US readies Russia sanctions over Ukraine, OKs possible F-16 training and sustainment

US readies Russia sanctions over Ukraine, OKs possible F-16 training and sustainment
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Updated 03 May 2025
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US readies Russia sanctions over Ukraine, OKs possible F-16 training and sustainment

US readies Russia sanctions over Ukraine, OKs possible F-16 training and sustainment
  • Targets include natural resources and banking entities
  • Trump has not decided whether to deploy the sanctions

WASHINGTON: US officials have finalized new economic sanctions against Russia, including banking and energy measures, to intensify pressure on Moscow to embrace US President Donald Trump’s efforts to end its war on Ukraine, according to three US officials and a source familiar with the issue.

At the same time, the US State Department has approved the potential sale of F-16 training and sustainment, along with related equipment, to Ukraine for $310 million, the Pentagon said on Friday.
The targets include state-owned Russian energy giant Gazprom and major entities involved in the natural resources and banking sectors, said an administration official, who like the other sources requested anonymity to discuss the issue.
The official provided no further details.
It was far from clear, however, whether the package will be approved by Trump, whose sympathy for Moscow’s statements and actions have given way to frustration with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s spurning of his calls for a ceasefire and peace talks.
The US National Security Council “is trying to coordinate some set of more punitive actions against Russia,” said the source familiar with the issue. “This will have to be signed off by Trump.”
“It’s totally his call,” confirmed a second US official.
“From the beginning, the president has been clear about his commitment to achieving a full and comprehensive ceasefire,” said National Security Council Spokesman James Hewitt. “We do not comment on the details of ongoing negotiations.”
The US Treasury, which implements most US sanctions, did not respond to a request for comment.
An approval by Trump of new sanctions, which would follow the Wednesday signing of a US-Ukraine minerals deal that he heavily promoted as part of his peace effort, could signify a hardening of his stance toward the Kremlin.
Since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022 the United States and its allies have added layer upon layer of sanctions on the country. While the measures have been painful for Russia’s economy, Moscow has found ways to circumvent the sanctions and continue funding its war.
Trump “has been bending over backwards to give Putin every opportunity to say, ‘Okay, we’re going to have a ceasefire and an end to the war,’ and Putin keeps rejecting him,” said Kurt Volker, a former US envoy to NATO who was US special representative for Ukraine negotiations during Trump’s first term. “This is the next phase of putting some pressure on Russia.”
“Putin has been escalating,” he continued. Trump “has got the US and Ukraine now in alignment calling for an immediate and full ceasefire, and Putin is now the outlier.”
Since assuming office in January, Trump has taken steps seen as aimed at boosting Russian acceptance of his peace effort, including disbanding a Justice Department task force formed to enforce sanctions and target oligarchs close to the Kremlin.
He also has made pro-Moscow statements, falsely blaming Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky for starting the conflict and calling him a “dictator.”
Meanwhile, Steve Witkoff, Trump’s special envoy, has advocated a peace strategy that would cede four Ukrainian regions to Moscow, and has met Putin four times, most recently last week.
But three days after that meeting, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov reiterated Putin’s maximalist demands for a settlement and Moscow’s forces have pressed frontline attacks and missile and drone strikes on Ukrainian cities, claiming more civilian casualties.

Reuters reported
in March that the United States was drawing up a plan to potentially give Russia sanctions relief but Trump in recent weeks has expressed frustration with Putin’s foot-dragging on ending the invasion and last Saturday held a “very productive” one-on-one meeting in the Vatican with Zelensky.
The next day, Trump said in a post on his Truth Social platform that he was “strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions and Tariffs on Russia” that would remain until a ceasefire and final peace deal.
Volker said that Russia has been earning hard currency that funds its military through oil and gas sales to countries like India and China and that it would be “very significant” if Trump slapped secondary sanctions on such deals.
Secondary sanctions are those where one country seeks to punish a second country for trading with a third by barring access to its own market, a particularly powerful tool for the United States because of the size of its economy.

F-16 training
Days before the F-16 training and sustainment deal, Ukraine and the US signed a deal heavily promoted by Trump, to give the US preferential access to new Ukrainian minerals deals and fund investment in Ukraine’s reconstruction.
Ukraine has previously received F-16 jets from US allies under a jet transfer authorized by former President Joe Biden’s administration. Trump has not been as eager to assist Kyiv with weapons support, instead relying on transfers authorized by Biden.
Under Biden, more than $31 billion worth of weapons and equipment was pledged to Ukraine under the Presidential Drawdown Authority (PDA), which allows the president to approve rapid transfers to foreign countries from US military stockpiles, without having to seek congressional approval.
These weapons and others purchased with US funds on behalf of Ukraine and shipped via the same channels continue to flow. This sale is separate from that, and represents an actual weapons deal whose principal contractors include Lockheed Martin Aeronautics, BAE Systems and AAR Corporation , the Pentagon said in a statement.
The sale could include aircraft modifications and upgrades, flight training, maintenance, and sustainment support; spare parts, repair, ground handling equipment, classified software, classified publications and support.


Okinawa marks 80 years since end of one of harshest WWII battles with pledge to share tragic history

Updated 41 sec ago
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Okinawa marks 80 years since end of one of harshest WWII battles with pledge to share tragic history

Okinawa marks 80 years since end of one of harshest WWII battles with pledge to share tragic history
TOKYO: Okinawa marked the 80th anniversary of the end of one of the harshest battles of World War II fought on the southern island.
With global tensions escalating, its governor said on Monday it is the Okinawan “mission” to keep telling the tragic history and its impact today.
The Battle of Okinawa killed a quarter of the island’s population, leading to a 27-year US occupation and a heavy American troop presence to date.
Monday’s memorial comes one day after US attacks on Iranian nuclear facilities, adding to a sense of uncertainty on the island about the heavy American military presence and in its remote islands, already worried about getting embroiled in a potential conflict in Taiwan.
Gov. Denny Tamaki, noting the escalating global conflicts and nuclear threats, made a resolve to contribute to global peace studies, disarmament and the preservation of war remains. “It is our mission, as those living in the present, to preserve and pass on the reality and lessons to future generations.”
Fierce battle and civilian deaths
US troops landed on the main Okinawa island on April 1, 1945, beginning a battle in their push toward mainland Japan.
The Battle of Okinawa lasted nearly three months, killing some 200,000 people — about 12,000 Americans and more than 188,000 Japanese, half of them Okinawan civilians including students and victims forced into mass suicides by Japan’s military.
Okinawa was sacrificed by Japan’s Imperial Army to defend the mainland, historians say. The island group remained under US occupation until its reversion in 1972, two decades longer than most of Japan.
Monday’s memorial was held at the Mabuni Hill in Itoman City, where the remains of most of the war dead reside.
Remembering the tragedy
Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba was in a hot seat when he attended Monday’s ceremony. Weeks earlier, one of his ruling party lawmakers Shoji Nishida, known for whitewashing Japan’s wartime atrocities, denounced an inscription on a famous cenotaph dedicated to students as “rewriting history” by portraying the Japanese army as having caused their deaths, while Americans liberated Okinawa. Nishida also called Okinawa’s history education “a mess.”
His remark triggered an uproar in Okinawa, forcing Ishiba days later to apologize to the island’s governor, who had criticized the remark as outrageous and distorting history.
The Himeyuri Cenotaph commemorates student nurses who were abandoned near the end of the battle and killed, some in group suicides with teachers. Japan’s wartime military told the people never to surrender to the enemy, or die.
Nishida’s remarks add to concerns about the whitewashing of Japan’s embarrassing wartime past as memories of the tragedy fade and ignorance about the suffering grows.
Ishiba, at Monday’s memorial, said Japan’s peace and prosperity is built on the sacrifices of Okinawa’s history of hardship and that it is the government’s responsibility to “devote ourselves to achieve a peaceful and prosperous Okinawa.”
Postwar years and growing fear
Okinawa remained under US occupation from 1945 until the 1972 reversion to Japan. The US military maintains a heavy presence there due to Okinawa’s strategic importance for security in the Pacific. Their presence serves not only to help defend Japan but also for missions elsewhere, including in the South China Sea and the Middle East.
Private properties were confiscated to build US bases, and the base-dependent economy has hampered the growth of local industry.
Fear of a Taiwan conflict rekindles bitter memories of the Battle of Okinawa. Historians and many residents say Okinawa was used as a pawn to save mainland Japan.
There are also ancient tensions between Okinawa and the Japanese mainland, which annexed the islands, formerly the independent kingdom of the Ryukus, in 1879.
Burden of history
Okinawa remains home to the majority of about 50,000 US troops stationed in Japan under a bilateral security pact. The island, which accounts for only 0.6 percent of Japanese land, hosts 70 percent of US military facilities.
Even 53 years after its reversion to Japan, Okinawa is burdened with the heavy US presence and faces noise, pollution, aircraft accidents and crime related to American troops, the governor said.
Nearly 2,000 tons of unexploded US bombs remain in Okinawa, with some regularly dug up. A recent explosion at a storage site at a US military base caused minor injuries to four Japanese soldiers.
Remains of hundreds of war dead are still unrecovered on Okinawa, as the government’s search and identification effort is slow to make progress.

Pakistan condemns Trump for bombing Iran a day after recommending him for a Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistan condemns Trump for bombing Iran a day after recommending him for a Nobel Peace Prize
Updated 10 min 10 sec ago
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Pakistan condemns Trump for bombing Iran a day after recommending him for a Nobel Peace Prize

Pakistan condemns Trump for bombing Iran a day after recommending him for a Nobel Peace Prize
  • Pakistan condemned the US for attacking Iran, saying the strikes “constituted a serious violation of international law” and the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan condemned US President Donald Trump for bombing Iran, less than 24 hours after saying he deserved a Nobel Peace Prize for defusing a recent crisis with India.
Relations between the two South Asian countries plummeted after a massacre of tourists in Indian-controlled Kashmir in April. The nuclear-armed rivals stepped closer to war in the weeks that followed, attacking each other until intense diplomatic efforts, led by the US, resulted in a truce for which Trump took credit.
It was this “decisive diplomatic intervention and pivotal leadership” that Pakistan praised in an effusive message Saturday night on the X platform when it announced its formal recommendation for him to receive the Nobel Peace Prize.
Less than 24 hours later, however, it condemned the US for attacking Iran, saying the strikes “constituted a serious violation of international law” and the statute of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, in a phone call Sunday with Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian, expressed his concern that the bombings had targeted facilities that were under the safeguards of the IAEA. Pakistan has close ties with Iran and supports its attacks on Israel, saying it has the right to self-defense.
There was no immediate comment on Monday from Islamabad about the Trump Nobel recommendation, which also followed a high-profile White House lunch meeting between the president and Pakistan’s powerful army chief, Asim Munir.
Thursday’s meeting, which lasted more than two hours, was also attended by the Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Steve Witkoff, the US Special Representative for Middle Eastern Affairs.
According to a Pakistani military statement, a detailed exchange of views took place on the “prevailing tensions between Iran and Israel, with both leaders emphasizing the importance of the resolution of the conflict.”
While Pakistan was quick to thank Trump for his intervention in its crisis with India, New Delhi played it down and said there was no need for external mediation on the Kashmir issue.
The Himalayan region of Kashmir is divided between Pakistan and India but claimed by both in its entirety. India accuses Pakistan of backing militant groups in the region, which Pakistan denies.


Thailand heads into political turbulence as Cambodia row festers

Thailand heads into political turbulence as Cambodia row festers
Updated 22 min 44 sec ago
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Thailand heads into political turbulence as Cambodia row festers

Thailand heads into political turbulence as Cambodia row festers
  • Thai Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has come under fire after a phone call between her and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen to diffuse a long-festering border dispute became public last Wednesday

BANGKOK: Thailand’s government said on Monday it would push ahead with a cabinet reshuffle this week, facing down a backlash against its handling of a border row with Cambodia that has left Prime Minister Paetongtarn Shinawatra hanging on to power by a thread.
Tensions with Thailand and Cambodia remain elevated, with the Southeast Asian neighbors announcing tit-for-tat measures that are stoking nationalist fervor on both sides and stymieing bilateral trade, including a suspension by Phnom Penh of all Thai fuel and gas imports that came into effect on Monday.
In Bangkok, days after the parliamentary majority of the ruling coalition led by Paetongtarn’s Pheu Thai party was threatened by the exit of a major alliance member, Deputy Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai sought to project unity.
“I’m 100 percent confident that we will move ahead strongly after the cabinet reshuffle is completed this week,” he told reporters.
“You will see a new way of working that’s different from before.”
Paetongtarn, a 38-year-old political novice and daughter of divisive former Prime Minister Thaksin Shinawatra, has come under fire after a phone call between her and former Cambodian leader Hun Sen to diffuse a long-festering border dispute became public last Wednesday.
In the audio, which was released in full by Hun Sen after the initial leak of a clip, the Thai premier appears to grovel before the Cambodian politician and also denigrates a senior Thai military commander in charge of the disputed border area.
Hours after the audio became public, the second-largest coalition member, the Bhumjaithai Party, quit the government, putting its parliamentary majority and Paetongtarn’s premiership under threat.
Pheu Thai has managed to hold the remainder of its coalition together, with the cabinet reshuffle meant to redistribute ministerial positions previously held by Bhumjaithai.
The coalition’s stability will be tested in parliament, which reconvenes next week, and on the streets as anti-government groups plan a major protest to call for the prime minister’s resignation which will start on Saturday.
Adding to the pressure, Paetongtarn also faces scrutiny from the judiciary after a group of senators seeking her removal petitioned the Constitutional Court and an anti-graft body to investigate her conduct over the leaked phone call.
“The government cannot take anything for granted,” said Titipol Phakdeewanich, a political science professor at Ubon Ratchathani University.
“There’s more instability ahead.”

TRADE UNDER THREAT
At the root of the current crisis for Paetongtarn and Pheu Thai is a historic border dispute with Cambodia, which has previously led to violent clashes, including the death of a Cambodian soldier during a skirmish last month.
Partly banking on strong ties between the Shinawatra family and Hun Sen, the government initially pushed for a diplomatic solution to the flare-up, even as Cambodia moved to petition the International Court of Justice to resolve the matter.
However, the unexpected release of the audio not only brought the Thai government to the brink, it has also led to a further deterioration in relations between the neighbors.
Hun Manet, Cambodia’s prime minister and Hun Sen’s son, said on Sunday that his administration would stop all fuel and gas imports from Thailand, following an earlier move to stall the entry of some Thai agricultural produce.
“Fuel supply companies in Cambodia are able to import sufficiently from other sources to meet domestic fuel and gas demands,” he said in a post on Facebook.
For its part, the Thai government has handed over control of border crossings along the Cambodian frontier to its military, which has tightened entry restrictions and shut down one crossing point, citing security concerns.
Cambodia was Thailand’s 11th largest export market last year, with $10.4 billion in bilateral trade between the neighbors, dominated by precious stones, jewelry and fuels, according to Thai government data.
And more than half a million Cambodian workers are employed in Thailand, according to the Thai Labour Ministry.
“The Cambodia situation is complex; it isn’t about just a conflict between the two countries,” said Titipol, “There is also a Hun-Shinawatra dimension that could still shake the government.”


President Lee picks South Korea’s first civilian defense chief in 64 years

President Lee picks South Korea’s first civilian defense chief in 64 years
Updated 23 June 2025
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President Lee picks South Korea’s first civilian defense chief in 64 years

President Lee picks South Korea’s first civilian defense chief in 64 years

SEOUL: South Korean President Lee Jae Myung nominated a five-term liberal lawmaker as defense minister Monday, breaking with a tradition of appointing retired military generals.
The announcement came as several prominent former defense officials, including ex-Defense Minister Kim Yong Hyun, face high-profile criminal trials over their roles in carrying out martial law last year under then-President Yoon Suk Yeol, who was indicted on rebellion charges and removed from office.
Ahn Gyu-back, a lawmaker from Lee’s Democratic Party, has served on the National Assembly’s defense committee and chaired a legislative panel that investigated the circumstances surrounding Yoon’s martial law decree.
Yoon’s authoritarian move involved deploying hundreds of heavily armed troops to the National Assembly and election commission offices in what prosecutors described as an illegal attempt to shut down the legislature and arrest political opponents and election officials.
That sparked calls to strengthen civilian control over the military, and Lee promised during his election campaign to appoint a defense minister with a civilian background.
Since a 1961 coup that brought military dictator Park Chung-hee to power, all of South Korea’s defense ministers have come from the military — a trend that continued even after the country’s democratization in the late 1980s.
While Ahn will face a legislative hearing, the process is likely to be a formality, since the Democrats hold a comfortable majority in the National Assembly and legislative consent isn’t required for Lee to appoint him. Among Cabinet appointments, Lee only needs legislative consent for prime minister, Seoul’s nominal No. 2 job.
“As the first civilian Minister of National Defense in 64 years, he will be responsible for leading and overseeing the transformation of the military after its mobilization in martial law,” Kang Hoon-sik, Lee’s chief of staff, said in a briefing.
Ahn was among 11 ministers nominated by Lee on Monday, with longtime diplomat Cho Hyun selected as foreign minister and five-term lawmaker Chung Dong-young returning for another stint as unification minister — a position he held from 2004 to 2005 as Seoul’s point man for relations with North Korea.


Tokyo voters punish Japan ruling party ahead of national election

Tokyo voters punish Japan ruling party ahead of national election
Updated 23 June 2025
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Tokyo voters punish Japan ruling party ahead of national election

Tokyo voters punish Japan ruling party ahead of national election
  • Public support for PM Ishiba has been at rock bottom for months, partly because of high inflation, with rice prices doubling over the past year

TOKYO: Voters in Tokyo knocked Japan’s ruling party from its position as the largest group in the city assembly, results showed Monday, a warning sign for Prime Minister Shigeru Ishiba’s unpopular government before July elections.
Japanese media said it was a record-low result in the key local ballot for the Liberal Democratic Party (LDP), which has led the country almost continuously since 1955.
Public support for Ishiba, who took office in October, has been at rock-bottom for months, partly because of high inflation, with rice prices doubling over the past year.
The LDP took 21 Tokyo assembly seats in Sunday’s vote, including three won by candidates previously affiliated with the party but not officially endorsed following a political funding scandal.
This breaks the party’s previous record low of 23 seats from 2017, according to the Asahi Shimbun and other local media.
Ishiba described the results as a “very harsh judgment.”
“We will study what part of our campaign pledge failed to resonate with voters and ensure we learn from this,” he told reporters on Monday.
Tomin First no Kai, founded by Tokyo governor Yuriko Koike, increased its seats in the 127-member assembly to 31, becoming the largest party.
The funding scandal “may have affected” the result, Shinji Inoue, head of the LDP’s Tokyo chapter, said Sunday as exit polls were released.
Policies to address inflation “didn’t reach voters’ ears very well” with opposition parties also pledging to tackle the issue, Inoue said.


Within weeks Ishiba will face elections for parliament’s upper house, with reports saying the national ballot could be held on July 20.
Voters angry with rising prices and political scandals deprived Ishiba’s LDP and its junior coalition partner of a majority in the powerful lower house in October, marking the party’s worst general election result in 15 years.
Polls this month showed a slight uptick in support, however, thanks in part to policies to tackle high rice prices.
Several factors lie behind recent shortages of rice at Japanese shops, including an intensely hot and dry summer two years ago that damaged harvests nationwide, and panic-buying after a “mega-quake” warning last year.
Some traders have been hoarding rice in a bid to boost their profits down the line, experts say.
Not including volatile fresh food, goods and energy in Japan were 3.7 percent higher in May than a year earlier.
To help households combat the cost of living, Ishiba has pledged cash handouts of 20,000 yen ($139) for every citizen ahead of the upper house election.


Masahisa Endo, a politics professor at Waseda University, described the Tokyo assembly result as “severe” for the ruling party.
“Tokyo is not a stronghold for the LDP, but it’s possible that its support is weakening across the nation,” he said.
Even if Ishiba fails to win an upper-house majority, it is hard to see who would want to take his place, while Japan’s opposition parties are too divided to mount a credible challenge to the LDP’s power, Endo told AFP.
The opposition Democratic Party For the People (DPP) won seats for the first time in the Tokyo assembly vote, securing nine.
The DPP’s campaign pledge for the July election includes sales tax cuts to boost household incomes.
Sunday’s voter turnout rate was 47.6 percent, compared to the 42.4 percent four years ago, according to local media.
A record 295 candidates ran — the highest since 1997, including 99 women candidates, also a record high.
The number of women assembly members rose to 45 from 41, results showed.