International

As war enters bloody new phase, Ukraine again calls for more weapons

Published

4 years ago

April 11, 2022

Russian forces bombarded several towns in eastern Ukraine on Sunday, destroying an airport and damaging several civilian targets, as the war careens toward a pivotal new phase. The shift of the war and fears of full-scale military confrontation on open terrain prompted Ukrainian officials to again call for Western alliances to step up weapons supply efforts to strengthen Ukraine’s position on the battlefield.

Ukraine is preparing for a “massive attack in the east,” its ambassador to the United States, Oksana Markarova, warned Sunday on CBS’s “Face the Nation.” Of the Russian forces, she said: “There are so many of them and they still have so much equipment. And it looks like they’re going to use all of it. So we are preparing for everything.”

Military analysts have been predicting the movement of the war toward the eastern border that Ukraine shares with Russia in an area known as Donbas. The energy-rich region includes territory where pro-Russian forces have been battling the Kyiv government since 2014.

Ukraine’s foreign minister, Dmytro Kuleba, cautioned that although leaders have been trumpeting success in driving Russian forces out of Kyiv, “Another battle is coming, the battle for Donbas,” he said Sunday on NBC’s “Meet the Press.”

The expected Russian offensive could resemble World War II, Kuleba recently told NATO, with large military maneuvers involving thousands of tanks, armored vehicles, artillery and aircraft. With the atrocities mounting in Ukraine, calls have grown to provide the country with offensive weapons that would allow forces to strike inside Russia. Several foreign allies, including the United Kingdom, have pledged new weapons shipments in recent days to help Ukraine in what is expected to be a tougher battle ahead.

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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on CBS’s “60 Minutes” again called on Western countries to step up in providing arms. “They have to supply weapons to Ukraine as if they were defending themselves and their own people,” he said in an interview recorded Wednesday and broadcast Sunday. “If they don’t speed up, it will be very hard for us to hold on against this pressure.”

Zelensky urged even tougher sanctions against Russia and warned that Western nations shouldn’t be lulled into complacency thinking that they had staved off World War III by not intervening further.

“I think that today no one in this world can predict what Russia will do. If they invade further into our territory, they will definitely move closer and closer to Europe,” he said. “They will only become stronger and less predictable.”

Zelensky’s message has been relentless since the start of the Russian invasion, when he reportedly said “I need ammunition, not a ride.” Foreign Minister Dmytro Kuleba told NATO leaders in Brussels last week that Zelensky had a threefold agenda: “weapons, weapons and weapons.”

The United States has been cautious in its approach to providing armaments directly. The country’s focus “is on helping the Ukrainians defend their territory in Ukraine and take territory back,” Jake Sullivan, President Biden’s national security adviser, said on CBS’s “Face the Nation.”

“The United States is surging resources, weapons, military equipment, but also diplomatic resources to support the Ukrainians,” he said. He also discounted the notion that the United States hadn’t stepped up, saying the country has mobilized resources at “unprecedented scope, scale and speed.”

He noted that some of the steps include sourcing weapons systems that Ukrainian forces are already familiar with, such as the Soviet-era S-300 air defense system provided by Slovakia, to which the United States contributed a key component. The United States is also exploring systems that would require some training for the Ukrainian forces, Sullivan added.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-Ky.) said Sunday that the United States needs to be more aggressive in aiding Ukraine. “I think the administration has been better, but they’ve had to be pushed every step of the way to be more aggressive, sooner,” McConnell told Fox News.

Backup can’t come soon enough as an eight-mile-long convoy of Russian military vehicles was making its way east, according to satellite images captured Friday and made available by Maxar Technologies, a U.S. space technology firm.

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As Russia shifts its military focus, officials in the eastern province of Luhansk urged people to evacuate immediately, saying the region could face a “very ugly and very bloody” fight. Sunday’s attacks damaged a school and hit two residential buildings, according to Luhansk’s governor, Serhiy Haidai, but no deaths were reported.

Already, more than 4.5 million Ukrainians have fled the country since the Russian invasion on Feb. 24, according to data from the United Nations. That figure is expected to grow as the fighting wears on.

Ukrainians continued to flee eastern Ukraine through humanitarian corridors, though authorities said they were stymied by Russian troops violating cease-fires and holding up buses at checkpoints.

About 2,800 people evacuated conflict areas via humanitarian corridors on Sunday, Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said — far fewer than the more than 6,600 who fled conflict zones on Friday.

Amid a backdrop of mounting violence in Ukraine and economic devastation in Russia, President Vladimir Putin is expected to meet Austrian Chancellor Karl Nehammer on Monday, marking the first time since the invasion that Putin will have met face to face with a European leader. Nehammer visited Ukraine on Saturday and met with Zelensky.

Biden is scheduled to meet virtually with Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Monday to push the country to abandon its neutral stance on the war. India has continued to buy Russian energy supplies, even as many countries around the globe have cut ties to punish Russia for its actions.

Biden and Modi will discuss the consequences of Russia’s war against Ukraine and “mitigating its destabilizing impact on global food supply and commodity markets,” White House press secretary Jen Psaki said Sunday in a statement.

Russian forces have now completely withdrawn from the areas around Kyiv and Chernihiv in the north, where their attempt to launch a sweep into the capital was thwarted by fierce Ukrainian resistance, U.S. officials said. Those troops are being refitted and resupplied, apparently for redeployment to the east, the Pentagon said.

In recent days, Ukrainian military officials said, the Russians have begun pushing south, with the eventual aim of seizing the city where a shelling attack on a train station occurred Friday. At least 57 people have died because of the attack and 109 were injured, according to the city’s governor.

Rep. Liz Cheney (R-Wyo.) said Sunday during an interview with CNN that the train station attack was “clearly genocide,” arguing that European countries that continue to purchase Russian energy supplies are “funding that genocidal campaign.”

Ukrainian officials and the state railway company announced new evacuation routes Sunday for civilians in eastern Ukraine. Deputy Prime Minister Iryna Vereshchuk said that “all the routes for the humanitarian corridors in the Luhansk region will work as long as there is a cease-fire by the occupying Russian troops.”

The refocus to the east, away from the largest cities, could be a challenge for Ukraine’s beleaguered forces and an advantage for Russian troops, Gen. Mark A. Milley, chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff, said last week, noting that Russians are more skilled at fighting in rural terrain.

Unlike near Kyiv, where Ukrainian forces were able to hide in forests, the expansive, open spaces of the east will make it harder for the Ukrainians to run guerrilla operations. For their part, Russian forces will be able to muster large mechanized formations of tanks and armored vehicles. Both sides appear positioned to dig in for a long and bloody battle focused in the east that U.S. officials have warned could last months or more.

Accounts of torture, beheadings and bodies used as booby traps for land mines near Ukraine’s capital Kyiv, as well as haunting images of mass graves and bound corpses, have increased the urgency of calls for help.

Ursula von der Leyen, the president of the European Commission who visited Bucha, Ukraine, last week, said on CNN’s “State of the Union” that “a lot has been done, but more has to be done.”

It will take at least two weeks for the bodies of those killed in the recent attacks near Kyiv to be recovered from the rubble, Ukrainian Interior Minister Denys Monastyrsky said in a television interview. After 24 hours of sifting through debris in Bucha, workers uncovered more than 6,500 explosive devices in doorways, washing machines, cars and under helmets, Monastyrsky said.

Ukraine has opened 5,600 war-crimes cases involving about 500 Russian leaders, including Putin, since Russia’s invasion, prosecutor general Iryna Venediktova said Sunday. But the country will face an uphill battle getting Russian officials into court.

The strike on Friday at a railway station in the east was a Russian missile attack that came as evacuees were waiting to escape an expected onslaught in the region, Venediktova said. A missile fragment found near the train station was inscribed with the words “for the children,” in Russian.

“These people just wanted to save their lives, they wanted to be evacuated,” Venediktova said, adding that the country has “evidence” it was a Russian strike.

The exodus from Ukraine has caused an outpouring of global support, with donors pledging 9.1 billion euros ($10 billion) for refugees at an event Saturday convened by Canada and the European Commission.

Pope Francis called for an “Easter truce” and “peace” in Ukraine during a Palm Sunday Mass in St. Peter’s Square at the Vatican.

“Put the weapons down,” he said, according to Reuters, as tens of thousands of people listened to his address. “Let an Easter truce start. But not to rearm and resume combat, but a truce to reach peace through real negotiations.”

Francis, who has repeatedly denounced Russia’s invasion but has not directly referenced Russia or Putin, said the “folly of war” leads people to commit “senseless acts of cruelty,” the Associated Press reported.

In Russia, those who speak out against the war are under increasing threat. At least four teachers have been turned in by students or parents for antiwar speech, in some of the starkest examples of the government’s quest to identify and punish individuals who criticize the invasion.

It’s a campaign with dark Soviet echoes, inspired last month by Putin, who praised Russians for their ability to identify “scum and traitors” and “spit them out like a fly.”

Russian students are turning in teachers who don’t back the war

After weeks of denial, Russian officials have acknowledged recently the scores of military casualties suffered by their forces. Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said the “significant losses of troops” were a “huge tragedy,” an unprecedented admission from a Russian government that has largely insisted the operation in Ukraine is going according to plan.

Now, as it seeks to rebuild its depleted forces for the next phase of battle, Russia is turning to retired soldiers, according to an intelligence briefing Sunday from the United Kingdom’s ministry of defense.

“The Russian armed forces seek to bolster troop numbers with personnel discharged from military service since 2012,” the ministry said. “Efforts to generate more fighting power also include trying to recruit from the unrecognised Transnistria region of Moldova.”

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International

Trump Warns Iran: Open Hormuz or Get ‘Hit Very Hard’ as 48-Hour Deadline Looms

Published

14 hours ago

August 5, 2026

Trends Admin

Trump Warns Iran: Open Hormuz or Get ‘Hit Very Hard’ as 48-Hour Deadline Looms

United States President Donald Trump has warned Iran it will be “hit very hard” unless the Strait of Hormuz is reopened “very soon,” while insisting that talks between the two sides were ongoing despite Tehran flatly denying any direct negotiations were taking place. Speaking in an interview with Fox News on Tuesday during a visit to California, Trump said he preferred a diplomatic resolution but left no doubt about the consequences of failure. “The strait is going to be open very soon, or they are going to get hit very hard, and then the strait’s going to be open,” he said. “If they back out again, they are going to get hit really hard. They know that. They understand that. I have no choice.” The president also described the planned military operation as extensive and still on the table despite his decision to pause it over the weekend. “It’s very tough to do what we have planned, still planned. We’ll see what happens,” he said, adding that he was “very proud” of giving Iran a chance to negotiate before launching what he suggested would be a large-scale assault. “We hit them very, very hard. But the hard hit is yet to come, and hopefully we won’t have to use it.” Trump simultaneously accused Iran of duplicity for publicly denying it was in talks with Washington. In a post on Truth Social, he wrote: “Iranian Leadership is unbelievably duplicitous! They ask for a meeting, some would say ‘beg,’ talks begin, with more scheduled in the immediate future, and they say, openly and proudly, that they’re not having any discussions, that nothing is being talked about, and they’re only dealing with ‘Oman’.” He added that “nothing gets through to Iran, unless we want it to, and nothing will get through, unless a Deal, or Total Surrender, is accomplished.”

Iran’s Foreign Ministry flatly rejected Trump’s characterisation. Spokesperson Esmaeil Baghaei said Tehran was not holding direct discussions with the United States and was only engaged in talks with Oman regarding a temporary safe route through the strait. “Discussions are currently focused on a possible navigation corridor for two-way vessel traffic. That initiative is unrelated to negotiations on fully reopening the strait. It is a separate issue,” Baghaei said. Baghaei added that all Iranian negotiators were currently in the country, with Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi on a religious pilgrimage in Iraq and unavailable for negotiations at least until the end of the week. The only exception, he said, was the ongoing bilateral discussions with Oman as the two coastal states responsible for the waterway.

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According to Axios, which cited unnamed regional and US officials, the United States, Iran, and Oman are nearing an interim agreement to reopen the Strait of Hormuz, with Washington hoping to announce the deal as early as Wednesday. The proposed arrangement would be a 60-day agreement for safe passage in the strait between Iran and Oman, with negotiators working on final details. Under the reported framework, ships entering the Persian Gulf would travel north through Iranian territorial waters, while outbound vessels would travel south through Omani waters in coordination with Tehran. The agreement would not involve the collection of transit fees or tolls, and the parties would clear mines from the central shipping lane within 30 days. A US official and one regional source told Axios that Iranian leadership had completed the approval process for the agreement on Tuesday. While US Secretary of State Marco Rubio confirmed that progress had been made in discussions with Iran, he noted that talks had not yet been finalized but that the White House was “hoping” for an agreement “in the very near future.”

Iran’s senior officials have taken a defiant stance, warning the United States against any adventurous actions. The Iranian Foreign Ministry reiterated that Tehran views Hormuz as a crucial source of strategic leverage that it cannot afford to surrender, while Washington insists that Iran must not be allowed to control an international waterway. Iran continues to insist that any agreement must leave it in control of the Strait of Hormuz. Regional officials told The Associated Press that any agreement to reopen Hormuz would also require the removal of the current US blockade on Iranian ports. Meanwhile, Iranian military sources have denied Trump’s claim that Tehran asked Washington to call off its strikes, calling his remarks “a new lie,” according to Iran’s semi-official Mehr news agency.

The diplomatic confusion was underscored when another cargo vessel was attacked near the strait’s Omani coast on Tuesday. The United Kingdom Maritime Trade Operations Centre (UKMTO) reported receiving multiple reports that a tanker had been struck by an unknown projectile approximately eight nautical miles east of Oman’s Limah. The tanker’s crew abandoned the vessel and boarded a lifeboat, with the vessel’s main engine disabled and a bunker tank on fire. The UKMTO did not identify the ship or its owner, and authorities are investigating. Separately, Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said on Tuesday that two oil tankers had caught fire after explosions while attempting to transit the southern route of the strait, though Reuters could not independently verify the Guards’ statement.

The disruption of the Strait of Hormuz has sent oil prices soaring and placed heavy pressure on Trump to stop the fighting, partly because of the effect rising energy prices could have on American voters ahead of the November congressional midterm elections. Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent had earlier told CNBC that a deal to reopen the strait could come as early as Tuesday or Wednesday, saying there were “hundreds if not 1,000 ships sitting in there waiting to go out,” including tankers carrying oil, fertiliser, refined products and industrial gases. Trump has vowed that Iran will not be permitted to collect transit fees in the strait, declaring, “If anyone is allowed to collect fees, it will be us. We have complete control.” The president had previously said he expected to know by Tuesday how the talks were going, “one way or the other,” but insisted that the path forward is clear. As the 48-hour window unfolds, the world watches to see whether the negotiations will yield a breakthrough or whether Trump will follow through on his threat to unleash a devastating military campaign. “If they don’t make a deal, it’s going to be too bad. And we have much more on Iran coming up,” Trump said. All parties remain on high alert, with the potential for a catastrophic escalation in West Asia now greater than at any point since the conflict began.

Trump Warns Iran: Open Hormuz or Get ‘Hit Very Hard’ as 48-Hour Deadline Looms

International

Iran Denies US Talks After Trump Announces Negotiations as War Enters Sixth Month

Published

2 days ago

August 3, 2026

Trends Admin

Iran Denies US Talks After Trump Announces Negotiations as War Enters Sixth Month

Tehran rejects Washington’s claim of imminent talks, says discussions with Oman over Strait of Hormuz are separate and ongoing

Iran has firmly denied that it is currently holding negotiations with the United States, contradicting President Donald Trump’s announcement that talks would begin on Monday afternoon. The conflicting claims come amid heightened tensions over the Strait of Hormuz and Iran’s nuclear program, with the war between the two countries now in its sixth month. The war began on February 28, 2026, when the United States and Israel launched surprise strikes against Iran, targeting key leadership, air defence capabilities, missile sites, and the Islamic Revolutionary Guard Corps (IRGC) Navy. The opening salvo included an attack on a leadership meeting in Tehran that killed Supreme Leader Sayyid Ali Khamenei, Iran’s defence minister, the chief of staff of the armed forces, and the commander of the IRGC. Since then, months of on-off diplomacy have led to periods of relative calm, though fighting has continued to flare.

Iranian Foreign Ministry spokesman Esmaeil Baqaei stated during a televised press conference on Monday that “Iran is not currently holding talks with the United States”. He elaborated that Tehran has no plans to host or send delegations, and members of Iran’s negotiating delegation remain inside the country. Baqaei clarified that Iran’s current discussions are focused exclusively on Oman regarding a temporary safe route through the Strait of Hormuz. He emphasized that reaching an agreement with Oman would not mean the reopening of the strait, as the situation would remain unchanged while US “aggression” continued. “So long as the United States continues to violate its commitments, the situation in the Strait of Hormuz will not change,” Baqaei told his weekly press conference. The spokesman also warned Gulf states against allowing the United States to use their territory for attacks on Iran, urging countries in the region not to facilitate US military action.

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On Sunday, President Trump told reporters aboard Air Force One that negotiations with Iran would begin Monday afternoon. He claimed that the talks would cover the Strait of Hormuz and ultimately the denuclearisation of Iran. “The deal is imminent, having to do with the Hormuz Strait and also, ultimately, the denuclearization of Iran,” Trump said. Trump stated that he had been asked by Iran as well as US partners Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar to hold off on strikes, which he claimed would have been “the biggest attack since World War II”. In a post on Truth Social, Trump wrote: “Based on this request, I have agreed, for the future benefit of the WORLD and, likewise, the survival of a successful and prosperous Iran, to cancel the attack, subject to being able to rapidly make a DEAL”. However, Iranian media has denied that Tehran asked Trump not to strike. Trump has repeatedly predicted that a negotiated settlement is within reach, although previous diplomatic efforts have been followed by renewed exchanges of military strikes.

While denying US talks, Iranian officials confirmed progress in discussions with Oman over a new shipping route through the Strait of Hormuz. Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said negotiations with Oman on a mechanism for ships to transit the waterway were “nearing completion and in their final stages,” according to Iranian state media. The talks have been ongoing for months between Tehran and Muscat, the two littoral states bordering the strait, with discussions continuing at both the technical and political levels. Baqaei told state television that a deal was close with Oman over a new route through the strait, describing it as “one path with entry and exit lanes” that would respect the sovereign rights of both sides. The route under discussion will be temporary, he said, and through it, Iran will ensure safe navigation. Baqaei emphasized that Iran and Oman, as coastal states of the strait, are required to cooperate to ensure the safe passage of vessels through the waterway and reach a defined mechanism. He noted that Tehran needs to ensure that the Strait of Hormuz would not be exploited by the parties that have carried out aggression against Iran, adding that “this requires us to adopt a mechanism in which Iran’s sovereign rights are fully respected”.

The conflicting claims come against the backdrop of a war that has significantly disrupted global energy markets. Before the war, the Strait of Hormuz served as a conduit for approximately 20% of the world’s oil and liquefied natural gas. Iran has largely closed the strait, causing energy prices to rise and stoking broader inflation. On June 18, Iran and the United States signed a memorandum of understanding (MoU) on ending the conflict, under which the two countries were scheduled to hold negotiations within a 60-day period to reach a final agreement. Under the understanding, Iran agreed to allow fee-free maritime transit through the Strait of Hormuz for a period of 60 days. However, the talks’ fate has been uncertain due to recent military escalation. The US attempted to undermine Iran’s sovereignty by establishing an unsafe corridor near Omani shores, prompting Iran’s firm response to re-impose restrictions on the strait.

Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian posted on X that “We must strive to compel the enemy to remain committed to what it has signed”. He expressed belief that the MoU would be the focal point of Iran’s foreign relations in the future. Baqaei also revealed that over the past 24 hours, “we have received numerous calls from the United Kingdom, Bulgaria, and Ukraine stating that they will not be part of the war against Iran”. Iranian lawmaker Hassan Ghashghavi, spokesman for the parliament’s national security commission, said on Sunday that mediators were trying to revive the US-Iran memorandum of understanding that was agreed in June. That agreement was not intended as a final peace deal, but as a stepping stone to negotiations on a comprehensive agreement, though it did include provisions on Hormuz. “They know that the main issue and, in fact, the key to the matter right now is the issue of the Strait of Hormuz, so yes, there is an exchange of views,” Ghashghavi said.

Trump’s announcement had immediate market effects, with oil prices falling at the opening of Asian trade. The president said he had been asked by Iran as well as US partners Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates, and Qatar to hold off on further strikes. Eli Cohen, Israel’s energy minister and a member of Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu’s security cabinet, said there was close security and intelligence coordination between Israel and the US on everything happening in the region. However, he added: “With or without an agreement, and regardless of any external commitments, if Iran attempts to renew its nuclear programme or advance its ballistic missile industries, we will be there. We will take action, and we will strike”. In his call with Trump, Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman stressed the “necessity of prioritising dialogue to de-escalate tensions” in the Middle East, according to Saudi Arabia’s state news agency. Many observers have expressed skepticism about the latest diplomatic push. Vali Nasr, an Iran expert at Johns Hopkins University, stated there was “no clear path” for Trump to achieve his goals, noting that “He is trying his hand now at a diplomatic solution to avoid military escalation. But there’s no clear path, either diplomatically or militarily, to get Trump to a place where he can declare victory”.

Iran Denies US Talks After Trump Announces Negotiations as War Enters Sixth Month

Additional reporting by Reuters, AFP, Ynetnews, and The New Arab

International

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Announces Fresh Iran Talks, Easing Supply Fears

Published

3 days ago

August 3, 2026

Trends Admin

Oil Prices Slide as Trump Announces Fresh Iran Talks, Easing Supply Fears

Global oil prices fell sharply in early Asian trading on Monday after United States President Donald Trump announced fresh negotiations with Iran, raising hopes of easing tensions in the Middle East and restoring normal shipping through the strategically vital Strait of Hormuz.

Brent crude, the international oil benchmark for September delivery, dropped 4.69 per cent to $83.81 a barrel as of 2250 GMT on Sunday, while the US benchmark, West Texas Intermediate (WTI), declined 4.67 per cent to $80.72.

The decline followed Trump’s announcement on Sunday that Washington would resume diplomatic engagement with Tehran instead of pressing ahead with major military strikes against the Islamic Republic.

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“Now what we’re doing is we’re talking to them in the form of a negotiation. It begins tomorrow afternoon,” Trump said, without disclosing the venue or those expected to participate in the talks.

Oil markets have remained highly volatile since the conflict between the United States, Israel and Iran escalated in late February, disrupting traffic through the Strait of Hormuz—a critical maritime corridor for global crude oil and liquefied natural gas exports.

The renewed diplomatic push has fuelled optimism that the waterway could soon reopen fully, reducing the risk of prolonged disruptions to global energy supplies.

Adding to the positive sentiment, Iran said on Sunday that it was close to reaching an agreement with Oman on establishing a new shipping arrangement through the Strait of Hormuz, a development that could further stabilise oil exports from the region.