Spain declares arms embargo on Israel– www.yahoo.com Source Link Excerpt:
Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez is imposing an arms embargo on Israel as part of an effort to, in his words, “stop the genocide in Gaza.”
The nine measures, which are to come into force immediately, also include a travel ban on people directly involved in what he called a “massacre.”
“Spain will be on the right side of history,” said Sánchez, who has been one of the most outspoken national leaders in his criticism of Israel’s military operations in Gaza.
Other steps include increased humanitarian aid for Gaza, additional funding for the UN Relief and Works Agency for Palestine Refugees in the Near East (UNRWA) and a ban on the import of products from Israeli settlements.
Zelensky accuses Trump of ‘giving Putin what he wanted’ — RT World News– www.rt.com Source Link Excerpt:
US President Donald Trump handed Russian President Vladimir Putin a public relations victory during their one-on-one summit in Alaska last month, Ukrainian leader Vladimir Zelensky claimed.
Trump met with Putin on August 15 as part of efforts to mediate a peace deal between Moscow and Kiev. Although the meeting produced no breakthroughs, both sides described it as a positive step.
“It’s a pity that Ukraine was not there, because I think that President Trump gave Putin what he wanted,” Zelensky told ABC News’ Martha Raddatz in an interview aired on Sunday.
“He wanted very much to meet with President Trump, with the president of the United States. And I think that Putin got it. And, it’s a pity,” Zelensky added.
Ukraine-Russia war latest: Putin strikes kills child and hits Kyiv government building in massive drone attack– www.independent.co.uk Source Link Excerpt:
Hopes for peace talks wane as Russia strikes Kyiv
Sunday’s attack is the second mass Russian drone and missile attack to target Kyiv in the span of two weeks, as hopes for peace talks wane.
The attack comes after European leaders pressed Russian leader Vladimir Putin to work to end the war after 26 of Ukraine’s allies pledged to deploy troops as a “reassurance force” for the war-torn country once the fighting ends.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is ready to meet Putin to negotiate a peace agreement, and has urged U.S. President Donald Trump to put punishing sanctions on Russia to push it to end the war.
DIFFERENT NIGHT, SAME TARGETS: As President Donald Trump considers tightening the economic screws on Moscow sometime in the near but indeterminate future, the air war in Ukraine has settled into almost Groundhog Day-like predictability, with both sides working to gain an advantage as peace prospects fade.
Russia launched another massive attack on Kyiv overnight, hitting familiar civilian targets, a five-story apartment building, a kindergarten, a shopping mall in the center of the city, and an office building housing the European Union delegation to Ukraine. The strikes, which employed almost 600 drones, 20 cruise missiles, nine ballistic missiles, and two Kinzhal hypersonic missiles, hit more than 20 sites and are being described as “the fiercest Russian attack since the Trump-Putin summit.”
“Right now in Kyiv, first responders are clearing the rubble of an ordinary residential building after a Russian strike,” Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyposted on X this morning. “Tragically, at least 8 people have already been confirmed dead. One of them is a child. People may still be trapped under the rubble. Dozens are wounded.” The death toll has since grown to at least 14 civilians killed, including three children, with 38 injured.
“Russia chooses ballistics instead of the negotiating table. It chooses to continue killing instead of ending the war. And this means that Russia still does not fear the consequences. Russia still takes advantage of the fact that at least part of the world turns a blind eye to murdered children and seeks excuses for Putin,” Zelensky said. “All deadlines have already been broken, dozens of opportunities for diplomacy ruined,” he said. “It is definitely time for new, tough sanctions against Russia for everything it is doing.”
UKRAINE’S ‘REFINED’ STRATEGY CRIPPLING RUSSIA’S GAS PRODUCTION: Meanwhile, Ukraine has continued to use its increasingly effective home-grown, long-range drone to chip away at Russia’s oil refineries and pipelines, wreaking havoc on domestic gas supplies and causing average Russians pain at the pump. Overnight posts on X showed two more refineries — the Kuibyshev refinery in the Samara region and the Afipsky refinery in the Krasnodar region — ablaze after Ukraine drone strikes.
Gas stations have run dry in some parts of Russia and Crimea, with social media posts showing desperate motorists waiting in long lines of cars waiting for the next delivery of scarce fuel.
Kyiv, Ukraine — A massive Russian drone and missile attack hit Ukraine’s capital early Thursday, including a rare strike in the center of the city, killing at least 14 people including three children, President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said. It was the first major Russian combined attack on Kyiv in weeks, and it comes as U.S.-led peace efforts to end the three-year war struggle to gain traction.
“Already 14 people are known to have been killed as a result of the Russian attack, including 3 children. A horrific and deliberate killing of civilians,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post. “The Russians are not choosing to end the war, only new strikes… It is crucial now that the world responds firmly. Russia must stop this war it started and continues. For the spurning of ceasefire and for the constant Russian attempts to weasel out of negotiations, new strong sanctions are needed. Only this can work. The Russians understand only strength and pressure.”
In addition to the deaths, officials said at least 38 people were wounded in the attack.
Russia launched 598 strike drones and decoys and 31 missiles of different types across the country, according to Ukraine’s Air Force, making it one of the largest attacks since Moscow launched its full-scale invasion on Feb. 24, 2022. Ukraine’s forces shot down and neutralized all but 41 of the weapons, its Air Force said.
Zelensky says that the Druzhba (friendship) between Kiev and Budapest ‘will depend on Hungary’s actions’.
Orbán made it clear that Zelensky’s threats will not be forgiven or forgotten.
We have been reported how the repeated Ukrainian missile attacks on the Druzhba (meaning ‘friendship’) pipeline cut the flow of crude oil from Russia to both Hungary and Slovakia.
And what became an internet spat between the Hungarian and Ukrainian foreign ministers escalated now to a controversy between Kiev regime leader Volodymyr Zelensky and Hungarian President Viktor Orbán.
By now you might have seen a video clip circulating on social media of a defiant and terrified young Scottish girl wielding a knife and a hatchet to fend off the advances of a migrant man who allegedly had been harassing her and her younger sister. You can hear the fear and anger in their voices, a mix of desperation and rage and confusion. You can also hear the man’s voice, taunting them. At one point one of the girls cries out, “Don’t touch my little sister, she’s only twelve!”
You might also have heard how the story ended: the police arrested the girl for possession of a bladed weapon. They didn’t detain or even investigate the migrant man.
The entire sordid history of Britain’s civic collapse — stretching back decades to the Rotherham rape gangs scandal and forward to today — is in some ways contained in the striking image of this wisp of a girl with knife and hatchet in hand, facing down a predatory migrant. She is clearly desperate, abandoned by the adults who were supposed to protect her, sold out by the political leaders who were supposed to maintain the cohesion and safety of her city, reduced at last to brandishing crude weapons to defend herself from foreign men brought to her native land against her will.
‘IT’S VERY, VERY SERIOUS WHAT I HAVE IN MIND’: Despite being rebuffed at every turn, President Donald Trump is still holding out hope that Russia will come to the table to negotiate an end to the more than three-and-a-half-year war in Ukraine.
At a marathon broadcast Cabinet meeting that ran more than three hours, Trump indicated that despite his frustration, he’s ready to wage economic warfare against Russia to increase the pressure on Vladimir Putin. “It’s very, very serious what I have in mind, if I have to do it. But I want to see it end,” Trump said. “We have economic sanctions. I’m talking about economic. Because we’re not going to get into a world war.”
“Over the last couple of weeks, over 12,000 people died in, like, in two weeks,” Trump said. “They were Russian, they were Ukrainian, they weren’t American. So, a lot of people would say, ‘What do you care? They’re not American.’ I care. They’re 12,000.”
Prime Minister Mark Carney has announced that Canada will keep troops in Latvia through to 2029, as part of a mission to deter Russian aggression in Europe that has given Ottawa an outsized role in the transatlantic alliance.
“We must deter and fortify. And that is the way that we can provide true reassurance,” Carney said at a Tuesday news conference in Riga, flanked by Latvian Prime Minister Evika Silina.
Carney’s office says there are now 2,000 Canadian Armed Forces troops in Latvia as part of Operation Reassurance, which is Canada’s largest overseas mission. Canadian troops have been there since 2017 to strengthen the defence of Europe’s eastern flank and to deter Russian from invading Baltic countries, through what many call a “trip wire.”
Ukraine admitted for the first time on Tuesday that Russian forces had entered the central Dnipropetrovsk region, saying fighting there was ongoing. The battlefield monitor DeepState said in a social media post that the Russian army was “consolidating its positions” and preparing “for a further advance”.
