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Zelensky said negotiations on minerals deal is “positive” as Trump’s administration reportedly reduced estimate of US aid provided to Kyiv to about $100 billion from $300 billion
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The US has slashed its demands for the payback of aid by Ukraine during talks over an economic deal between the two nations.
Following a round of negotiations in Washington last week, Donald Trump‘s administration reduced its estimate of US aid provided to Kyiv to about $100 billion from $300 billion, sources told Bloomberg.
Trump sees the deal – which would allow the US to share profits on Ukraine’s rare minerals – as a means to recover the billions of dollars spent on aid in Ukraine.
Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Odesa president Volodymyr Zelensky said the negotiations on the minerals deal are “positive”.
“When the teams are ready, they will present what they have worked out. So far, both sides have ended the meetings in a positive mood,” Zelensky said.
The talks come after months of stalled negotiations over a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical raw materials.
Meanwhile, Russia launched a “massive” overnight drone attack on the Black Sea port city of Odesa damaging residential buildings and warehouses.
It came just hours after Nato secretary-general visited the region alongside Volodymyr Zelensky.
Vladimir Putin is set to discuss Ukraine with Qatar’s Emir Sheikh Tamim bin Hamad Al-Thani when they meet in Moscow today, the Kremlin said.
“There will definitely be an exchange of views between Putin and the Emir of Qatar on Ukrainian affairs,” Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
“There will also be an exchange of views on regional affairs.
“The region is replete with conflict potential. And Qatar plays a very big and important role in attempts to resolve many situations,” Peskov said.
Qatar has made a series of attempts to mediate between Russia and Ukraine, and has helped arrange the return of children from both countries who were separated from their parents during the war.
“We highly appreciate the potential and current level of our trade and economic cooperation and, of course, our confidential dialogue on many topics, including the most sensitive ones.”
Young Ukrainian civilians with the ‘Centuria’ organisation take part in tactical training in Kyiv Oblast, Ukraine, on Tuesday.
Founded in 2020 by veterans of the Azov Brigade, Centuria provides a space for youth aged 14 and above who are interested in defending Ukraine to gain military and combat medical training, with a focus on national identity.
The training sessions do not involve live ammunition. The organisation says it has over 3,000 members and branches in several Ukrainian cities.
The Danish Armed Forces are planning to send Danish soldiers to Ukraine for training.
The soldiers will be unarmed and drawn from various military regiments, Ukrainska Pravda reported.
“In my 42 years of service in the armed forces, I have never seen events develop so quickly,” said Major General Peter Boysen, after observing the training of a reconnaissance regiment using advanced attack drones similar to those deployed on the front line in Ukraine.
Boysen asserts that the adoption of new weapons systems and warfare methods by the Danish Armed Forces stems from his two recent visits to Ukraine.
He now aims to accelerate the process by sending more teams of Danish soldiers to training camps in Ukraine.
People hang a sign on the medieval Charles Bridge in Prague, Czech Republic.
“Trump is Putins servant,” it states.
Russian glide bombs and artillery struck a city in southern Ukraine, killing one person and wounding five others.
The city of Kherson was struck with glide bombs on Wednesday morning, and when rescue teams arrived at the scene, Russian forces launched an artillery barrage, said the region’s head, Oleksandr Prokudin.
“This is a deliberate tactic by Russia to hinder the rescue of the injured and harm doctors, rescuers, and police,” he said.
The attack damaged a sports facility, a supermarket, residential buildings and civilian vehicles, Prokudin added.
Russia‘s overnight drone attack hit infrastructure in Odesa, Ukraine, video released on Wednesday, 16 April shows.
Smoke billowed from wreckage as rescuers doused a building hit in the attack.
The strike on the Black Sea port city also damaged residential buildings and warehouses, Ukrainian officials from the region said.
Three people were injured and several fires broke out in the city as a result of the attack, Ukraine’s emergency service.
Russia did not immediately comment on the attack.
Both Ukraine and Russia deny targeting civilians in the war that Russia started with Putin’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine more than three years ago.
The Italian government has transferred the first 25 million euros ($28.3 million) instalment to help rebuild Ukraine’s war-damaged energy infrastructure.
Its part of a broader 200 million euros (around $227 million) initiative co-financed by the European Bank for Reconstruction and Development (EBRD).
The project aims to restore energy access, reinforce critical power grids, and ensure delivery of essential services in the hardest-hit regions, the Italian Embassy in Ukraine told the Kyiv Independent.
“This first financing is a concrete signal of Italy’s strong support for Ukraine’s energy sector, which has been severely tested by the war,” said Italian Ambassador to Ukraine Carlo Formosa.
President Volodymyr Zelensky said negotiations on a key minerals agreement with the US is “positive”, following a round of technical consultations held in Washington.
Speaking alongside NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte in Odesa on Tuesday, Zelensky noted that working-level meetings would continue through the end of the week.
“When the teams are ready, they will present what they have worked out. So far, both sides have ended the meetings in a positive mood,” Zelensky said.
The talks come after months of stalled negotiations over a deal that would give the US access to Ukraine’s vast reserves of critical raw materials.
What could possess Donald Trump to victim-shame Ukraine’s president and endorse the actions of an indicted war criminal by backing Vladimir Putin? Personal hatred of Volodymyr Zelensky? A near-demented obsession with personal sleight? A radical strategic vision that’s upended world affairs? Something worse? Probably.
Soon after the massacre in Sumy, where two Iskander missiles slammed into the provincial Ukrainian capital killing 35 people, including two children, Trump sloughed off the atrocity by claiming it had been a Russian mistake.
Shocking, but not surprising, as Trump has consistently taken the Russian side at every opportunity this year.
Before most of the bodies could be collected from the city morgue, though, he had gone on the offensive by doubling down on his efforts to pin Ukraine’s suffering on its president.
“When you start a war, you got to know you can win,” he said of Ukraine’s leader.
Read more by Sam Kiley here:
Ukraine’s parliament voted on Wednesday to extend martial law until August 6, a senior lawmaker said.
An overwhelming majority of 357 deputies supported the extension, which allows the country to continue mobilising troops and suspends the election cycle.
One lawmaker voted against the bill.
This marks the 15th vote by the Ukrainian parliament to extend martial law and mobilisation since the start of the full-scale invasion.
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Ukraine-Russia war latest: Trump ‘slashes Kyiv repayments bill’ to open up minerals deal – The Independent
