The Republican leader has promised to bring a swift end to the nearly three-year-long conflict, without proposing any concrete terms for a ceasefire or peace deal.

Moscow’s army claims to have seized more than 190 Ukrainian settlements this year, with Kyiv struggling to hold the line in the face of manpower and ammunition shortages.

Russia’s defence ministry on Wednesday said its forces had shot down 59 Ukrainian drones overnight while the Ukrainian Air Force reported the launch of Kalibr cruise missiles from the Black Sea, although it was not initially clear where they were headed.

Ukraine launched at least 17 drones targeting Moscow early on Sunday, forcing the temporary closure of two of the capital’s airports, Russian officials said.

Mayor Sergei Sobyanin said the 12 drones were destroyed in the Ramenskoye and Kolomensky districts of the Moscow region, as well as in Domodedovo city, southwest of Moscow.

“According to preliminary information, there is no damage or casualties at the site of the fall of the debris,” Sobyanin said on the Telegram messaging app. “Emergency services are on the sites.”

The Ramenskoye district, some 45 km (30 miles) southeast of the Kremlin, was last targeted in September Ukraine’s biggest attack on the Russian capital, when Russian air defence units destroyed 20 drones.

Rosaviatsia, Russia’s federal air transport agency, said on Telegram that “to ensure the safety of civil aircraft flights, temporary restrictions have been introduced on the operation of the Domodedovo and Zhukovo airports,” starting at 0530 GMT.

It did not say how long the restrictions would be in force.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Moscow, Russia:

Moscow on Saturday launched a “counter-terror operation” in three border regions adjoining Ukraine to halt Kyiv’s biggest cross-border offensive in the two-and-a-half-year conflict.

Ukrainian units stormed across the border into Russia’s western Kursk region on Tuesday morning in a shock attack and have advanced several kilometres, according to independent analysts.

Russia has deployed additional troops and equipment, including tanks, rocket launchers and aviation units to stop the advancing troops.

Russia’s national anti-terrorism committee said late Friday it was starting “counter-terror operations in the Belgorod, Bryansk and Kursk regions … in order to ensure the safety of citizens and suppress the threat of terrorist acts being carried out by the enemy’s sabotage groups.”

Under Russian law, security forces and the military are given sweeping emergency powers during “counter-terror” operations.

Movement is restricted, vehicles can be seized, phone calls can be monitored, areas are declared no-go zones, checkpoints are introduced, and security is beefed up at key infrastructure sites.

The anti-terrorism committee said Ukraine had mounted an “unprecedented attempt to destabilise the situation in a number of regions of our country.”

It called Ukraine’s incursion a “terrorist attack” and said Kyiv’s troops had wounded civilians and destroyed residential buildings.

Ukrainian leaders have remained tight-lipped on the operation, and the United States, Kyiv’s closest ally, said it was not informed of the plans in advance.

But President Volodymyr Zelensky has appeared to tout his troops’ early successes, saying earlier this week that Russia must “feel” the consequences of the full-scale offensive it has waged against Ukraine since February 2022.

Russia’s defence ministry published footage on Saturday of tank crews firing on Ukrainian positions in the Kursk region, as well as an overnight air strike, after it said Friday it had deployed yet more units to the border region.

It also said it had downed 26 Ukrainian drones that tried to attack the region overnight.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

United Nations:

India is a great power that determines its national interests and chooses its partners, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov has said, describing as “completely unjustified” the “enormous pressure” on New Delhi due to its energy cooperation with Moscow.

During a press conference here on Wednesday, Lavrov also termed as “insulting” Ukraine’s remarks on the recent meeting between President Vladimir Putin and Prime Minister Narendra Modi in Moscow. “I think India is a great power that sets its own national interests, determines its own national interests, and chooses its own partners. And we know that India is being subject to enormous pressure, completely unjustified pressure in the international arena,” Lavrov said.

Lavrov was responding to a question about Prime Minister Modi’s recent visit to Moscow and the opposition faced by India for its energy cooperation with Russia. With Russia presiding over the UN Security Council for the month of July, Lavrov is in New York to chair meetings of the Council being held under Moscow’s presidency.

Prime Minister Modi paid an official visit to Russia on July 8-9 at the invitation of Russian President Vladimir Putin for the 22nd India – Russia Annual Summit. This was Modi’s first trip to Russia since the start of the Ukraine conflict.

India has not yet condemned Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022 and has consistently pitched for a resolution of the conflict through dialogue and diplomacy.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has also criticised Modi’s visit to Moscow, saying in a post on X that “A Russian missile struck the largest children’s hospital in Ukraine, targeting young cancer patients. Many were buried under the rubble.

“It is a huge disappointment and a devastating blow to peace efforts to see the leader of the world’s largest democracy hug the world’s most bloody criminal in Moscow on such a day,” Zelenskyy had said of the Modi-Putin meeting.

India had conveyed to Kyiv its displeasure over the remarks. It was learnt that India’s disappointment over the comments by Zelenskyy was communicated to Ukraine’s mission in Delhi.

Referring to Zelenskyy’s comments about Modi’s trip to Russia being “a stabbing in the back of all peace efforts”, Lavrov said, “So that was very insulting and the Ukrainian ambassador was called in” and the Indian Ministry of External Affairs “talked to him about how he should be behaving.” “The ambassadors were really behaving as if they were hooligans,” he said, referring to remarks made by some other Ukrainian envoys.

“So I think India is doing everything right,” he said.

Lavrov noted that External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar, after touring Western nations, answered questions including about why India was buying more oil from Russia.

Lavrov said Jaishankar cited statistics that showed that the West has also increased its purchases of gas and oil from Russia, despite some of the restrictions that have been imposed.

Lavrov said Jaishankar “went on to say that India will decide for itself how to trade with whom and how to defend its national interests.” “But the fact that the West is exhibiting its displeasure to powers – powers like China, like India – well, it shows their lack of erudition, their inability to partake in diplomacy, and also speak to the failure of political analysts. Because speaking this way, to these great Asian powers… you might dream of that but it’s really beneath them. It’s really beneath them behaving this way vis-a-vis any and all countries but in particular when they’re speaking in this way to these two giants, these two great powers.” On India’s oil purchases from Russia, Jaishankar earlier said that it is his duty to put the interest of the Indian people first to ensure that they do not pay the cost of some other countries’ actions or some other region’s actions for fertilizer, food, etc.

“It’s not just that we buy oil from one country. We buy oil from multiple sources, but it is a sensible policy to go where we get the best deal in the interests of the Indian people and that is exactly what we are trying to do,” Jaishankar has said.

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

New Delhi:

As he travels to Moscow on a high-profile visit, Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday said he is looking forward to reviewing all aspects of India-Russia ties with President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues.

PM Modi and Putin are set to explore ways to further expand bilateral relations in diverse areas at the 22nd India-Russia annual summit on Tuesday.

After concluding his engagements in Russia, PM Modi will leave for Austria in the first visit by an Indian prime minister to that country in over 40 years.

“The special and privileged strategic partnership between India and Russia has advanced over the past 10 years, including in the areas of energy, security, trade, investment, health, education, culture, tourism and people-to-people exchanges,” PM Modi said in his departure statement.

“I look forward to reviewing all aspects of bilateral cooperation with my friend President Vladimir Putin and sharing perspectives on various regional and global issues,” he said.

“We seek to play a supportive role for a peaceful and stable region. The visit will also provide me an opportunity to meet the vibrant Indian community in Russia,” PM Modi said.

The prime minister described Austria as India’s “steadfast and reliable partner” “In Austria, I will have the opportunity to meet President Alexander Van der Bellen and Chancellor Karl Nehammer,” PM Modi said.

“Austria is our steadfast and reliable partner and we share the ideals of democracy and pluralism.” “This is the first visit of an Indian prime minister in over 40 years. I look forward to my discussions to take our partnership to even greater heights in new and emerging areas of innovation, technology and sustainable development among others,” he said.

PM Modi said he was looking forward to exchanging views with business leaders from both sides to explore mutually beneficial trade and investment opportunities.

“I will also be interacting with the Indian community in Austria which is well regarded for their professionalism and conduct,” he said. 

(Except for the headline, this story has not been edited by NDTV staff and is published from a syndicated feed.)

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov. File
| Photo Credit: AP

The Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons (OPCW) said on May 7 that information it had received until now on alleged chemical weapons use in Ukraine was “insufficiently substantiated.”

Also read:Explained | Chemical and biological weapons: what international regulations bind Russia?

The OPCW also said it had not yet received an official request to investigate any claims after the United States accused Russia last week of using the toxic agent chloropicrin against Ukrainian troops.

“Both the Russian Federation and Ukraine have accused one another and reported allegations of use of chemical weapons to the Organisation,” the OPCW said in a statement.

“The information provided to the Organisation so far by both sides, together with the information available to the Secretariat, is insufficiently substantiated,” the group added.

The OPCW nevertheless described the situation as “volatile” and “extremely concerning regarding the possible re-emergence of use of toxic chemicals as weapons.”

Last week, the U.S. State Department accused Russia of having used a chemical weapon against Ukrainian forces in violation of the Chemical Weapons Convention (CWC).

In addition to the chemical agent chloropicrin, Russia also used “riot control agents [tear gas] as a method of warfare in Ukraine, also in violation of the CWC,” the department said in a factsheet.

Chloropicrin is an oily liquid with a pungent odour known as a choking agent that was widely used during World War I as a form of tear gas.

The U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention label it a “lung-damaging agent” that can cause severe irritation to skin, eyes and respiratory systems.

The OPCW specifically prohibits its use.

Although it does produce tears and is sometimes referred to as a tear gas, it is not classed as a riot control agent.

The Kremlin hit back immediately at the allegations, with spokesman Dmitry Peskov saying they “sound completely baseless and unsubstantiated.”

Russia has said it no longer possesses a military chemical arsenal, but the country faces pressure for more transparency over the alleged use of toxic weapons.

Moscow has signed and ratified the CWC, which outlaws the production and use of chemical weapons.

“Russia has been and remains committed to its obligations under international law,” Mr. Peskov said last week.

The OPCW recalled in its statement that a member of the body would have to formally request an investigation of any allegation regarding chemical weapons use.

“So far, the Secretariat has not yet received any such request for action,” the OPCW said.

“We will continue to monitor the situation and maintain our readiness to deploy.”

The four men charged with the Moscow attack have been identified by as Tajikistan citizens.
| Photo Credit: AP

The alleged involvement of four Tajiks in a deadly attack in Moscow has shaken Tajik society, highlighting the risks posed by Central Asia’s jihadist legacy.

The region’s five former Soviet republics, led by Tajikistan, have had thousands of their citizens going to Syria and Iraq in the 2010s to fight for the Islamic State group (IS).

“This is a great tragedy for our country,” artist Daniel Rustamov said referring to the Moscow attack in the capital Dushanbe.

Mr. Rustamov fears that “a few criminals will harm the entire Tajik people” and that “Tajiks will be persecuted in Russia,” where millions of them work to feed their families back home, against a backdrop of rising anti-migrant rhetoric.

Tajikistan, home to 9.7 million people, made the fight against terrorism a priority after it was bruised by a civil war between 1992 and 1997 involving Islamist fighters.

Cross-border clashes from Afghanistan involving jihadist groups continue to plague the mountainous country, which has also suffered several attacks claimed by IS.

Since the Taliban’s return to power in Afghanistan in 2021, Tajikistan has been one of the regime’s main critics, concerned about the potential spread of its ideology. Several million ethnic Tajiks live in Afghanistan.

Dushanbe has regularly highlighted the upsurge in jihadist activity along its border with Afghanistan and has organised anti-terror exercises with the Russian and Chinese armies.

Tajiks support their “brotherly Russian people… terrorists have no nationality”, President Emomali Rahmon said in an official message broadcast by media in Tajikistan

Members of the Russian Emergencies Ministry clear rubble at the Crocus City Hall concert venue after a shooting attack and fire, outside Moscow, Russia. File
| Photo Credit: Reuters

Moscow’s Basmanny district court on Sunday charged two suspects in Friday’s concert hall attack in which at least 137 people were killed with an act of terrorism, Russian state news agency TASS reported.

The court listed the suspects as Dalerdzhon Barotovich Mirzoyev and Saidakrami Murodali Rachabalizoda.

The suspects may face life in prison, RIA news agency reported.