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Trump, Zelenskiy pledge in phone call to work for end to war in Ukraine

Zelenskiy said Ukraine has begun talks with the U.S. about its possible involvement in restoring the Zaporizhzhia plant.

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U.S. President Donald Trump and Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy agreed on Wednesday to work together to end Russia’s war with Ukraine, in what the White House described as a “fantastic” one-hour phone call.

In their first conversation since an Oval Office shouting match on February 28, Zelenskiy thanked Trump for U.S. support and the two leaders agreed that technical teams would meet in Saudi Arabia in the coming days.

Zelenskiy asked Trump for more air defence support to protect his country against Russian attacks and the U.S. president said he would help locate the necessary military equipment in Europe, the White House said.

Trump briefed Zelenskiy on his phone call on Tuesday with Vladimir Putin, in which the Russian president rejected a proposed full 30-day ceasefire sought by Trump that Ukraine said it would be prepared to accept, but agreed to pause attacks on energy infrastructure.

That narrowly defined pause appeared in doubt on Wednesday, however, with Moscow saying Ukraine hit an oil depot in southern Russia while Kyiv said Russia had struck hospitals and homes, and knocked out power to some railways.

Still, the two sides carried out a prisoner exchange, each releasing 175 troops in a deal facilitated by the United Arab Emirates. Moscow said it freed an additional 22 wounded Ukrainians as a goodwill gesture.

Zelenskiy, describing his conversation with Trump as “positive, very substantive and frank,” said he had confirmed Kyiv’s readiness to halt strikes on Russian infrastructure and to accept an unconditional frontline ceasefire as the U.S. proposed earlier.

“One of the first steps toward fully ending the war could be ending strikes on energy and other civilian infrastructure. I supported this step, and Ukraine confirmed that we are ready to implement it,” he said on social media.

Later, the Ukrainian president told reporters in a video call that Trump understands Kyiv will not recognize occupied land as Russian.

Zelenskiy said the Russian strikes, which he said were carried out since Trump’s call with Putin, showed that Russia was not ready for peace. He said the U.S. should be in charge of monitoring any ceasefire, adding a halt to infrastructure attacks could be quickly established.

The Kremlin said it had called off planned attacks on Ukraine’s energy infrastructure, including by shooting down seven of Russia’s own drones heading towards Ukraine. It accused Kyiv of failing to call off its own attacks in what it called an attempt to sabotage the agreement.

Trump suggested to Zelenskiy the U.S. could help run, and possibly own, Ukraine’s nuclear power plants, according to a statement by the U.S. administration. Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, in Ukraine’s Zaporizhzhia region, has been shut down since Russian troops occupied it in 2022.

Zelenskiy said Ukraine has begun talks with the U.S. about its possible involvement in restoring the Zaporizhzhia plant.

Trump has long promised to end Europe’s deadliest conflict since World War Two. But his outreach to Putin has unnerved European allies, who fear it heralds a fundamental shift after 80 years in which defending Europe from Russian expansionism was the core mission of U.S. foreign policy.

Some European leaders said Putin’s rejection of Trump’s proposed full truce was proof Moscow was not seeking peace. The offer to temporarily stop attacking Ukrainian energy facilities counted for “nothing” and Trump would have to win greater concessions, Germany’s defence minister said.

“Putin is playing a game here and I’m sure that the American president won’t be able to sit and watch for much longer,” Boris Pistorius told German broadcaster ZDF.

The EU’s foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas said she would present a proposal to European leaders in Brussels on Thursday to provide Ukraine with 2 million rounds of large-calibre artillery ammunition, according to a letter seen by Reuters.

For most of the past three years, Russia has relentlessly attacked Ukraine’s power grid, arguing that civilian infrastructure is a legitimate target because it facilitates Kyiv’s fighting capabilities. Ukrainians say such attacks have subsided in recent months.

Kyiv has steadily developed capabilities to mount long-range attacks into Russia, frequently using drones to target distant oil and gas sites, which it says provide fuel for Russia’s troops and income to fund the war.

In the attacks overnight, Ukrainian regional authorities said Russian drones damaged two hospitals in the northeastern Sumy region, causing no injuries but forcing the evacuation of patients and staff.

Near Kyiv, a 60-year-old man was injured and airstrikes hit homes and businesses in the Bucha district north of the capital. Attacks damaged power systems for railways in Dnipropetrovsk in the south on Wednesday, the state railway said.

Authorities in the southern Russian region of Krasnodar said a Ukrainian drone attack caused a fire at an oil depot near the village of Kavkazskaya. No one was injured.

The depot is a rail terminal for Russian oil supplies to a pipeline linking Kazakhstan to the Black Sea. A representative of the Caspian Pipeline Consortium operator said oil flows were stable. Two industry sources said the attack could reduce Russian supplies to the pipeline.

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Venezuela quakes leave over 4,300 dead and 16,740 injured

The official tally of ​injured remained unchanged at 16,740, while 6,462 people have ​been rescued and about 17,000 have been left homeless.

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The death toll from the two earthquakes ​that struck Venezuela on June 24 has risen ‌to 4,333, National Assembly President Jorge Rodriguez told reporters on Saturday, announcing that the distribution of housing to ​those affected will begin next week, Reuters reported.

Meanwhile, 315 ​of the dead have not yet been ⁠identified, the official said.

The official tally of ​injured remained unchanged at 16,740, while 6,462 people have ​been rescued and about 17,000 have been left homeless.

Rodriguez said acting President Delcy Rodriguez will allocate the first 200 ​homes to those affected next week, but ​did not give any more details.

Rodriguez also said that ‌856 ⁠buildings were affected, of which 190 either collapsed completely or suffered structural collapse.

According to the government’s preliminary estimates, 25,000 homes are needed. Authorities ​have already identified ​around 40 ⁠plots of land, totaling about 584,000 square meters, for housing projects in ​Osma and Chuspa.

Rodriguez said search ​operations ⁠are continuing, saying, “As long as there is life, there is hope. We still have one or two ⁠sites ​where the situation remains uncertain, ​active sites where we are searching for survivors.”

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Trump says missiles aimed at Iran if Tehran targets US president

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U.S. President Donald Trump said on Friday he had ordered ​the military to be prepared ‌to launch strikes against Iran if the Iranian government carried out or ​attempted an assassination of ​the president.

“1000 Missiles are Locked and ⁠Loaded and aimed at the ​Islamic Republic of Iran, with ​thousands of more to immediately follow, should the Iranian Government act on its ​threat, pronounced in many corners ​of the Globe, to assassinate, or attempt ‌to ⁠assassinate, the sitting President of the United States of America, in this case, ME!,” he said ​in a ​Truth Social ⁠post, Reuters reported.

“Orders have already been given, and the U.S. ​Military is ready, willing, ​and ⁠able, for a one year period of time, subject to extension, ⁠to ​completely decimate and destroy ​all areas of Iran.”

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Russia denounces NATO summit decisions on aid for Ukraine, defence

NATO members at the summit pledged €70 billion ($80 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine ​for 2026.

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Russia denounced NATO’s decisions at a summit in Turkey on Wednesday, saying they could have catastrophic consequences, after the alliance announced military ​aid to Ukraine and reaffirmed members’ commitment to collective ‌defence, Reuters reported.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said NATO’s priorities remained unchanged: “the militarisation of the European continent, the focus on building up defence capabilities, preparation for an ​armed conflict with Russia, and, of course, aid to Ukraine”.

“It ​is a pity, because if NATO strategists had stopped ⁠and thought for a moment, they might not have made such ​irresponsible decisions that could lead to a catastrophe not just for ​the alliance, but for the whole world,” Zakharova said in a statement on her ministry’s website.

NATO members at the summit pledged €70 billion ($80 billion) in military assistance to Ukraine ​for 2026.

They reaffirmed their “ironclad commitment” to collective defence under the ​alliance’s Article 5 pact in a summit declaration and unveiled arms deals worth at ‌least $50 ⁠billion.

In her comments, Zakharova said “cracks” between the United States and its NATO partners “have not gone anywhere”.

“Against this backdrop, the Americans do not hide their disappointment with the North Atlantic bloc,” she wrote.

“The issue with ​Greenland is not ​being resolved ⁠according to the American scenario. There is also resentment that alliance members, as Washington sees it, did ​not act in a supportive way when the United ​States ⁠needed their backing.”

NATO Secretary Genera Mark Rutte, in an interview with Reuters, said disputes between U.S. President Donald Trump and other NATO leaders showed the ⁠alliance’s ​democratic strength and should serve as a ​lesson for Russian President Vladimir Putin, read the report.

“I would say to Putin: You should have some ​more discussions yourself, out in the open,” Rutte told Reuters.

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