Russia | Pakistan

Ukraine on Sunday said it had received another transfer of 1,200 bodies from Russia as part of an exchange agreement struck in Istanbul talks earlier this month. “Another 1,200 bodies which the Russian side claims belong to Ukrainian citizens, including military personnel, were returned to Ukraine,” Kyiv’s headquarters for the treatment of prisoners of war wrote on social media. “In total, 4,812 bodies have been returned this week,” Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said on Facebook. “I am grateful to everyone involved in this humanitarian mission,” he said. Ukraine has not said whether it has transferred any bodies to the Russian side. The two sides agreed a large-scale exchange of prisoners and bodies of killed soldiers during their latest round of direct talks in Istanbul on June 2. Both Russia and Ukraine typically do not disclose their military losses. In a rare public estimate, President Volodymyr Zelensky told US news outlet NBC earlier this year that more than 46,000 Ukrainian soldiers have bee...

KYIV: Russia and Ukraine said they exchanged an unspecified number of sick and wounded prisoners of war on Tuesday under an agreement reached at peace talks last week in Turkey. The handover took place after an initial swap of prisoners under the age of 25 was conducted on Monday. “Today marks the first stage of […]

Russia fired a record 479 drones at Ukraine in an overnight aerial barrage, Kyiv’s air force said on Monday, the latest massive attack as Moscow rejects calls for a ceasefire. The attack caused damage in several Ukrainian regions, though there were no reports of people killed or mass casualties. “Enemy air strikes were recorded in 10 spots,” the Ukrainian air force said. The mayor of the western city of Rivne, Oleksandr Tretyak, called it “the largest attack” on the region since the start of the war. Russia has escalated its attacks across Ukraine in recent weeks, which Kyiv says demonstrate that Moscow has no intention of halting its three-year-long invasion and is not serious about peace talks. The barrages have raised concerns about the capacity of Ukraine’s stretched air defence systems, but the air force said that it shot down or intercepted 460 of the drones, as well as 19 out of 20 missiles fired by Russia overnight. Ukraine also said it had launched its own overnight strike on an electronics factory t...

Russia has reiterated its desire to enhance cooperation with Pakistan, especially in counter-terrorism efforts, within the framework of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO).

Russia and Ukraine on Monday swapped plans for ending their three-year war during talks in Istanbul aiming to find a way out of Europe’s largest conflict since World War II. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said any deal must not “reward” Russian leader Vladimir Putin, but said Kyiv was willing to take the “necessary steps for peace”. Urged on by US President Donald Trump, Moscow and Kyiv have opened direct negotiations for the first time since the early weeks of Russia’s invasion, but have yet to make progress towards an agreement. Monday’s talks come a day after Ukraine carried out one of its most brazen and successful attacks ever on Russian soil — using drones to hit dozens of strategic bombers parked at airbases thousands of kilometres behind the front line. A first round of meetings in Istanbul last month yielded a large-scale prisoner exchange but no pause in the fighting, which has raged since Russia invaded in February 2022. On Monday, the delegations “exchanged documents through the Turkish si...

The overnight collapse of two bridges in Russian regions bordering Ukraine that killed seven people were caused by explosions, Russian officials said on Sunday, treating them as “acts of terrorism”. In Russia’s Bryansk region, an explosion caused a road bridge to collapse onto a railway line late Saturday, derailing a passenger train heading to Moscow and killing seven people, authorities said. A separate rail bridge in the neighbouring Kursk region was blown up hours later in the early hours of Sunday, derailing a freight train and injuring the driver. Authorities did not say who was behind the explosions, but investigators said a criminal inquiry was underway. Russian President Vladimir Putin was briefed on the incidents throughout the night, the Kremlin said. Videos posted on social media from the Bryansk region showed rescuers clambering over the mangled chassis of a train belonging to national operator Russian Railways, while screams could be heard in another video. “There are seven dead as a result of t...

The U.S. Senate is set to move ahead next week with a bill imposing more sanctions on Russia over its three-year-old war in Ukraine, Senator Lindsey Graham said on Friday after talks with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. Graham, a Republican from South Carolina, was accompanied on a visit to Kyiv by Connecticut Democratic Senator Richard Blumenthal […]

US President Donald Trump said Vladimir Putin had “gone absolutely CRAZY” by unleashing the largest aerial attack of the war on Ukraine and said he was considering more sanctions on Moscow, but he also scolded Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy. “Something has happened to him. He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” Trump said of the Russian president on Truth Social. “I’ve always said that he wants ALL of Ukraine, not just a piece of it, and maybe that’s proving to be right, but if he does, it will lead to the downfall of Russia!” Trump also criticised Zelensky, posting that the Ukrainian leader “is doing his Country no favours by talking the way he does. Everything out of his mouth causes problems, I don’t like it, and it better stop.” Speaking to reporters at the airport in Morristown, New Jersey, Trump said of Putin: “I don’t know what’s wrong with him. What the hell happened to him? Right? He’s killing a lot of people. I’m not happy about that.” He raised the possibility of imposing more sanctions on Russia ...

Russia and Ukraine each exchanged 307 of their service personnel on Saturday on the second day of an extended prisoner swap set to be the largest in the three-year war. U.S. President Donald Trump has suggested the swap – which should see 1,000 prisoners released on each side over three days – could herald a new phase in […]

Iran’s parliament approved a 20-year strategic partnership on Wednesday between Moscow and Tehran, state media reported. The agreement represents a deepening of bilateral ties, including closer defence cooperation. Russian President Vladimir Putin and his Iranian counterpart Masoud Pezeshkian signed the strategic partnership document on January 17. The Russian legislative branch approved the pact in April. While the agreement does not include a mutual defence clause, it says both countries will work together against common military threats, develop their military-technical cooperation, and take part in joint exercises. Since the start of the war in Ukraine in 2022, Iran and Russia have deepened military ties, with Western countries accusing Iran of providing missiles and drones for Russian attacks on Ukraine. Tehran denies providing weapons for Russian use in Ukraine. The strategic pact also includes several clauses aimed at boosting economic partnership, notably by strengthening direct interbank cooperation ...

Ukraine will ask the European Union next week to consider big new steps to isolate Moscow, including seizing Russian assets and bringing in sanctions for some buyers of Russian oil, as United States President Donald Trump has backed off from tightening sanctions. A previously unreported Ukrainian white paper to be presented to the EU calls for the 27-member bloc to take a more aggressive and independent position on sanctions as uncertainty hangs over Washington’s future role. Among 40 pages of recommendations were calls to adopt legislation that would speed up the EU’s seizure of assets from sanctioned individuals and send them to Ukraine. Those under sanctions could then seek compensation from Russia. The EU should consider a range of steps to make its sanctions apply more forcefully beyond its own territory, including targeting foreign companies that use its technology to help Russia, and “the introduction of secondary sanctions on purchasers of Russian oil”. Such secondary sanctions, which could hit big bu...

The European Union and Britain announced new sanctions against Russia on Tuesday without waiting for the United States to join them, a day after President Donald Trump spoke to Vladimir Putin without winning a promise for a ceasefire in Ukraine. London and Brussels said their new measures would zero in on Moscow’s “shadow fleet” of oil tankers and financial companies that have helped it avoid the impact of other sanctions imposed over the war. “Sanctions matter, and I am grateful to everyone who makes them more tangible for the perpetrators of the war,” Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky wrote on Telegram. But the new measures were unveiled without an immediate announcement of corresponding steps from Washington, despite intense public lobbying from leaders of European countries for the Trump administration to join them. “We have repeatedly made it clear that we expect one thing from Russia — an immediate ceasefire without preconditions,” German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said on the sidelines of a ...

U.S. President Donald Trump said on Monday that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to their three-year-old war, speaking after he held a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately,” Trump said in a Truth Social post following his call with […]

US President Donald Trump said on Monday that Russia and Ukraine “will immediately start negotiations” toward a ceasefire and an end to their three-year-old war, speaking after he held a call with Russia’s President Vladimir Putin. “Negotiations between Russia and Ukraine will begin immediately,” Trump said in a Truth Social post following his call with Putin, which lasted two hours. After the call, Putin said efforts to end the war were “generally on the right track” and that Moscow was ready to work with Ukraine on a potential peace deal. “We have agreed with the president of the United States that Russia will propose and is ready to work with the Ukrainian side on a memorandum on a possible future peace accord,” Putin told reporters near the Black Sea resort of Sochi. There was no immediate comment from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy on the statement that talks would begin immediately. A source familiar with the matter earlier said Zelenskiy spoke “for a few minutes” with Trump before the US leade...

ISLAMABAD: WWF-Pakistan on Saturday demanded that the proposed export of snow leopards from Pakistan to Russia be immediately cancelled and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to the conservation of its iconic wildlife species. The organisation called for strengthening the Naltar Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre to function as a dedicated facility for wildlife rescue, rehabilitation, and veterinary care. “A move to transfer the snow leopards from Gilgit-Baltistan to Moscow not only contradicts national and international conservation commitments but also risks setting a highly detrimental precedent for future transfer of threatened and iconic wildlife species from Pakistan,” WWF-Pakistan said in a letter to the Ministry of Climate Change and Environmental Coordination on the proposed transfer of two snow leopards, currently housed at the Naltar Rescue and Rehabilitation Centre, to the Moscow Zoo, Russia. According to WWF-Pakistan, the snow leopard is listed as a threatened (vulnerable) species on the IUCN Red Lis...

Ukraine rallied support from its Western allies on Friday after Kyiv and Moscow failed to agree to a ceasefire at their first direct talks in more than three years, with Russia presenting conditions that a Ukrainian source described as “non-starters”. Under pressure from US President Donald Trump to end the bloodiest conflict in Europe since World War Two, delegates from the warring countries met for the first time since March 2022, the month after Russia invaded its neighbour. The talks in an Istanbul palace lasted well under two hours. Russia expressed satisfaction with the meeting and said it was ready to continue contacts. Both countries said they had agreed to trade 1,000 prisoners of war each in what would be the biggest such exchange yet. But Kyiv, which wants the West to impose tighter sanctions unless Moscow accepts a proposal from Trump for a 30-day ceasefire, immediately began rallying its allies for tougher action. As soon as the talks ended, Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskiy held a phone ca...

Russia has voiced deep concern over the escalating military conflict between India and Pakistan, following cross-border strikes and retaliatory military actions that have left dozens of civilians dead and injured.

Chinese president Xi Jinping will make an official visit to Russia from May 7-10, where he will participate in celebrations of the 80th anniversary of the defeat of Nazi Germany, the Kremlin said on Sunday. In a statement on Telegram, the Kremlin said that Xi will discuss with Russian President Vladimir Putin the development of the two countries’ strategic partnership, as well as signing a number of documents. “During the talks, the main issues of further development of relations of comprehensive partnership and strategic interaction, as well as current issues on the international and regional agenda will be discussed,” the Kremlin said. The Soviet Union lost 27 million people in World War II but pushed Nazi forces back to Berlin, where Hitler died by suicide and the red Soviet Victory Banner was raised over the Reichstag in 1945. Several other national leaders are expected at the celebrations, including the presidents of Brazil and Serbia, and the prime minister of Slovakia. Putin has proposed a three-day ce...