MOSCOW: Russian President Vladimir Putin proposed Friday to put Ukraine under external governance under the UN aegis as part of efforts to reach a peaceful settlement, a blustery statement that reflected the Kremlin leader’s determination to achieve his war goals.
Speaking to the crew of a Russian nuclear submarine in televised remarks broadcast early Friday, Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal.
Under Ukraine’s constitution it is illegal for the country to hold national elections while it’s under martial law.
Putin claimed that any agreement that is signed with the current Ukrainian government could be challenged by its successors and said new elections could be held under external governance.
“Under the auspices of the United Nations, with the United States, even with European countries, and, of course, with our partners and friends, we could discuss the possibility of introduction of temporary governance in Ukraine,” Putin said, adding that it would allow the country to “hold democratic elections, to bring to power a viable government that enjoys the trust of the people, and then begin negotiations with them on a peace treaty.”
He added that such external governance is just “one of the options,” without elaborating.
‘They’re playing for time’
Putin’s remarks came hours after the conclusion of a summit hosted by French President Emmanuel Macron that considered plans to deploy troops to Ukraine to cement an eventual peace deal. Macron said “several” other nations want to be part of the force alongside France and Britain.
Russia has warned it wouldn’t accept any troops from NATO members as part of a prospective peacekeeping force.
Macron and other participants of the Paris summit on Thursday accused Russia of only pretending to want a negotiated settlement.
“They are playing games and they’re playing for time,” said UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer. “We can’t let them drag this out while they continue prosecuting their illegal invasion.”
Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a tentative U.S-brokered deal to pause strikes on energy infrastructure, but quickly accused each other of violations, underscoring the challenges to negotiating a broader peace.
Drone attacks continue
Russia launched 163 strike and decoy drones at Ukraine late Thursday, according to the Ukrainian air force, which said that 89 of them were downed and 51 more jammed.
The drones damaged multiple residential buildings and injured a 19-year-old in Zaporizhzhia, regional head Ivan Fedorov said. In Poltava, drones damaged warehouses, administrative building, and a high-voltage transformer, according to regional head Volodymyr Kohut.
Damage to buildings and infrastructure facilities was also reported by the authorities in the Odesa, Kharkiv, Dnipro and Mykolaiv regions.
Ukraine’s state-run gas company, Naftogaz, said Friday that its facilities came under Russian fire without specifying its time and location.
The Russian Defense Ministry said that Ukrainian forces struck a gas metering station in Sudzha in the Kursk region with US-made HIMARS rockets, completely destroying the facility. It said another Ukrainian strike on an energy facility in Russia’s Bryansk region led to a power cutoff, and added that air defenses downed 19 Ukrainian drones that attempted to strike an oil refinery in Saratov.
The ministry said the continuing strikes show that Kyiv’s pledge of adherence to a US-proposed halt on strikes on energy facilities was just “another ruse by Zelensky to prevent the collapse of Ukrainian defenses and to restore military potential with the help of European allies.”
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Ukrainian strikes on Russian energy assets was a sign that Zelensky can’t control his military.
“The Ukrainian armed forces aren’t following orders from the country’s leadership and are continuing attempts to strike Russia’s energy infrastructure,” Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
He said that Russia will continue sticking to the halt on strikes on energy facilities but reserves the right to opt out of the deal if violations continue.
‘Strictly adhering to agreements’
Ukraine’s military rejected Russia’s claims of Ukrainian strikes on energy facilities as fake, aimed at “discrediting Ukraine and the diplomatic efforts of Ukraine and its partners.”
“We emphasize that the Ukrainian Defense Forces are strictly adhering to the agreements reached with partners to stop strikes on energy facilities,” the General Staff said, emphasizing that the military only has struck Russia’s military targets.
It also accused Russia of violating the “energy ceasefire,” saying that it has struck energy infrastructure in the city of Kherson and Poltava region of Ukraine over the last 24 hours.
“The Russian tactic of dragging out the war remains unchanged,” Ukraine’s General Staff said.
While Ukraine has agreed to a full, 30-day ceasefire that US President Donald Trump has proposed, Putin has made a complete ceasefire conditional on a halt of arms supplies to Kyiv and a suspension of Ukraine’s military mobilization — demands rejected by Ukraine and its Western allies.
Russia’s battlefield gains
Russian troops have made slow but steady gains in several sectors of the more than 1,000-kilometer (over 620-mile) frontline, and Zelensky warned Thursday that Russia was trying to drag out talks in preparation for bigger offensives.
Putin declared in overnight remarks that the Russian troops have “gained steam” and “are holding strategic initiative all along the line of contact.”
He noted that Russia is open to a peaceful settlement, but emphasized the need to “remove root causes that led to the current situation.”
“We certainly need to ensure Russia’s security for a long historic perspective,” he said.
Putin has demanded that Kyiv withdraw its forces from the four regions Moscow has partially seized. He also wants Ukraine to renounce joining NATO, sharply cut its army and legally protect Russian language and culture to keep the country in Moscow’s orbit.
Russian officials also have said that any prospective peace deal should involve unfreezing Russian assets in the West and lifting other US and European Union sanctions. The Trump administration has said it would consider potential sanctions relief.
Putin suggests putting Ukraine under UN-sponsored external governance, boasts battlefield gains
https://arab.news/g3den
Putin suggests putting Ukraine under UN-sponsored external governance, boasts battlefield gains
- Putin reaffirmed his claim that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky, whose term expired last year, lacks the legitimacy to sign a peace deal
- He added that such external governance is just “one of the options,” without elaborating
Police investigate possible arson as Rome fire destroys 17 Teslas
- Tesla cars have become targets for vandalism across several countries, in response to the right-wing activism of company owner Elon Musk
- Tech billionaire, who also owns X, has joined Donald Trump’s administration and has come out in support of far-right parties in Europe
ROME: Italian police are investigating possible arson at a Tesla dealership in Rome overnight that destroyed 17 cars, a security source said on Monday.
Italy’s anti-terrorism police unit Digos is leading the investigation and is looking into the possibility that anarchists set fire to the cars on the eastern outskirts of Rome, the source said.
Drone images of the Rome fire showed the burnt-out remains of cars lined up in a parking lot, with two rows of vehicles back-to-back and a third row some distance away.
Tesla cars have become targets for vandalism across several countries, in response to the right-wing activism of company owner Elon Musk.
The tech billionaire, who also owns X, has joined US President Donald Trump’s administration and has come out in support of far-right parties in Europe.
The fire brigade said in a statement that the blaze broke out at around 04.30 a.m. (0230 GMT). The dealership was partially damaged, but nobody was injured.
Russian authorities move to lift the terrorist designation for the Taliban
- Afghanistan’s Taliban were outlawed by Russia two decades ago as a terrorist group
MOSCOW: Russia’s Supreme Court on Monday said it received a petition from the prosecutor general’s office to lift the ban on Afghanistan’s Taliban, who were outlawed two decades ago as a terrorist group.
The court said in a statement that it would hold a hearing on the petition, submitted by Prosecutor General Igor Krasnov, on April 17. Russia last year adopted a law stipulating that the official terrorist designation of an organization could be suspended by a court.
The Taliban were put on Russia’s list of terrorist organizations in 2003. Any contact with such groups is punishable under Russian law.
At the same time, Taliban delegations have attended various forums hosted by Moscow. Russian officials have shrugged off questions about the seeming contradiction by emphasizing the need to engage the Taliban to help stabilize Afghanistan.
The former Soviet Union fought a 10-year war in Afghanistan that ended with Moscow withdrawing its troops in 1989. Since then, Moscow has made a diplomatic comeback as a power broker, hosting talks on Afghanistan involving senior representatives of the Taliban and neighboring nations.
There is a deepening divide in the international community on how to deal with the Taliban, who have been in power for three years and face no real opposition. Afghanistan’s rulers have pursued bilateral ties with major regional powers.
Kremlin official says Russia sees efforts to end Ukraine war as a drawn-out process
- Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia is 'working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement'
- Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries’ leaders as he tries to bring about a truce
Russia views efforts to end its three-year war with Ukraine as “a drawn-out process,” a Kremlin spokesman said Monday, after US President Donald Trump expressed frustration with the two countries’ leaders as he tries to bring about a truce.
“We are working to implement some ideas in connection with the Ukrainian settlement. This work is ongoing,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said in a conference call with reporters.
“There is nothing concrete yet that we could and should announce. This is a drawn-out process because of the difficulty of its substance,” he said when asked about Trump’s anger at Russian President Vladimir Putin’s comments dismissing Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky’s legitimacy to negotiate a deal.
Russia has effectively rejected a US proposal for a full and immediate 30-day halt in the fighting. The feasibility of a partial ceasefire on the Black Sea, used by both countries to transport shipments of grain and other cargo, was cast into doubt after Kremlin negotiators imposed far-reaching conditions.
Trump promised during last year’s US election campaign that he would bring Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II to a swift conclusion.
Peskov didn’t directly address Trump’s criticism of Putin on Sunday when he said he was “angry, pissed off” that Putin had questioned Zelensky’s credibility as leader.
But he said that Putin “remains absolutely open to contacts” with the US president and was ready to speak to him.
Both countries are preparing for a spring-summer campaign on the battlefield, analysts and Ukrainian and Western officials say.
Zelensky said late Sunday that there has been no letup in Russia’s attacks as it drives on with its invasion of its neighbor that began in February 2022. He said the attacks demonstrated Russia’s unwillingness to forge a settlement.
“The geography and brutality of Russian strikes, not just occasionally, but literally every day and night, show that Putin couldn’t care less about diplomacy,” Zelensky said in his daily address.
“And almost every day, in response to this proposal, there are Russian drones, bombs, artillery shelling, and ballistic strikes,” he said.
He urged further international pressure on Moscow to compel Russia to negotiate, including new sanctions.
The European Union’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas picked up on that theme at a meeting of some of the bloc’s top diplomats in Madrid on Monday.
“Russia is playing games and not really wanting peace,” Kallas told reporters ahead of the meeting, which was due to discuss the war. “So our question is, how can we put more pressure on Russia.”
Trump said he would consider adding further sanctions on Russia, which already faces steep financial penalties, and using tariffs to undermine its oil exports.
Kharkiv, Ukraine’s second-largest city, came under another Russian drone attack overnight, injuring three people, the Ukrainian Interior Ministry said Monday.
Russia also fired two ballistic missiles and 131 Shahed and decoy drones, the Ukrainian air force said.
Meanwhile, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses shot down 66 Ukrainian drones early Monday over three Russian regions.
“The continuing attacks by the Ukrainian armed forces on Russia’s energy facilities show the complete lack of respect for any obligations related to the settlement of the conflict in Ukraine by the Kyiv regime,” the ministry said in a statement.
Myanmar declares week of mourning as quake toll passes 2,000
- The figure was a sharp rise compared to the 1,002 announced just hours earlier, highlighting the difficulty of confirming casualties over a widespread region
- In neighboring Thailand, the death toll rose to 17 after the quake rocked the greater Bangkok area, home to around 17 million people, and other parts of the country
MANDALAY: Myanmar declared a week of national mourning on Monday over the country’s devastating earthquake, as the death toll passed 2,000 and hopes faded of finding more survivors in the rubble of ruined buildings.
National flags will fly at half-mast until April 6 “in sympathy for the loss of life and damages” from Friday’s massive quake, the ruling junta said in a statement.
The junta also announced a minute’s silence on Tuesday, to begin at 12:51:02 p.m. (0621 GMT) — the precise time the 7.7-magnitude quake struck.
People should stop where they are to pay tribute to the victims, the junta said, while media should halt broadcasting and show mourning symbols, and prayers will be offered at temples and pagodas.
The announcement came as the tempo and urgency of rescue efforts wound down in Mandalay, one of the worst-affected cities and the country’s second-largest, with more than 1.7 million inhabitants.
“The situation is so dire that it’s hard to express what is happening,” said Aung Myint Hussein, chief administrator of Mandalay’s Sajja North mosque.
People prepared to camp out in the streets across Mandalay for a fourth successive night, either unable to return to ruined homes or nervous about the repeated aftershocks that rattled the city over the weekend.
Some have tents but many, including young children, have been bedding down on blankets in the middle of roads, trying to keep as far from buildings as possible for fear of falling masonry.
The junta said Monday that 2,056 have now been confirmed, with more than 3,900 people injured and 270 still missing, but the toll is expected to rise significantly.
Three Chinese nationals are among the dead, China’s state media said, along with two French people, according to the foreign ministry in Paris.
At least 19 deaths have been confirmed hundreds of kilometers away in Thailand’s capital Bangkok, where the force of the quake caused a 30-story tower block under construction to collapse.
Mandalay’s 1,000-bed general hospital has been evacuated, with hundreds of patients being treated outside.
Patients lay on gurneys in the hospital car park, many with only a thin tarpaulin rigged up to shield them from the fierce tropical sun.
Relatives did their best to comfort them, holding hands or waving bamboo fans over them.
“We’re trying to do what we can here. We are trying our best,” said one medic, who asked to remain anonymous.
The sticky heat has exhausted rescue workers and accelerated body decomposition, which could complicate identification.
But traffic began returning to the streets of Mandalay on Monday, and restaurants and street vendors resumed work.
Hundreds of Muslims gathered outside a destroyed mosque in the city for the first prayer of Eid Al-Fitr, the holiday that follows the Islamic fasting month of Ramadan.
The challenges facing the Southeast Asian country of more than 50 million people were immense even before the earthquake.
Myanmar has been ravaged by four years of civil war sparked by a military coup in 2021, with its economy shattered and health care and infrastructure badly damaged.
The World Health Organization (WHO) declared the quake a top-level emergency as it urgently sought $8 million to save lives, while the International Federation of Red Cross and Red Crescent Societies has launched an appeal for more than $100 million.
International aid and rescue teams have been arriving after junta chief Min Aung Hlaing made an exceptionally rare appeal for foreign assistance.
In the past, isolated Myanmar’s ruling generals have shunned foreign assistance, even after major natural disasters.
Junta spokesman Zaw Min Tun thanked key allies China and Russia for their help, as well as India, and said the authorities were doing their best.
“We are trying and giving treatment to injured people and searching for missing ones,” he told journalists.
But reports have emerged of the military carrying out air strikes on armed groups opposed to its rule, even as Myanmar grapples with the quake’s aftermath.
One ethnic minority armed group told AFP on Sunday that seven of its fighters were killed in an aerial attack soon after the quake, and there were reports of more air strikes on Monday.
Myanmar’s raging civil war, pitting the military against a complex array of anti-coup fighters and ethnic minority armed groups, has displaced around 3.5 million people.
In Bangkok, diggers continued to clear the vast pile of rubble at the site of the collapsed building.
Officials say they have not given up hope of finding more survivors in the wreckage, where 12 deaths have been confirmed and at least 75 people are still unaccounted for.
Thousands of Filipino Muslims gather in Manila for Eid festivities
- Muslims constitute about 10 percent of the Philippines’ majority Catholic population
- Philippines will observe April 1 as a national holiday to mark Eid Al-Fitr
MANILA: Manila’s Filipino Muslim community gathered at one of the capital region’s largest parks on Monday for Eid Al-Fitr prayers, followed by family picnics to mark the end of Ramadan.
In the predominantly Catholic Philippines, Muslims make up around 10 percent of the country’s population of over 120 million.
While most of them live on the island of Mindanao and the Sulu archipelago in the country’s south, Manila is also home to more than 173,000 Filipino Muslims.
President Ferdinand Marcos Jr. last month declared April 1 a national holiday for the first of the two main holidays observed in Islam.
But like many others across the Islamic world, Filipino Muslims upheld the tradition of morning Eid prayers on Monday, with 15,000 people gathering at the Quezon Memorial Circle.
“Eid Al-Fitr is a huge celebration among the Muslim community, especially here in the Philippines, and the culmination of the sacrifice that we had for the holy month of Ramadan,” Aleem Guiapal, a government official who is originally from Cotabato City, told Arab News.
“What makes Eid Al-Fitr special is the level of spirituality that we achieved for almost 30 days.”
Families were central to the occasion, and many took their young children along to share meals and play at the park in Metro Manila.
“We consider Eid Al-Fitr as a family day and, at the same time, a day to celebrate the ending of the month of Ramadan,” Lucman bin Usman said.
“We came here so that the children can play and also to really feel the Eid spirit and also the festivities.”
For Aida Villegas, who is originally from Zamboanga, the morning visit to the park was only the beginning of Eid festivities.
“Everyone is (welcome) to come here, and there’s a playground. So, it’s a really good spot for the families, and then there’s a bazaar,” she said, referring to a halal bazaar of food and clothes organized by the local government.
“Families come here during Eid to pray, eat, play, shop and then we go back home, and we do house to house. It doesn’t end here.”
