Ukrainian | Pakistan

• Kyiv plunges into darkness as grid hit in Russian strikes; three killed • Moscow’s oil terminal halts operations after Black Sea drone attack KYIV/MOSCOW: Ukrainian Presi­d­ent Volodymyr Zelensky said on Saturday that a delegation headed by security council secretary Rustem Umerov was on its way to the United States to continue talks on an agreement to end Russia’s war. Umerov has been put in charge of the Ukrainian delegation after the previous lead negotiator, Zelensky’s powerful chief of staff Andriy Yermak, resigned on Friday hours after anti-corruption detectives searched his apartment. Zelensky said he expected that the res­ults of previous meetings with the US in Geneva, which took place last weekend, would now be “hammered out” on Sunday. Those meetings allowed Ukraine to present a counter-offer to proposals laid out by US Secretary of the Army Dan Driscoll to leaders in Kyiv almost two weeks ago. “Rustem delivered a report today, and the task is clear: to swiftly and substantively work out the step...

Ukrainian drones attacked a gas plant in Russia’s Orenburg region, the local governor said on Sunday, causing a fire to break out at a workshop which emergency services were working to put out. The governor, Yevgeny Solntsev, said on his official Telegram channel that none of the plant’s employees were hurt in the attack, which left the plant partially damaged. Solntsev said earlier this month that Ukrainian drones had tried to attack an unnamed industrial facility in the Russian city of Orsk near the border with Kazakhstan. Unverified video posted to Telegram at the time showed an object smashing into a facility identified as the Orsknefteorgsintez oil refinery in Orsk. Ukraine has stepped up its attacks on Russian refineries and other energy facilities since August to try to disrupt petrol supplies and deprive Moscow of funding.

Ukrainian drones targeted St Petersburg on Sunday, Russian authorities said, forcing the airport to close for five hours as Russian President Vladimir Putin marked the country’s Navy Day in the city, despite the earlier cancellation of its naval parade due to security concerns. St Petersburg usually holds a large-scale, televised navy parade on Navy Day, which features a flotilla of warships and military vessels sailing down the Neva River and is attended by Putin. Last year, Russia suspected a Ukrainian plan to attack the city’s parade, according to state television. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov confirmed on Sunday that this year’s parade had been cancelled for security reasons, following first reports of its cancellation in early July. Putin arrived at the city’s historic naval headquarters on Sunday by a patrol speed boat, from where he followed drills involving more than 150 vessels and 15,000 military personnel in the Pacific and Arctic Oceans and Baltic and Caspian Seas. “Today we are marking this ho...

ISTANBUL: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were […]

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were underway for a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. The talks in Turkiye on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour. A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would speak with Putin to discuss stopping the war at 10am on Monday. “The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5000 Russian and...