U.S. President Donald Trump’s particular envoy to Ukraine and Russia, retired Lt. Gen. Keith Kellogg, was in Kyiv on Monday, a senior Ukrainian official stated, as anticipation grew over a doable shift within the Trump administration’s coverage on the three-year conflict.
Trump final week stated he would make a “main assertion” on Russia on Monday. Trump made rapidly stopping the conflict certainly one of his diplomatic priorities, and he has more and more expressed frustration about Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unbudging stance on U.S-led peace efforts.
Trump has lengthy boasted of his pleasant relationship with Putin, and after taking workplace in January repeatedly stated that Russia was extra prepared than Ukraine to achieve a peace deal. On the similar time, Trump accused Zelenskyy of prolonging the conflict and known as him a “dictator with out elections.”
However Russia’s relentless onslaught in opposition to civilian areas of Ukraine wore down Trump’s persistence. In April, Trump urged Putin to “STOP!” launching lethal barrages on Kyiv, and the next month stated in a social media publish that the Russian chief “ has gone completely CRAZY!” because the bombardments continued.
“I’m very upset with President Putin, I believed he was any person that meant what he stated,” Trump stated late Sunday. “He’ll speak so superbly after which he’ll bomb folks at night time. We don’t like that.”
The European Union cannot purchase Patriot missiles
Russia has pounded Ukrainian cities, together with the capital, Kyiv, with a whole lot of drones and cruise and ballistic missiles that Ukraine’s air defences are struggling to counter. June introduced the best month-to-month civilian casualties of the previous three years, with 232 folks killed and 1,343 wounded, the U.N. human rights mission in Ukraine stated. Russia launched 10 instances extra drones and missiles in June than in the identical month final 12 months, it stated.
On the similar time, Russia’s larger military is making a brand new effort to drive again Ukrainian defenders on components of the 1,000-kilometer (620-mile) entrance line.
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Trump confirmed the U.S. is sending Ukraine extra badly wanted Patriot air defence missiles and that the European Union can pay the U.S. for the “numerous items of very refined” weaponry.
Whereas the EU shouldn’t be allowed below its treaties to purchase weapons, EU member international locations can and are, simply as NATO member international locations are shopping for and sending weapons.
Germany has supplied to finance two new Patriot methods and is awaiting official talks on the potential for extra, authorities spokesperson Stefan Kornelius stated Monday in Berlin.
German Protection Minister Boris Pistorius was touring to Washington on Monday to satisfy with Protection Secretary Pete Hegseth.
Germany has already given three of its personal Patriot methods to Ukraine, and Pistorius was quoted as saying in an interview with the Monetary Instances that it now has solely six.
Trump ally says conflict at inflection level
A high ally of Trump, Republican Sen. Lindsey Graham of South Carolina, stated Sunday that the battle is nearing an inflection level as Trump exhibits rising curiosity in serving to Ukraine battle again in opposition to Russia’s full-scale invasion. It’s a trigger that Trump had beforehand dismissed as being a waste of U.S. taxpayer cash.
“Within the coming days, you’ll see weapons flowing at a document degree to assist Ukraine defend themselves,” Graham stated on CBS’ “Face the Nation.” He added: “One of many greatest miscalculations Putin has made is to play Trump. And also you simply watch, within the coming days and weeks, there’s going to be a large effort to get Putin to the desk.”
Kirill Dmitriev, Putin’s envoy for worldwide funding who took half in talks with U.S. officers in Saudi Arabia in February, dismissed what he stated have been efforts to drive a wedge between Moscow and Washington.
“Constructive dialogue between Russia and america is simpler than doomed-to-fail makes an attempt at strain,” Dmitriev stated in a publish on Telegram. “This dialogue will proceed, regardless of titanic efforts to disrupt it by all doable means.”
NATO chief visits Washington
NATO Secretary-Common Mark Rutte was due in Washington on Monday and Tuesday. He deliberate to carry talks with Trump, Hegseth and Secretary of State Marco Rubio, in addition to members of Congress.
Talks throughout Kellogg’s go to to Kyiv will cowl “protection, strengthening safety, weapons, sanctions, safety of our folks and enhancing cooperation between Ukraine and america,” stated the top of Ukraine’s presidential workplace, Andrii Yermak.
“Russia doesn’t desire a stop hearth. Peace via power is President Donald Trump’s precept, and we assist this strategy,” Yermak stated.
Russian troops performed a mixed aerial strike at Shostka, within the northern Sumy area of Ukraine, utilizing glide bombs and drones early Monday morning, killing two folks, the regional prosecutor’s workplace stated. 4 others have been injured, together with a seven-year-old, it stated.
In a single day from Sunday to Monday, Russia fired 4 S-300/400 missiles and 136 Shahed and decoy drones at Ukraine, the air drive stated. It stated that 61 drones have been intercepted and 47 extra have been both jammed or misplaced from radars mid-flight.
The Russian Protection Ministry, in the meantime, stated its air defences downed 11 Ukrainian drones over Russian areas on the border with Ukraine, in addition to over the annexed Crimea and the Black Sea.
—Related Press writers Lorne Cook dinner in Brussels and Geir Moulson in Berlin contributed to this report.
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