Zelensky denies troops surrounded in Kursk as Russia retakes villages

Zelensky denies troops surrounded in Kursk as Russia retakes villages
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky presents the state award ‘Hero of Ukraine’ to the widow of a Muslim soldier before an Iftar dinner at the Muslim Center during Ramadan in Kyiv. (AFP)
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Updated 15 March 2025
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Zelensky denies troops surrounded in Kursk as Russia retakes villages

Zelensky denies troops surrounded in Kursk as Russia retakes villages
  • Zelensky has acknowledged that the situation in the Kursk area is “very difficult” for Ukraine
  • “There is no encirclement of out troops,” he said

KYIV: Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky denied Saturday his troops were encircled in Russia’s Kursk region, where Moscow has regained swathes of land this week, as Russia said it took back two more villages in the border region.
US leader Donald Trump had a day earlier asked Russia’s Vladimir Putin on social media to spare the lives of Ukrainian troops that he said were “completely surrounded” by the Russian army.
Moscow has pushed this week to retake a large part of the land that Ukraine originally captured in its western Kursk region last summer.
Zelensky has acknowledged that the situation in the Kursk area is “very difficult” for Ukraine, but contradicted Trump’s comments.
“There is no encirclement of out troops,” he said on social media, adding that: “Our troops continue to hold back Russian and North Korean groupings in the Kursk region.”
Kyiv had hoped to use the Russian territories as a bargaining chip in any negotiations to end the more than three-year conflict.
The UK on Saturday hosted a virtual summit on how to protect any ceasefire in Ukraine, but Zelensky warned that Moscow was intent on “prolonging the war” and “ignoring diplomacy.”
He also accused Moscow of amassing troops on the border with “an intention to attack our Sumy region” — attacked by Moscow at the start of its 2022 invasion but since spared the worst of the fighting seen in other eastern regions.
Putin had this week not committed to an immediate ceasefire in Ukraine proposed by the US, instead putting forward conditions and raising “serious questions” about the idea.
The Kremlin has hailed its troops ousting Ukrainian forces from swathes of the Kursk region, with Moscow on Saturday releasing images of a destroyed center in Sudzha — the main town occupied by Ukrainian forces for months.
The Russian defense ministry said troops took control over the villages of Zaoleshenka and Rubanshchina — north and west of Sudzha.
Sudzha was home to around 6,000 people before fighting began and Ukraine had set up a military administration there after its shock August 2024 incursion.
The Russian defense ministry’s footage showed heavily destroyed houses and shops, with rubble and broken glass on the streets, and some Russian flags flying.
The acting governor of the Kursk region, Alexander Khinstein, said Russia had evacuated 275 civilians from areas it had regained since Wednesday.
Khinstein said “174 of the residents are now in temporary accommodation” and that the “work of evacuating our residents is continuing.”
The Kremlin has hailed the Kursk operations as a major success.
Responding to Trump’s call to spare Ukrainian troops in Kursk region, Putin said Friday:
“If they lay down their arms and surrender, they will be guaranteed life and dignified treatment.”
Russia’s defense ministry also said that military engineers were working to clear the areas that were held by Ukraine.
Russia had also deployed almost 200 firefighters to help put out a fire at an oil depot caused by a Ukraine drone strike in the southern Krasnodar region, authorities said.
The governor of the Krasnodar region Veniamin Kondratyev said in the early hours of Saturday that a petrol reserve station in the Black Sea city of Tuapse was “attacked by the Kyiv regime.”
Elsewhere on the front, Zelensky claimed the situation around the eastern city of Pokrovsk — which Russian troops have tried to capture for months — had “stabilized.”
Ukrainian officials also said the number of wounded from a Russian strike a day earlier on Zelensky’s hometown Kryvy Rig rose to 14.
Moscow has targeted the central city throughout its invasion and Kyiv said Friday it struck a residential area of Kryvy Rig, destroying large apartment buildings.
Ukrainian prosecutors said the wounded children were a two-year-old and a 15-year-old.


Macron wants ‘clear pressure’ on Moscow to accept ceasefire

Macron wants ‘clear pressure’ on Moscow to accept ceasefire
Updated 8 sec ago
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Macron wants ‘clear pressure’ on Moscow to accept ceasefire

Macron wants ‘clear pressure’ on Moscow to accept ceasefire
Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace,” Macron said
“Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire“

PARIS: French President Emmanuel Macron said Saturday that Europe and the United States had to put pressure on Russia to accept a proposed ceasefire in Ukraine.
Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace,” Macron said in a statement provided to AFP following a Saturday morning video conference of countries backing Ukraine organized by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.
On the contrary, Russian President Vladimir Putin is “escalating the fighting” and “wants to get everything, then negotiate,” he said.
“Russia must respond clearly and the pressure must be clear, in conjunction with the United States, to obtain this ceasefire,” he added.
In a statement released later Saturday, his office said Macron would Canada’s new prime minister Mark Carney on Monday to discuss the war in Ukraine and “other international crises.”
Since returning to the White House in January, US President Donald Trump has stressed his desire to end the three-year old conflict, and has made a spectacular rapprochement with Vladimir Putin.
After a very public falling out between Trump and Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelensky at the White House last month, Kyiv has worked to restore relations. It has backed Washington’s proposed a 30-day ceasefire, which Russia has not accepted.
“This is a moment of truth because if Russia does not sincerely commit to peace, President Trump will toughen sanctions and retaliation, and so that will completely change the dynamic,” Macron said in a interview Friday with French regional papers that was posted late Saturday.
He said planning was accelerating among countries willing to provide security guarantees for Ukraine following any eventual ceasefire, such as France and Britain.
Military leaders from some 30 countries met in Paris on March 11 to discuss plans for a peacekeeping force in Ukraine, and will meet again Thursday in Britain.
“Several European countries, and indeed non-European ones, have expressed their willingness to join” a possible deployment to Ukraine to secure a future peace agreement with Russia, said Macron.
This would involve “a few thousand troops” per state, deployed at key points, to conduct training programs and “show our long-term support,” he told the regional papers.
Moscow has firmly opposed such a deployment.
But Macron said: “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them.
He added: “Under no circumstances can the Ukrainians make territorial concessions without having any security guarantees.”
Macron will travel to Berlin Tuesday for talks with Chancellor Olaf Scholz for talks on Ukraine ahead of an EU summit, Berlin has announced.

Lawyers for detained Columbia student ask for his release on bail

Lawyers for detained Columbia student ask for his release on bail
Updated 46 min 45 sec ago
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Lawyers for detained Columbia student ask for his release on bail

Lawyers for detained Columbia student ask for his release on bail
  • Mahmoud Khalil — a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent — was arrested a week ago at his university residence
  • His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth next month

NEW YORK: A Columbia University student detained over his pro-Palestinian activism is not a flight risk and should be allowed to return home for the birth of his first child, his lawyers argued in a motion for bail on Saturday.
Mahmoud Khalil — a 30-year-old permanent US resident of Palestinian descent — was arrested a week ago at his university residence.
He has not been charged with a crime and is being held in immigration custody in Louisiana. His wife, an American citizen, is due to give birth next month.
The case has become a flashpoint for President Donald Trump’s vow to deport some activists who took part in protests on US college campuses against Israel’s war on Hamas in Gaza following the October 2023 attack by the Palestinian militants. Khalil was a prominent member of the protest movement at Columbia University.
His arrest sparked protests this week. Justice Department lawyers have argued the US government is seeking Khalil’s removal because Secretary of State Marco Rubio has reasonable grounds to believe his activities or presence in the country could have “serious adverse foreign policy consequences.”
The US will likely revoke visas of more students in the coming days, Rubio said on Friday.
Under a provision of the US Immigration and Nationality Act, a law passed in 1952, any immigrant may be deported if the secretary of state deems their presence in the country potentially adverse to American foreign policy. Legal experts have said that provision is rarely invoked, and Khalil’s lawyers have said it was not intended to silence dissent.
“His detention unquestionably chills his speech, as the federal government monitors and controls his ability to communicate with the outside world and has complete power over all of the decisions that impact his daily life inside a remote private prison,” his lawyers argued in the motion for bail.
They said if released, Khalil would return home to help his wife prepare for the birth of their child and start a job at a human rights organization in New York. He has the support of many current and former classmates, professors, colleagues and friends who are calling for his release, they said.
“There are no allegations that Mr. Khalil is a flight risk or a danger to the community,” his lawyers argued. “Mr. Khalil has never been arrested or convicted of a crime.”
The US Justice Department did not immediately respond to a request for comment. A spokesperson for the Justice Department said on Friday: “Being in the United States as a non-citizen is a privilege, not a right ... Mahmoud won’t be missed.” Since Khalil’s arrest, federal agents have searched two student residences at Columbia University and the Justice Department said on Friday it was looking into what it said were possible violations of terrorism laws during the protests.
Secretary of Homeland Security Kristi Noem also said on Friday that a Columbia student from India, whose visa was revoked on March 5, had left the country herself on March 11.
Noem said a second woman — a Palestinian from the West Bank who took part in the pro-Palestinian protests at Columbia University — was arrested for overstaying her expired student visa, which was terminated in 2022 for lack of attendance.


Trump signs a bill funding the government for 6 months, avoiding a shutdown

Trump signs a bill funding the government for 6 months, avoiding a shutdown
Updated 15 March 2025
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Trump signs a bill funding the government for 6 months, avoiding a shutdown

Trump signs a bill funding the government for 6 months, avoiding a shutdown
  • The bill largely keeps government funding at levels set during Joe Biden’s presidency, though with changes
  • Senate Democrats argued for days over whether to force a shutdown, livid that Republicans in the House had drafted and passed the spending measure without their input

WASHINGTON: President Donald Trump has signed into law legislation funding the government through the end of September, ending the threat of a partial government shutdown and capping off a struggle in Congress that deeply divided Democrats.
Harrison Fields, White House principal deputy press secretary, said in a post on X that Trump signed the continuing resolution Saturday.
The bill largely keeps government funding at levels set during Joe Biden’s presidency, though with changes. It trims non-defense spending by about $13 billion from the previous year and increases defense spending by about $6 billion, which are marginal changes when talking about a topline spending level of nearly $1.7 trillion.
The Senate cleared the legislation on Friday in a 54-46 party line vote, with 10 members of the Senate Democratic caucus helping the bill advance to passage despite opposition from within their party — most vocally from colleagues in the House, who exhorted them to reject the bill out of hand.
Senate Democrats argued for days over whether to force a shutdown, livid that Republicans in the House had drafted and passed the spending measure without their input. Democrats said the legislation shortchanges health care, housing and other priorities and gives Trump wide leeway to redirect federal spending even as his administration and the Department of Government Efficiency rapidly dismantle congressionally approved agencies and programs.
In the end, enough of the Democratic senators decided a government shutdown would be even worse than letting the funding bill pass.
Senate Democratic leader Chuck Schumer said a shutdown would have given the Trump administration the ability to deem whole agencies, programs and personnel non-essential, furloughing staff with no promise they would ever be rehired.
“A shutdown will allow DOGE to shift into overdrive,” Schumer said. “Donald Trump and Elon Musk would be free to destroy vital government services at a much faster rate.”
Passage of the funding bill through the House earlier in the week was a victory for Trump and House Speaker Mike Johnson, who managed to hold Republicans together and muscle the bill to passage without support from Democrats — something they’ve rarely been able to achieve in the past.


Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects

Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects
Updated 15 March 2025
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Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects

Chinese military jet crashes, pilot safely ejects
  • The fighter jet, from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, crashed in an open area in the southern island province of Hainan
  • The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea

BEIJING: A Chinese naval fighter jet crashed on Saturday during a training exercise but its pilot successfully ejected from the plane, the military said.
The fighter jet, from the Chinese military’s Southern Theater Command, crashed in an open area in the southern island province of Hainan, the navy said in a statement on social media.
The southern command oversees some of the country’s most sensitive areas including the South China Sea, where there has been a spate of violent clashes between Chinese and Philippine vessels in recent years around disputed reefs and islands in the area.
“The pilot successfully ejected, and no collateral damage was caused on the ground,” the statement said.
An investigation into the cause of the crash has been launched and the navy is organizing efforts to handle the aftermath, it added.
China has for years sought to expand its presence in contested areas of the sea, brushing aside an international ruling that its claim to most of the waterway has no legal basis.
In recent months, Beijing has more firmly asserted its territorial claims in the South China Sea, where countries such as Vietnam, Indonesia, and the Philippines are defending their own claims.
Last month, the Philippine Coast Guard condemned “dangerous” maneuvers by a Chinese Navy helicopter it said had flown within meters of a surveillance flight carrying a group of journalists over the contested Scarborough Shoal.


Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine

Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine
Updated 15 March 2025
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Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine

Scholz calls on Russia to work toward ‘just peace’ in Ukraine
  • “It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks,” Scholz said

BERLIN: German Chancellor Olaf Scholz on Saturday called on Russia to finally work toward a just peace in Ukraine after three years of war.
“It is now up to Russia to put an end to its daily attacks against Ukrainian cities and civil infrastructure and to finally take the way of a lasting and just peace,” Scholz said in a statement after participating in a virtual summit hosted by UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer.