Russian | Pakistan

Indian state refiners have stopped buying Russian oil in the past week as discounts narrowed this month and United States President Donald Trump warned countries not to purchase oil from Moscow, industry sources said. India, the world’s third-largest oil importer, is the biggest buyer of seaborne Russian crude, a vital revenue earner for Russia as it wages war in Ukraine for a fourth year. The country’s state refiners — Indian Oil Corp (IOC), Hindustan Petroleum Corp (HPCL), Bharat Petroleum Corp (BPCL) and Mangalore Refinery Petrochemical Ltd (MRPL) — have not sought Russian crude in the past week or so, four sources familiar with the refiners’ purchase plans told Reuters. IOC, BPCL, HPCL, MRPL and the federal oil ministry did not immediately respond to Reuters’ requests for comment. The four refiners regularly buy Russian oil on a delivered basis and have turned to spot markets for replacement supply — mostly Middle Eastern grades such as Abu Dhabi’s Murban crude and West African oil, sources said. Private ...

MOSCOW: A video of the Russian doctors performing surgery during a massive earthquake went viral on Wednesday. A powerful 8.8 magnitude earthquake struck Russia’s Kamchatka Peninsula early Wednesday, triggering a tsunami with waves reaching up to 4 meters (13 feet). The tremor, among the strongest ever recorded, caused structural damage and prompted tsunami alerts across […]

United States President Donald Trump on Wednesday imposed a 25 per cent tariff on goods imported from India starting August 1, along with an unspecified penalty for buying Russian weapons and oil, potentially straining relations with the world’s most populous democracy. The US decision singles out India more severely than other major trading partners, and threatens to unravel months of talks between the two countries, undermining a key strategic partner of Washington and a counterbalance to China. In posts on his social platform Truth Social, he said the US had a “massive trade deficit” with India. In another post, he said: “Remember, while India is our friend, we have, over the years, done relatively little business with them because their tariffs are far too high, among the highest in the world and they have the most strenuous and obnoxious non-monetary trade barriers of any country. “Also, they have always bought a vast majority of their military equipment from Russia, and are Russia’s largest buyer of ene...

U.S. President Donald Trump announced new weapons for Ukraine on Monday, and threatened sanctions on buyers of Russian exports unless Russia agrees a peace deal, a major policy shift brought on by frustration with Moscow’s ongoing attacks on its neighbor. But Trump’s threat of sanctions came with a 50-day grace period, a move that was […]

Russia’s Deputy Prime Minister Alexei Overchuk on Thursday said Pakistan and Russia were “natural allies”, stressing that Russian President Vladimir Putin views Islamabad as an important strategic partner in the areas of economy and energy, the Foreign Office said in a statement. In recent years, Russia and Pakistan have engaged in strengthening bilateral ties with each other. On June 3, Russian Foreign Min­ister Sergey Lavrov, in a meeting with Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Syed Tariq Fatemi, reaffirmed Russia’s desire to expand cooperation with Pakistan. Moscow’s growing engagement with Islamabad — including defe­nce deals, energy cooperation and regular joint military exercises — reflects a strategic shift to diversify partnerships across the region. In a high-level meeting with Ambassador Fatemi and the prime minister’s aide on Industries and Production, Haroon Akhtar Khan, in Moscow, the Russian DPM reaffirmed his country’s commitment towards deepening bilateral cooperation w...

A Russian missile attack on Ukraine’s southeastern Dnipropetrovsk region on Tuesday killed at least nine people, damaged civilian infrastructure and wounded dozens of train passengers, officials said. The two-wave strike killed seven in the regional capital of Dnipro, said governor Serhiy Lysak, where the blast wave also shattered train carriage windows and showered passengers with broken glass. Nearly 70 people, including 10 children, were injured, he said, adding the numbers could still rise. Two people were also killed in the town of Samar, around 10 kilometres from Dnipro, the state emergencies service said. Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha called on Kyiv’s Western partners to respond to the attack. Nato leaders are currently in The Hague for an alliance summit, where President Volodymyr Zelenskiy hopes to secure more military support against Russia’s full-scale invasion, launched in 2022. “It is a matter of credibility for allies to step up pressure on Moscow,” Sybiha wrote on X. He added that sc...

Waves of Russian drones and missiles struck districts across the Ukrainian capital Kyiv early on Tuesday, killing 14 people and injuring 44, according to the interior ministry. The Russian attack struck 27 locations around the capital, damaging residential buildings, educational institutions, and critical infrastructure facilities, Ukrainian Interior Minister Ihor Klymenko said. “Today, the enemy spared neither drones nor missiles,” he said about what he called one of the largest attacks on the city since Russia launched the full-scale invasion in February 2022. Reuters witnesses said drones swarmed over the capital and they heard what appeared to be missiles overhead. An air raid alert remained in effect more than seven hours after it had been proclaimed. Other parts of the country also came under attack, including a region outside the capital where one person was injured and the southern region of Odesa, where 13 people were injured, according to local authorities. Klymenko said a ballistic missile struck a...

Russia carried out “massive” drone attacks on Ukraine’s capital Kyiv and port city of Odesa early on Tuesday, killing one person and hitting a maternity hospital, Ukrainian officials said, calling for further sanctions. Moscow has kept up its attacks on Ukraine, which has hit back with strikes deep inside Russian territory, while peace talks held over the weekend failed to yield a breakthrough towards ending the three-year war. Aside from an agreement to exchange prisoners, progress has stalled and Russia has repeatedly rejected calls for an unconditional ceasefire. “Russia lies every day about its desire for peace and attacks people every day. Time to impose sanctions. Time to support Ukraine with weapons. Time to prove that democracy has power,” Andriy Yermak, head of the Ukrainian presidential office, said on Telegram. A 59-year-old man was killed in the Russian strikes on residential buildings in Odesa on Tuesday, and at least four others were wounded, said Governor Oleg Kiper. “The enemy massively attack...

Russia attacked the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv at night and in the evening with drones, missiles and guided bombs, killing at least four people and injuring more than 60, including a baby, local officials said on Saturday. One of Ukraine’s largest cities, Kharkiv is located just a few dozen kilometres from the Russian border and has been under constant Russian shelling during more than three years of war. “Kharkiv is currently experiencing the most powerful attack since the start of the full-scale war,” Terekhov said on the Telegram messenger early on Saturday. Dozens of explosions were heard in the city through the night and Russian troops were striking simultaneously with missiles, drones, and guided aerial bombs, he said. Multi-storey and private residential buildings, educational and infrastructure facilities were attacked, Terekhov noted. Kharkiv governor Oleh Syniehubov said that one of the city’s civilian industrial facilities was attacked by 40 drones, one missile and four bombs, causing a fire...

Ukraine denied Russian allegations on Saturday that it had indefinitely postponed prisoner swaps, accusing Moscow of “playing dirty games” after overnight Russian missile and bomb strikes on Kharkiv left three people dead and 22 injured. Separately, Russian officials said a Ukrainian drone attack in the Moscow region wounded two people. At a second round of […]

ISTANBUL: U.S. President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were […]

US President Donald Trump said on Saturday he would speak to the presidents of Russia and Ukraine on Monday following talks between the two sides at which a Ukrainian official said Moscow’s negotiators voiced new demands before a ceasefire could be agreed. In Moscow, Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Russian news agencies preparations were underway for a conversation between Russian President Vladimir Putin and Trump. The talks in Turkiye on Friday were the first time the sides had held face-to-face talks since March 2022, weeks after Russia’s full-scale invasion of its smaller neighbour. A senior Ukrainian official familiar with the talks said Russian negotiators demanded Ukraine pull its troops out of all Ukrainian regions claimed by Moscow before they would agree to a ceasefire. Trump, writing on Truth Social, said he would speak with Putin to discuss stopping the war at 10am on Monday. “The subjects of the call will be, stopping the ‘bloodbath’ that is killing, on average, more than 5000 Russian and...