KAZAN: Russian President Vladimir Putin said Thursday his relationship with the United States after the presidential elections would depend on what attitude Washington adopts, as he welcomed comments by Donald Trump on his desire to end the Ukraine conflict as “sincere.”
But the Kremlin leader struck a hard-line tone, warning the West it was an “illusion” to think Russia could be defeated on the battlefield and that any peace deal would have to recognize Russia’s control of swathes of Ukrainian territory.
Putin was speaking at the end of the BRICS summit in the city of Kazan, where he had faced calls from some of Russia’s most important allies for the fighting in Ukraine to end.
“How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States. If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine,” Putin told reporters in Kazan.
Relations between the two superpowers have sunk to their lowest since the Cold War amid Moscow’s military offensive on Ukraine.
Next month’s US election is set to be critical to the course of future ties and the conflict in Ukraine.
Trump has repeatedly expressed skepticism over Washington’s multi-billion dollar aid to Ukraine and claimed that if elected he could end the fighting in a matter of hours.
Putin said Trump “spoke about his desire to do everything to end the conflict in Ukraine. I think he is being sincere. Of course we welcome statements like this, whoever they come from.”
Chinese President Xi Jinping and Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi were among around 20 leaders that gathered for the BRICS summit, the largest diplomatic event in Russia since Putin ordered troops into Ukraine in February 2022.
The Kremlin leader said Moscow was open to considering peace initiatives and welcomed BRICS leaders offering to mediate.
But he said any deal must consider the “realities on the ground” — a reference to Ukrainian territory controlled by Russian forces.
“We are ready to look at any proposals for peace negotiations that are based on the realities on the ground. We won’t accept anything else,” he said.
Putin has previously demanded Kyiv effectively capitulate by pulling its troops back as a precondition to ceasefire talks.
And on Thursday he blasted the West for thinking Russia could be defeated on the battlefield.
Moscow’s opponents “do not conceal their aim to deal our country a strategic defeat,” he said.
“I will say directly that these are illusionary calculations, that can be made only by those who do not know Russia’s history.”
Russia has faced fresh accusations of escalating the conflict this week with the United States, South Korea, NATO and Kyiv all saying North Korea had sent troops to Russia.
Kyiv said Thursday it had intelligence that the soldiers had already been deployed to Russia’s western Kursk region, where Ukraine is mounting a cross-border offensive.
Putin refused to confirm or deny the reports on Thursday, instead accusing Ukraine and the West of aggravating the conflict.
Putin also held talks with United Nations Secretary General Antonio Guterres in the pair’s first meeting since April 2022.
The Kremlin did not broadcast opening remarks, though both sides had said the talks would cover Ukraine.
The UN chief had pleaded earlier for a “just peace” in Ukraine in a speech delivered in front of Putin.
“We need peace in Ukraine. A just peace in line with the UN Charter, international law and (UN) General Assembly resolution,” Guterres told the summit.
Ukraine has strongly criticized Guterres’s decision to meet the “criminal Putin.”
Guterres also demanded an “immediate ceasefire” in Gaza, the release of hostages and an “immediate cessation of hostilities” in Lebanon.
Other world leaders at the summit also called for an end to Israel’s wars in Lebanon and Gaza, with Palestinian president Mahmud Abbas saying Israel was trying to starve Gazan civilians and drive them from their territory.
Xi warned about “serious challenges” in the world and said he hoped BRICS countries could be a “stabilising force for peace.”
“We need to continue to push for a ceasefire in Gaza, relaunch the two-state solution and stop the spread of war in Lebanon. There should be no more suffering and destruction in Palestine and Lebanon,” Xi said.
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian slammed the UN Security Council’s role in front of Guterres, saying international bodies “lack the necessary efficiency to extinguish the fire of this crisis.”
Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties
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Putin says ball in Washington’s court on US-Russia ties
- “How Russian-American relations will develop after the election will depend on the United States,” Putin told reporters in Kazan
- “If they are open, then we will also be open. And if they don’t want it, then fine”
Chad denies supplying weapons to Sudan’s paramilitary forces
LIBREVILLE: Chad on Thursday denied “amplifying the war in Sudan,” which has killed tens of thousands, by arming the paramilitary Rapid Support Forces, warring against the Sudanese army for over a year.
A bloody conflict has raged since April 2023 between the Sudanese army under the country’s de facto ruler Abdel Fattah Al-Burhan and the RSF led by his former deputy Mohamed Hamdan Dagalo.
Chad’s government was accused of aiding the RSF by Sudan’s Darfur Governor Minni Minnawi, who heads a faction allied with the Khartoum government.
On Wednesday, Minnawi told radio station RFI he had traveled to Paris to “ask France to halt the role of the Chadian government in the transit through its territory of non-humanitarian aid — military equipment — to RSF-controlled areas in Sudan.”
Chad, which has taken in some 680,000 refugees from Sudan — more than any other country — rejected the claims on Thursday.
“Chad has no interest in amplifying the war in Sudan by supplying weapons,” said foreign minister and government spokesman Abderaman Koulamallah, pointing out that Chad was “one of the rare countries upon which this war has had major repercussions.”
“We do not support any of the factions that are fighting on Sudanese territory — we are in favor of peace,” Koulamallah told RFI.
The conflict in Sudan has left tens of thousands dead and some 26 million people facing severe food insecurity, with famine declared in the Zamzam displacement camp in Sudan’s western Darfur region.
IMF official calls on international community to bring end to Lebanon conflict
- A recent United Nations Development report estimated that Lebanon’s GDP would be 9.2 percent smaller as a “direct consequence” of the conflict
WASHINGTON: The international community should work to end the conflict in the Middle East and address the “huge” humanitarian crisis that has engulfed countries in the region, the head of the IMF’s Middle East and Central Asia department said Thursday.
Jihad Azour spoke to AFP in Washington, where the annual meetings of the International Monetary Fund and the World Bank are currently taking place.
In updated economic estimates, the Fund slightly downgraded its outlook for economic growth in the Middle East and North Africa to 2.1 percent this year, while maintaining its 4.0 percent growth outlook for 2025.
However, these estimates do not take into account the economic impact of the recent escalation of conflict in southern Lebanon, where Israel has invaded to fight Hezbollah.
Azour, a former Lebanese finance minister, noted that the most severely affected places, including Lebanon and the Palestinian territories, were facing a “huge humanitarian problem” which has devastated their economies.
“You have massive loss in output, you have a massive destruction in infrastructure, and you have a huge set of needs for additional spending, for shelter, for health and so on,” he said.
“We expect that growth will be negative in those cases, and we expect that the recovery would take longer to materialize,” he added.
The IMF has suspended its forecasts for the Lebanese economy, citing an “unusually high degree of uncertainty.” But a recent United Nations Development report estimated that the country’s GDP would be 9.2 percent smaller as a “direct consequence” of the conflict.
“You have massive destruction of infrastructure in a large region, which is the south, and mass destruction of livelihood, because this is an agricultural region that was severely affected,” Azour said, adding that almost 20 percent of Lebanon’s population had been displaced.
“We encourage the international community, we encourage the friends of Lebanon, to provide grants,” he continued, calling on the international community “to put its utmost effort in order to solve the problem, in order to reduce the suffering of people.”
For countries indirectly affected by the conflict, like Jordan and Egypt, the impact of Israel’s ongoing military campaigns in Gaza and Lebanon has been felt differently.
While Egypt has been hit hard by a 70 percent fall in revenues from ships traversing the Suez Canal, Jordan’s economy has suffered from a steep decline in tourism, Azour said.
The IMF recently expanded an existing loan program with Egypt from $3 billion to $5 billion, in return for painful and wide-ranging economic reforms, including a shift to a more flexible exchange rate and an emphasis on tackling inflation and high debt levels.
Azour said that while the Fund was currently focused on helping countries in the region address immediate concerns, it also had a role to play in bringing the region together to help with post-conflict reconstruction.
“We think that there is a regional play here, whereby countries could trade and exchange more and can grow better together,” he said.
$100 mn settlement reached with owner of ship that destroyed US bridge
WASHINGTON: The US Justice Department said Thursday that it has reached a $100 million settlement with the Singaporean owner and operator of a cargo ship that destroyed a Baltimore bridge.
The 1,000-foot (300-meter) M/V Dali collided with the Francis Scott Key Bridge in the early morning of March 26, killing six road workers and blocking the busy shipping channel.
Grace Ocean Private Ltd. and Synergy Marine Private Ltd. have agreed to pay $101.1 million to settle a civil suit aimed at recovering costs incurred in responding to the disaster and for removing tons of bridge debris from the channel leading to the port of Baltimore, the Justice Department said.
“Nearly seven months after one of the worst transportation disasters in recent memory, which claimed six lives and caused untold damage, we have reached an important milestone with today’s settlement,” Benjamin Mizer, a senior Justice Department official, said in a statement.
“This resolution ensures that the costs of the federal government’s cleanup efforts in the Fort McHenry Channel are borne by Grace Ocean and Synergy and not the American taxpayer,” Mizer said.
The Justice Department said the settlement does not include any damages for eventual rebuilding of the Francis Scott Key Bridge. That is the subject of a separate claim from the state of Maryland.
The families of the six road workers who lost their lives are also pursuing legal claims of their own.
The Fort McHenry channel leading to the port of Baltimore, a key hub for the auto industry, reopened to commercial navigation on June 10.
UN chief told Putin invasion of Ukraine violates int’l law: spokesperson
UNITED NATIONS: UN chief Antonio Guterres told Russian President Vladimir Putin on Thursday that his invasion of neighboring Ukraine violated the United Nations charter and international law, according to a readout of their meeting.
“The Secretary-General reiterated his position that the Russian invasion of Ukraine was in violation of the United Nations Charter and international law,” a readout from the UN chief’s spokesperson said after his meeting on the sidelines of the BRICS summit in Kazan, Russia.
In Ghana, Sahel militants find refuge and supplies, sources say
NAIROBI/ACCRA: Militants fighting in Burkina Faso are discreetly using Ghana’s north as a logistical and medical rear base to sustain their insurgency, seven sources told Reuters, a move that could help them expand their footprint in West Africa.
The sources, who include Ghanaian security officials and regional diplomats, said Ghanaian authorities appeared to be mostly turning a blind eye to the insurgents crossing over from neighboring Burkina Faso to stock up on food, fuel and even explosives, as well as getting injured fighters treated in hospital.
But they said that approach, while so far sparing Ghana from the kind of deadly attacks that have plagued its neighbors, risks allowing militants to put down roots in the country and recruit in some marginalized local communities.
Ghana shares a 600 km (372 mile) border with Burkina Faso, the country at the heart of an insurgency that has killed thousands, displaced millions and, according to some experts, turned the Sahel region into the epicenter of global terrorism as factions loyal to Al-Qaeda and Daesh expand their presence.
Burkina Faso has lost control of over half its territory as a pro-Al-Qaeda group known as JNIM gained ground. A JNIM leader this week told French broadcaster RFI that it was aiming to push into Ghana, Togo and Benin.
Unlike Benin and Togo, Ghana has not suffered a major attack.
