KYIV, Ukraine: Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday Ukraine’s army was still fighting in Russia’s Kursk despite Moscow claiming the “liberation” of its western region, as Washington signalled a “critical week” ahead for negotiations.
Kyiv had hoped it could use land in the Kursk region as a bargaining chip in future peace talks with Russia, which has seized parts of eastern and southern Ukraine since launching its offensive in February 2022.
“Our military continues to perform tasks in the Kursk and Belgorod regions — we are maintaining our presence on Russian territory,” he said in his evening address Sunday.
In a statement earlier Sunday, he conceded that the situation remained difficult in many areas including Kursk.
Russia said on Saturday it had captured Gornal, the last settlement under Ukrainian control in its border Kursk region, where Kyiv launched a shock offensive in August 2024.
Yet hours later Ukraine’s army dismissed Russia’s claim as “propaganda tricks.”
Several Russian military bloggers who closely monitor the conflict also said fighting was still ongoing around the forests on the border between Russia and Ukraine.
And a local Russian army commander in Kursk said the army was still conducting operations in the region, according to a state TV broadcast aired on Sunday.
“The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough,” Zelensky said Sunday.
He called for increased pressure on Russia to create more opportunities for “real diplomacy.”
On Saturday, Zelensky discussed a potential ceasefire with US President Donald Trump on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral at the Vatican.
After their brief talk in St. Peter’s Basilica, Trump cast doubt over whether Russian President Vladimir Putin wanted an end to the war, which has devastated swathes of eastern Ukraine and killed tens of thousands of people.
The following night, Russia launched drone and missile attacks, killing four people in regions across eastern Ukraine and wounding more than a dozen.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio stressed the importance of the coming week.
“We’re close, but we’re not close enough” to a deal to halt the fighting, Rubio told broadcaster NBC on Sunday. “I think this is going to be a very critical week.”
Germany’s Defense Minister Boris Pistorius said Sunday Ukraine should not agree to all territorial concessions to Russia reportedly set out in the deal proposed by Trump.
“Ukraine has, of course, known for some time that a sustainable, credible ceasefire or peace agreement may involve territorial concessions,” he told broadcaster ARD.
“But these will certainly not go... as far as they do in the latest proposal from the US president,” Pistorius said.
Washington has not revealed details of its peace plan, but has suggested freezing the front line and accepting Russian control of Crimea in exchange for peace.
When he claimed that Russia had recaptured all of Kursk from Ukraine, Chief of Staff Valery Gerasimov praised the “heroism” of the North Korean soldiers who fought for Russia in the campaign.
It was the first time Moscow had admitted their participation in the conflict.
In August 2024, the Ukrainian army entered Kursk in an unprecedented counter-offensive on Russian soil. Among other gains, they seized a pumping station through which Russian gas used to flow to Europe.
Since then, Moscow has forced Kyiv’s soldiers onto the defensive, gradually recapturing much of the region.
After Ukraine was temporarily deprived of key US intelligence in March 2025, Russia redoubled its efforts, including through a surprise covert operation using an underground gas pipeline, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
Russia has said that after Kursk’s recapture it will keep advancing in the four Ukrainian regions it claimed to have annexed in 2022.
Moscow was also planning to create a “buffer zone” in Ukraine’s Sumy region, which borders Russia, said Gerasimov.
Russia holds about 20 percent of Ukraine’s territory, including the Crimean peninsula which Moscow annexed in 2014.
Zelensky says Ukraine not kicked out of Russia’s Kursk
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Zelensky says Ukraine not kicked out of Russia’s Kursk
- “The situation on the front lines and the actual activities of the Russian army prove that the current pressure on Russia to end this war is not enough,” Zelensky says
Air India plane with 242 on board crashes at India’s Ahmedabad airport
- The plane was reportedly a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft
- It was headed to Gatwick airport in the United Kingdom when it crashed in a civilian area near the airport
NEW DELHI: An Air India plane headed to London with 242 people on board crashed minutes after taking off from India’s western city of Ahmedabad on Thursday, the airline and police said, without specifying whether there were any fatalities.
The plane was headed to Gatwick airport in the UK, Air India said, while police officers said it crashed in a civilian area near the airport.
Aviation tracking site Flightradar24 said the plane was a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner, one of the most modern passenger aircraft in service.
“At this moment, we are ascertaining the details and will share further updates,” Air India said on X.
The crash occurred when the aircraft was taking off, television channels reported. One channel showed the plane taking off over a residential area and then disappearing from the screen before a huge cloud of fire rising into the sky from beyond the houses.
Visuals also showed debris on fire, with thick black smoke rising up into the sky near the airport.
They also showed visuals of people being moved in stretchers and being taken away in ambulances.
According to air traffic control at Ahmedabad airport, the aircraft departed at 1.39 p.m. (0809 GMT) from runway 23. It gave a “Mayday” call, signalling an emergency, but thereafter there was no response from the aircraft.
Flightradar24 also said that it received the last signal from the aircraft seconds after it took off.
“The aircraft involved is a Boeing 787-8 Dreamliner with registration VT-ANB,” it said.
Boeing did not immediately respond to a request for comment.
The last fatal plane crash in India involved Air India Express, the airline’s low-cost arm.
The airline’s Boeing-737 overshot a “table-top” runway at Kozhikode International Airport in southern India in 2020. The plane skidded off the runway, plunging into a valley and crashing nose-first into the ground.
Twenty-one people were killed in that crash.
Air India passenger plane with 244 aboard crashes in India’s northwestern Ahmedabad city
NEW DELHI: An Air India passenger plane with 244 people onboard crashed Thursday in India’s northwestern city of Ahmedabad, the airline and local media reported.
Visuals on local television channels showed smoke billowing from the crash site near the airport in Ahmedabad.
Faiz Ahmed Kidwai, the director general of the directorate of civil aviation, told The Associated Press that Air India flight AI 171, a Boeing 787, crashed into a residential area called Meghani Nagar five minutes after taking off at 1:38 p.m. local time.
The flight was bound for London’s Gatwick Airport.
There were 232 passengers and 12 crew members onboard and emergency teams have been activated at the airport, Kidwai said.
The 787 Dreamliner is a widebody, twin-engined plane. This is the first crash ever of a Boeing 787 aircraft, according to the Aviation Safety Network database.
Beijing hails improving Vatican ties after Pope Leo names first Chinese bishop
- China recognizes appointment of Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou, capital of eastern Fujian province
- The Vatican and China do not have formal diplomatic relations because the Holy See recognizes Taiwan
BEIJING: Beijing hailed on Thursday improving ties with the Vatican after the first appointment of a Chinese bishop under Pope Leo XIV, signaling the new pontiff’s support for a controversial accord on nominations struck by his predecessor.
The Holy See expressed “satisfaction” on Wednesday at the recognition by China of the appointment of Joseph Lin Yuntuan as auxiliary bishop of Fuzhou, capital of eastern Fujian province. The pope made the nomination on June 5.
Beijing’s foreign ministry said the naming of the first Chinese bishop under the new pope had “enhanced understanding and mutual trust through constructive dialogue” with the Vatican.
“China is willing to work together with the Vatican to promote the continuous improvement of China-Vatican relations,” foreign ministry spokesman Lin Jian said at a regular news briefing.
The Vatican and China do not have formal diplomatic relations because the Holy See recognizes Taiwan, the self-ruled island that Beijing claims as its own territory.
However, they agreed in a historic deal in 2018 to let both sides have a say in the naming of bishops in China, home to about 12 million Catholics.
The deal – the text of which has never been made public – has drawn criticism within the Church, with some seeing it as allowing the Communist Party government a stranglehold over China’s Catholics.
The deal was renewed several times as Pope Francis sought to make inroads for the Church in China, most recently in October 2024 for four years.
“With the joint efforts of both sides, the provisional agreement on the appointment of bishops has been smoothly implemented,” Lin Jian said.
Rescuers in South Africa search for the missing after floods leave at least 49 dead
- The missing included four high school students who were swept away when their bus was caught up in the floods near a river on Tuesday
- The floods hit early Tuesday after an extreme cold front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to parts of eastern and southern South Africa
CAPE TOWN, South Africa: Rescue teams began a third day searching for missing people Thursday after floods devastated parts of South Africa’s rural Eastern Cape province and left at least 49 dead.
Authorities said they expected the death toll to rise.
The missing included four high school students who were swept away when their bus was caught up in the floods near a river on Tuesday. Six students on the bus were confirmed dead, while three were rescued after clinging onto trees and calling out for help, according to the provincial government.
The floods hit the province early Tuesday after an extreme cold front brought heavy rain, strong winds and snow to parts of eastern and southern South Africa. Forecasters had warned about the damaging weather last week.
Eastern Cape provincial government officials said they believed people were still missing but did not give an exact number. They were working with families to find out who was still unaccounted for, they said.
On Wednesday, rescue teams brought bodies out of the water in blue body bags, while witnesses said many people had taken refuge on the top of buildings or in trees.
The floods centered on the town of Mthatha and its surrounding district, which is around 430 kilometers (267 miles) south of the east coast city of Durban.
Officials said at least 58 schools and 20 hospitals were damaged, while hundreds of families were left homeless after their houses were submerged under water or washed away by the floods. Critical infrastructure including roads and bridges has been badly damaged, Eastern Cape Premier Oscar Mabuyane said.
He said it was one of the worst weather-related disasters his province had experienced.
South African President Cyril Ramaphosa announced he had activated the National Disaster Management Center to help local authorities in the Eastern Cape, while national officials were expected to visit the province on Thursday.
Ukrainian pea prices may rise amid expected exports to China, producers say
- UAC said an increase in demand could push pea prices up to as much as 16,000 hryvnias ($385.33) per metric ton
KYIV: Prices for Ukrainian peas may rise significantly by mid-summer on the back of expected significant supplies to China, which opened its market to Ukrainian peas this spring, Ukrainian producers union UAC said on Thursday.
Farmers sowed 250,000 hectares of peas in 2025 compared with 212,000 hectares in 2024, farm ministry data shows.
“China has opened its market, and a significant part of the peas will probably go there,” UAC said in a statement.
UAC said an increase in demand could push pea prices up to as much as 16,000 hryvnias ($385.33) per metric ton ex works (EXW) in late summer against the current 14,000 hryvnias.
The farm ministry has said pea production in Ukraine could increase to 476,000 metric tons in the 2025/26 July-June season from 409,000 tons in 2024/25.
Ukraine exports its peas mostly to Turkiye, India, Italy, Malaysia, the ministry said.
