Russia says holds ‘frank exchange’ with US on Ukraine war
Russian and American diplomats held a “frank exchange” according to Moscow, as the coalition of the willing to help Ukraine is up and running.
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Russian and American top diplomats held a “frank exchange” as they met in Malaysia on Thursday, Moscow said, with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio saying his Russian counterpart Sergei Lavrov had shared a “new idea” on Ukraine.
The pair met hours after Moscow pummelled Kyiv for a second night in a row and as the UN said the number of victims from Russian attacks was at its highest level in three years.
After launching the barrage, which killed two people in the Ukrainian capital, Moscow denied peace talks with Kyiv were at a dead end.
US President Donald Trump, who forced the warring countries to open negotiations for the first time in three years, earlier this week accused Russian President Vladimir Putin of talking “bullshit” on Ukraine, amid fading hopes for a breakthrough.
“A substantive and frank exchange of views took place on the settlement of the situation in Ukraine,” Moscow’s foreign ministry said in a statement on the meeting.
Mr Rubio told reporters Lavrov had floated something “new” on the conflict, but did not share details of the proposal.
“It’s not a new approach. It’s a new idea or a new concept that I’ll take back to the president to discuss,” he said.
He added that it was not something that “automatically leads to peace, but it could potentially open the door to a path.”
Russia did not comment on the idea.
Meanwhile, European plans for a peacekeeping force to be deployed in Ukraine as part of a ceasefire in its war with Russia are ready, the leaders of Britain and France said.
“We have a plan that is ready to go and initiate in the hours after a ceasefire,” French President Emmanuel Macron said during a UK visit.
British Prime Minister Keir Starmer added the proposals were “mature and we are putting them on a long-term footing”.
A new headquarters for the so-called “coalition of the willing” on Ukraine has already opened in Paris, with plans for a “coordination hub” in Kyiv, British Prime Minister Keir Starmer said.
Co-chairing a video-conference meeting of the European-led coalition alongside President Macron, Starmer said they were “finalising command and control structures” for the 30-nation grouping, which plans to send peacekeepers to Ukraine if a ceasefire is agreed.
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‘BOMB THE SH** OUT OF MOSCOW’: LEAKED TRUMP AUDIO
Donald Trump privately told a group of donors last year that Russia’s bloody invasion of Ukraine “never would’ve happened” under his watch — because he warned Russian tyrant Vladimir Putin that he would “bomb the sh** out of Moscow,” according to leaked audio.
“With Putin, I said, ‘If you go into Ukraine, I’m going to bomb the sh** out of Moscow. I’m telling you I have no choice,’” Mr Trump could be heard saying in a clip published by CNN. “And then [Putin] goes, like, ‘I don’t believe you.’ But he believed me 10 per cent.”
President Trump also said that he had an “almost identical conversation” with Chinese President Xi Jinping over the prospect of an invasion of Taiwan by Beijing.
“Then I’m with President Xi of China … I said the same thing to them. I said, you know, ‘If you go into Taiwan, I’m gonna bomb the s**t out of Beijing.’ He thought I was crazy. He said, ‘Beijing? You’re gonna bomb?’ I said, ‘I have no choice. I gotta bomb you.’”
“And he didn’t believe me either,” Mr Trump added.
“And 10 per cent is all you need. In fact, five per cent would have been OK, too.”
Fundraiser attendees could be heard laughing at Mr Trump’s retelling of the threats to America’s two great adversaries.
The former and future president used the riff to rip into critics who accused him of being “in the pocket of Russia” during his first term and harked back to how he fought against the Nord Stream pipeline, which allowed natural gas to flow between Russia and Germany.
The audio was obtained by Josh Dawsey, Tyler Pager and Isaac Arnsdorf for their book “2024: How Trump Retook the White House and the Democrats Lost America,” which hit bookshelves this week.
Mr Trump on Wednesday slammed Mr Putin while threatening tougher new sanctions on Russia, including 500 per cent tariffs on countries that buy its oil, gas, uranium and other exports.
“We get a lot of bulls**t thrown at us by Putin,” Mr Trump said bluntly.
“He’s very nice all the time, but it turns out to be meaningless,” the president told a cabinet meeting.
When asked about the criticism, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters that Moscow was, “quite calm about this,” according to reporters.
It comes as NATO jets were scrambled late Wednesday AEST as Russia launched a record attack on Ukraine overnight.
Russia fired 728 Shahed and decoy drones along with 13 cruise and ballistic missiles, the Ukrainian air force said Wednesday.
That was more than 200 above the previous record fired last Friday — itself just a week after the previous largest air assault.
The Russian Defence Ministry said its forces took aim at enemy air bases and that “all the designated targets have been hit.”
However, Ukraine claimed it downed almost all of the drones, with only some of the hypersonic missiles getting through and hitting targets, the air force said, without detailing the damage caused.
The city of Lutsk, home to key military airfields, was the hardest hit, though 10 other regions were also struck, Ukraine said.
The latest strike, which regional officials said killed one civilian in the Khmelnytsky region, beat a previous Russian record of 550 drones and missiles set last week.
The air force said Russia attacked with 728 drones and 13 missiles, adding that its air defence systems intercepted 711 drones and destroyed seven missiles.
“This is a telling attack — and it comes precisely at a time when so many efforts have been made to achieve peace, to establish a ceasefire, and yet only Russia continues to rebuff them all,” President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on social media.
Mr Zelensky, who arrived in Rome for meetings with the pope and president, called for allies to step up sanctions on Russia, particularly targeting its energy sector — an important revenue stream for the Russian war chest.
“Our partners know how to apply pressure in a way that will force Russia to think about ending the war, not launching new strikes,” Mr Zelensky added.
Mr Zelensky is due to meet US envoy Keith Kellogg in Rome on Wednesday local time
He called the air strikes “a demonstrative attack … at a time when there have been so many attempts to achieve peace and ceasefire, but Russia rejects everything.”
Mr Zelensky said the huge Russian attack was “yet another proof” of the need for more economic sanctions against Russia.
“Our partners know how to apply pressure so that Russia will be forced to think about ending the war, not new strikes,” he said, calling for “biting sanctions” on Russia.
“Everyone who wants peace must act.”
Europe is also separately working on a new sanctions package against Moscow.
– with AFP
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Originally published as Russia says holds ‘frank exchange’ with US on Ukraine war