KYIV: Ukraine on Tuesday sought to maintain bonds with Washington after President Donald Trump ordered US military aid deliveries be suspended following a public clash with counterpart Volodymyr Zelensky.
Trump’s stunning decision strengthened fears in Ukraine and in many European capitals that America was pivoting away from its allies — and toward Moscow.
“Ukraine is absolutely determined to continue cooperation with the US,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal told reporters, adding: “The US is an important partner and we need to preserve this.”
US and Western security guarantees were “existentially important” for Ukraine and for Europe, he said, adding Kyiv was ready “at any time” to sign a strategic minerals extraction deal demanded by Trump.
The prime minister’s outreach followed Trump’s decision, which sent shockwaves across Ukraine, but which was also hailed by Moscow.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said it was a “solution which could really push the Kyiv regime to a peace process.”
“If the United States stops (military supplies), this would probably be the best contribution to peace,” Peskov said.
The European Union, which along with Ukraine, has been excluded from US-Russian negotiations toward a potential truce in Ukraine, has been scrambling to up its support for Kyiv.
That urgency heightened on Friday, when Trump and Zelensky clashed in the White House, with Trump warning his Ukrainian counterpart “won’t be around very long” without a ceasefire deal with Moscow.
European Commission chief Ursula von der Leyen on Tuesday presented an EU plan to mobilize some 800 billion euros ($840 billion) for Europe’s defense.
She said the funding would permit EU countries to “massively step up their support to Ukraine” and provide “immediate military equipment for Ukraine.”
Poland’s government noted that America’s decision was made without consulting NATO allies, and the impact was already being seen at a weapons and aid logistics hub for Ukraine it hosts.
“Reports coming in from the border, as well as from our (logistics) hub... also confirm the announcements made by the American side,” Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said without elaborating.
The US pause has gone into effect immediately and impacts hundreds of millions of dollars of weaponry in the process of being sent to Ukraine, The New York Times reported.
Ordinary Ukrainians who spoke to AFP were shocked and angry at what they viewed as a betrayal by Trump.
“It’s like a stab in the back,” a 33-year-old financial assistant in Kyiv who gave only her first name, Sofia, told AFP.
Trump “wants Ukraine’s surrender, the deaths of our people, the surrender of our territories,” one army volunteer, Sergiy Sternenko, said on Telegram.
With the US aid pause, “everything can change,” a 48-year-old military recruiter in Kyiv, Volodymyr Perkhrest, told AFP. “I don’t think Europe is able to meet these needs,” he said.
Ukraine’s prime minister vowed in a news conference that “we will do everything to hold out” despite the US aid cut.
A Zelensky aide, Mykhailo Pdolyak, said on X his country was “discussing options with our European partners.”
Zelensky has yet to comment publicly on the halt of the US aid.
Last week, he visited Washington to sign the multi-billion-dollar minerals deal — but ended up not doing so after his showdown with Trump and US Vice President JD Vance.
Trump — who has labelled Zelensky a “dictator” — said Ukraine should be “more appreciative” of US support.
Zelensky has accused Trump of succumbing to “a disinformation space” created by Russia, which he says is not serious about pursuing peace.
Ukraine is seeking tough security guarantees around an end to the war.
With the United States opposing its bid to join NATO, Kyiv is turning to other measures backed by Western countries.
After weekend crisis talks in London, Britain and France are investigating how to propose a one-month Ukraine-Russia truce “in the air, at sea and on energy infrastructure” — potentially backstopped by troops on the ground.
Ukraine ‘determined’ to maintain US ties after aid halt
https://arab.news/v6a74
Ukraine ‘determined’ to maintain US ties after aid halt
- “Ukraine is absolutely determined to continue cooperation with the US,” Ukrainian Prime Minister Denys Shmygal said
- “The US is an important partner and we need to preserve this“
Kremlin blasts potential EU deployment of French nuclear bombers
“The proliferation of nuclear weapons on the European continent is something that will not add security, predictability, or stability to the European continent,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
The French president floated the idea during a TV appearance on Tuesday, comparing it to the United States’s nuclear umbrella policy that guarantees Washington would reciprocate if its allies come under nuclear attack.
“The Americans have the bombs on planes in Belgium, Germany, Italy, Turkiye,” Macron told TF1 television.
“We are ready to open this discussion. I will define the framework in a very specific way in the weeks and months to come.”
France is the EU’s only nuclear-armed nation.
Amid Russia’s offensive on Ukraine and US President Donald Trump’s calls on Europe to take more of the burden for its own defense, discussion is growing over extending Paris’s nuclear deterrent to the rest of the 27-member bloc.
Russia, the world’s biggest nuclear power, possesses about 4,000 warheads and views France’s nuclear deterrence as a potential threat to its national security.
“At present, the entire system of strategic stability and security is in a deplorable state for obvious reasons,” Peskov added.
Amid his offensive on Ukraine, Russian President Vladimir Putin has several times threatened nuclear escalation, drawing rebukes from the West over “reckless” rhetoric.
‘Albania belongs in EU,’ von der Leyen tells re-elected PM Rama
- EU and French leaders congratulated Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Wednesday after his party’s electoral victory
BRUSSELS: EU and French leaders congratulated Albanian Prime Minister Edi Rama Wednesday after his party’s electoral victory, European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen hailing his “great progress toward our Union.”
“Let’s keep working closely together on EU reforms. Albania belongs in the EU!” von der Leyen said on X. French President Emmanuel Macron also hailed Rama’s win, writing on X: “France will always stand alongside Albania on its European path.”
Germany arrests three Ukrainians suspected of spying in exploding parcel plot
BERLIN: Germany has arrested three Ukrainian nationals on suspicion of foreign agent activity linked to the shipment of parcels containing explosive devices, prosecutors said on Wednesday.
The suspects are believed to have been in contact with individuals working for Russian state institutions, federal prosecutors said in a statement.
France says to expel Algerian diplomats in tit-for-tat move
PARIS: France will expel Algerian diplomats in response to plans by Algiers to send more French officials home, Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot said Wednesday, as relations between the countries deteriorate.
Barrot told the BFMTV broadcaster that he would summon Algeria’s charge d’affaires to inform him of the decision that he said was “perfectly proportionate at this point” to the Algerian move, which he called “unjustified and unjustifiable.”
Japanese military training plane crashes with two on board
TOKYO: A Japanese military training plane crashed shortly after takeoff, authorities said Wednesday, with reports saying two people were on board the aircraft which appeared to have fallen in a lake.
“We’re aware a T-4 plane that belongs to the Air Self-Defense Force fell down immediately after taking off at Komaki Air Base” in central Japan, top government spokesman Yoshimasa Hayashi said.
“Details are being probed by the defense ministry,” he told reporters.
The T-4 seats two and is a “domestically produced, highly reliable and maintainable training aircraft... used for all basic flight courses,” according to the defense ministry website.
The aircraft was flying around Lake Iruka near Inuyama city north of Nagoya, according to media outlets including public broadcaster NHK.
“There is no sight of the plane yet. We’ve been told that an aerial survey by an Aichi region helicopter found a spot where oil was floating on the surface of the lake,” local fire department official Hajjime Nakamura told AFP.
He said his office had received unconfirmed information that there were two people on board but that they had not been able to independently verify this.
Aerial footage of the lake broadcast by NHK showed an oil sheen on its surface, dotted with what appeared to be various pieces of debris.
Just after 3:00 p.m. (0600 GMT) the local fire department received a call saying it appeared that a plane had crashed into the lake, the reports said.
The reports added, citing defense ministry sources, that the training plane had disappeared from the radar.
The defense ministry was not able to immediately confirm details to AFP.
Jiji Press said the local municipality had said there had been no damage to houses in the area.
