Putin backs US ceasefire idea for Ukraine in principle, but says there’s a lot to clarify

Russia's President Vladimir Putin speaks during a press conference following a meeting with his Belarusian counterpart at the Kremlin in Moscow on March 13, 2025. (AFP)
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Updated 13 March 2025
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Putin backs US ceasefire idea for Ukraine in principle, but says there’s a lot to clarify

  • Russia says ceasefire would be nothing more than temporary breather for Ukrainian military
  • Heavily caveated support for proposal designed to signal goodwill to Washington

MOSCOW: President Vladimir Putin said on Thursday that Russia supported a US proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine in principle, but that any truce would have to address the root causes of the conflict and that many crucial details needed to be sorted out.
Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022 has left hundreds of thousands of dead and injured, displaced millions of people, reduced towns to rubble and triggered the sharpest confrontation between Moscow and the West in decades.
Putin’s heavily caveated support for the US ceasefire proposal looked designed to signal goodwill to Washington and to open the door to further talks with US President Donald Trump. Such talks could offer a real chance to end the biggest conflict in Europe since World War Two given Ukraine has already agreed to the proposal.

“We agree with the proposals to cease hostilities,” Putin told reporters at a news conference in the Kremlin following talks with Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko. “The idea itself is correct, and we certainly support it.”
“But we proceed from the fact that this cessation should be such that it would lead to long-term peace and would eliminate the original causes of this crisis.”
He went on to list a slew of issues he said needed clarifying and thanked US President Donald Trump, who says he wants to be remembered as a peacemaker, for his efforts to end the war which both Moscow and Washington now cast as a deadly proxy war which could have escalated into World War Three.
Trump, who said he was willing to talk to the Russian leader by phone, called Putin’s statement “very promising” but said it was not complete and that he hoped Moscow would “do the right thing.”
Trump said Steve Witkoff, his special envoy, was engaged in serious talks with the Russians in Moscow around the US proposal.
Ukraine is likely to see Putin’s stance as an attempt to buy time while Russian troops squeeze the last Ukrainian troops out of western Russia and Moscow sticks to demands that Kyiv regards as seeking its own capitulation.
The West and Ukraine describe Russia’s 2022 invasion as an imperial-style land grab, and have repeatedly vowed to defeat Russian forces. Russian forces control nearly a fifth of Ukraine’s territory and have been edging forward since mid-2024.
Putin portrays the conflict as part of an existential battle with a declining and decadent West which he says humiliated Russia after the Berlin Wall fell in 1989 by enlarging the NATO military alliance and encroaching on what he considers Moscow’s sphere of influence, including Ukraine.

PUTIN AND TRUMP
European powers have been deeply concerned that Trump could be turning his back on Europe for some sort of grand bargain with Putin that could include China, oil prices, cooperation in the Middle East and Ukraine.
Putin said Russian forces were moving forward along the entire frontline and that the ceasefire would have to ensure that Ukraine did not seek to simply use it to regroup.
“How can we and how will we be guaranteed that nothing like this will happen? How will control (of the ceasefire) be organized?” Putin said. “These are all serious questions.”
“There are issues that we need to discuss. And I think we need to talk to our American colleagues as well.”
Putin said he might call Trump to discuss the issue.
The United States agreed on Tuesday to resume weapons supplies and intelligence sharing with Ukraine after Kyiv said at talks in Saudi Arabia that it was ready to support a ceasefire proposal.
Russia over recent days has pressed a lightning offensive in the western Russian region of Kursk against Ukrainian forces which smashed through the border last August in a bid to divert forces from eastern Ukraine, gain a bargaining chip and embarrass Putin.
Ukraine now has a sliver of less than 200 square km (77 square miles) in Kursk, down from 1,300 square km (500 square miles) at the peak of the incursion last summer, according to the Russian military.
Putin on Wednesday donned a camouflage uniform — extremely rare for the former KGB officer — to visit a command post in the Kursk region.

WELCOME’
Beyond the immediate ceasefire idea, Russia has presented the US with a list of demands for a deal to end its war against Ukraine and reset relations with Washington, according to two people familiar with the matter.
Asked about the Reuters report, Kremlin aide Yuri Ushakov said Washington knew Russia’s position. Before Putin spoke, Ushakov said that the US ceasefire proposal offered Russia “nothing.”
Putin said Russia would welcome back western companies if they wanted to return, though he also said that markets had been taken over by domestic producers and that Moscow would not be creating any special conditions for western companies.
“To those (companies) who want to return, we say: Welcome, welcome at any moment,” Putin said, using the English word welcome.
Putin added that if Moscow and Washington could agree on energy cooperation, then gas supplies for Europe could resume after Russia lost its primary position as the main supplier to Europe during the war.


Vehicle crashes into entrance at Manila airport, killing 2 people including a 4-year-old girl

Updated 4 sec ago
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Vehicle crashes into entrance at Manila airport, killing 2 people including a 4-year-old girl

  • Dozens of emergency personnel could be seen at Ninoy Aquino International Airport surrounding a black SUV that had rammed into a wall by an entrance
MANILA, Philippines: A vehicle crashed into an entrance at Manila’s airport on Sunday morning, leaving two people dead including a 4-year-old girl, according to the Philippine Red Cross.
The other victim was an adult male, the humanitarian group said in a statement.
Other people were injured in the incident and the driver of the vehicle was in police custody, according to the airport’s operator, New NAIA Infra Co, and the Red Cross.
Dozens of emergency personnel could be seen at Ninoy Aquino International Airport surrounding a black SUV that had rammed into a wall by an entrance. The vehicle was later removed from the site.
The airport operator said it is coordinating with the authorities to investigate the incident.

Australia’s re-elected prime minister says voters chose unity over division

Updated 8 min 26 sec ago
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Australia’s re-elected prime minister says voters chose unity over division

  • Canada’s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost his seat after Trump declared economic war on the US neighbor
  • Albanese said he would speak to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky later Sunday

MELBOURNE, Australia: Australia’s re-elected Prime Minister Anthony Albanese on Sunday was greeted by well-wishers at a Sydney café and said the country had voted for unity over division.
Albanese’s center-left Labour Party won an emphatic victory in elections on Saturday. As vote counting continued, the government was on track to win at least 85 seats in the 150-seat House of Representatives, the lower chamber where parties need a majority to form an administration.
Labor held 78 seats in the previous Parliament, and gaining seats in a second term is rare in Australian politics.
“The Australian people voted for unity rather than division,” Albanese told reporters in the crowded café in inner-suburban Leichhardt where he and his fiancee, Jodie Haydon, gathered with colleagues and supporters for coffee.
“We’ll be a disciplined, orderly government in our second term, just like we have been in our first,” he added.
Treasurer Jim Chalmers, the government’s top economic minister, explained the election result as voters seeking stability after US President Donald Trump’s tariff disruptions to the global economy.
“This was beyond even our most optimistic expectations,” Chalmers told Australian Broadcasting Corp. of the election result.
“We know that this second term has been given to us by the Australian people because they want stability in uncertain times,” he added.
Australian election result reminiscent of Canada
In an election result reminiscent of Canada’s recent contest, conservative opposition leader Peter Dutton lost his parliamentary seat. His alliance of parties was reduced to 37 seats.
Canada’s opposition leader, Pierre Poilievre, lost his seat after Trump declared economic war on the US neighbor. Poilievre had previously been regarded as a shoo-in to become Canada’s next prime minister and shepherd his Conservative Party back into power for the first time in a decade.
Senior Australian lawmakers say they feared late last year they would become the first government to be tossed out after a single three-year term since the turmoil of the Great Depression in 1931.
Like the center-left Canadian government, the Australian government had linked their political opponents to Trump’s administration and its Elon Musk-led Department of Government Efficiency.
Australia was hit during the five-week election campaign with 10 percent tariffs on exports to the United States despite trading with its bilateral free trade partner at a deficit for decades.
Opposition leader branded ‘DOGE-y Dutton’
The opposition leader was branded “DOGE-y Dutton,” and Labor warned that a Dutton government would slash public sector services to pay for seven government-funded nuclear power plants.
Labor said Dutton never campaigned at any of the proposed power plant sites and argued the conservatives realized that nuclear reactors were not popular. There is no nuclear power generation in Australia.
Labor also accused Dutton of igniting culture wars. While Albanese stands before the Australian flag and two Indigenous flags at media announcements, Dutton had said that as prime minister, he would only stand in front of the national flag.
Indigenous Australians account for 4 percent of the population and are the nation’s most disadvantaged ethnic minority.
Chalmers said the direct impacts of US tariffs on Australia were “manageable and relatively modest.”
“But there is a huge downside risk in the global economy. I think what’s happening, particularly between the US and China, does cast a dark shadow over the global economy. And we’re not uniquely impacted by that. But we’re really well-placed. We are quite well-prepared,” Chalmers said.
Albanese has become the first Australian prime minister to lead a party to consecutive election victories since conservative John Howard in 2004.
Revolving door for Australian political leaders
Howard’s 11-year reign ended at the next election in 2007. Like Dutton, Howard also lost his seat in Parliament as well as his government. Howard’s departure coincided with the start of an extraordinary period of political instability that created a revolving door for political leaders. There have been six prime ministers since Howard, including one who served in the role twice in separate stints three years apart.
Albanese said the first world leader to congratulate him on his election victory was Papua New Guinea Prime Minister James Marape, who phoned at 7:45 a.m.
“He’s a very good friend,” Albanese said. “I told him it’s a bit early to call.”
Albanese had also spoken to New Zealand Prime Minister Christopher Luxon and received text messages of congratulation from British Prime Minister Kier Starmer and French President Emmanuel Macron.
Albanese said he would speak to Indonesian President Prabowo Subianto and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky later Sunday.


Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

Updated 14 min 4 sec ago
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Indian PM says Albanese re-election to strengthen ties

  • India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year

NEW DELHI: Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi congratulated Australian counterpart Anthony Albanese on Saturday on his general election victory, saying it would strengthen ties between the nations.
India has deepened defense cooperation with Australia in recent years as part of the Quad alliance with the United States and Japan, a grouping seen as a bulwark against China.
Modi said he looked forward to working together to “further deepen” ties with Australia and “advance our shared vision for peace, stability and prosperity in the Indo-Pacific.”
India is expected to host a summit meeting of the Quad later this year.
“Congratulations on your resounding victory and re-election... This emphatic mandate indicates the enduring faith of the Australian people in your leadership,” Modi said on X.
Albanese wooed Modi during a visit to Australia in 2023, referring to him as the “boss” during a massive rally of Indian-Australians.
Modi had earlier hosted Albanese in India, when they performed a lap of honor aboard a cricket-themed golf cart before a Test match, and bonded over their countries’ shared love of the sport.


Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

Updated 04 May 2025
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Romanians vote in a presidential redo after voided election sparked deep political crisis

  • The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances
  • The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun

BUCHAREST, Romania: Romanians are casting ballots Sunday in a critical presidential election redo after last year’s annulled vote plunged the European Union and NATO member country into its worst political crisis in decades.
Eleven candidates are vying for the presidency and a May 18 runoff is expected. Polls opened at 7 a.m. (0400 GMT) and will close at 9 p.m. (1800 GMT). Romanians abroad have been able to vote since Friday.
Romania’s political landscape was shaken last year when a top court voided the previous election in which the far-right outsider Calin Georgescu topped first-round, following allegations of electoral violations and Russian interference, which Moscow has denied.
Like many countries in the EU, anti-establishment sentiment is running high in Romania, fueled by high inflation and cost of living, a large budget deficit and a sluggish economy. Observers say the malaise has bolstered support for nationalist and far-right figures like Georgescu, who is under investigation and barred from the rerun.
While data from local surveys should be taken with caution, a median of polls suggests that hard-right nationalist George Simion will enter the runoff, likely pitting him against Bucharest Mayor Nicusor Dan, or the governing coalition’s candidate, Crin Antonescu.
Dan, a 55-year-old mathematician and former anti-corruption activist who founded the Save Romania Union party (USR) in 2016, is running on a pro-EU “Honest Romania” ticket. He says Romania needs a president “who has the will and the ability to reform the system.”
Veteran centrist Antonescu, 65, has campaigned on retaining Romania’s pro-Western orientation, while Victor Ponta, a former prime minister between 2012 and 2015, has also pushed a MAGA-style “Romania First” campaign and boasts of having close ties to the Trump administration.
Another hopeful, Elena Lasconi, came second in last year’s first round ballot and is participating in the rerun. She has positioned herself as a staunchly pro-Western, anti-system candidate, railing against what she describes as a corrupt political class.
Distrust in the authorities remains widespread, especially for those who voted for Georgescu, a sizeable electorate that Simion has sought to tap into.
“The anti-establishment sentiment is not like an anarchic movement, but is against the people who destroyed this country,” Simion, who came fourth in last year’s race and later backed Georgescu, told The Associated Press. “We are not a democratic state anymore.”
Simion said that his hard-right nationalist Alliance for the Unity of Romanians party is “perfectly aligned with the MAGA movement,” capitalizing on a growing wave of populism in Europe after US President Donald Trump’s political comeback. AUR rose to prominence in a 2020 parliamentary election, proclaims to stand for “family, nation, faith, and freedom,” and has since doubled its support.
The election redo is a crossroads moment for Romania as it seeks to restore its democracy and retain its geopolitical alliances, which have become strained since the canceled election fiasco.
The decision to annul the election and the ban on Georgescu’s candidacy drew criticism from US Vice President JD Vance, Elon Musk and Russia, which publicly supported his candidacy in the rerun.
The presidential role carries a five-year term and significant decision-making powers in national security and foreign policy.


Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

Updated 04 May 2025
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Japan protests China’s airspace ‘violation’ near disputed islands

  • The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan
  • On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands

TOKYO: Tokyo has lodged a protest against Beijing after a Chinese helicopter “violated” Japan’s airspace and four vessles entered its territorial waters around disputed islands.
The islands in the East China Sea — known as the Diaoyu in China and Senkaku in Japan — are claimed by Beijing but administered by Tokyo and are a frequent hotspot in bilateral tensions.
The Japanese foreign ministry said in a statement released late Saturday that its vice minister lodged “a strong protest” with the Chinese ambassador to Japan “over the intrusion of four China Coast Guard vessels into Japan’s territorial waters around the Senkaku Islands” on the same day.
The vice minister also protested “the violation of Japan’s territorial airspace by a helicopter launched from one of the China Coast Guard vessels, strongly urging (China) to ensure that similar acts do not recur.”
Japan’s defense ministry said the helicopter flew within Japanese airspace for about 15 minutes on Saturday near the Senkaku islands.
“The Self-Defense Forces responded by scrambling fighter jets,” the ministry said.
Public broadcaster NHK and other local media reported that this is the first time a Chinese government helicopter violated the Japanese airspace off the disputed islands.
On the same day, China’s coast guard announced it had used a helicopter to “expel” a Japanese airplane from airspace around the disputed islands.
Liu Dejun, spokesman for China’s coast guard, said a Japanese civilian aircraft “illegally entered” the airspace of the islands at 11:19 am (GMT 0219) and left five minutes later.
Beijing frequently announces it has driven Japanese vessels and aircraft away from the islands, but Japanese officials have told AFP that Chinese authorities sometimes announce expulsions when none have occurred.
Unnamed Japanese officials told local media that Beijing was possibly reacting to a small Japanese civilian aircraft flying near the islands.
Chinese and Japanese patrol vessels in the East China Sea have routinely staged dangerous face-offs around disputed islands.
Tensions between China and other claimants to parts of the East and South China Seas has driven Japan to deepen ties with the Philippines and United States.