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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin is seeking to “manipulate” Donald Trump after Putin praised the US leader and said he was open to talks with him. “He wants to manipulate the desire of the President of the United States of America to achieve peace,” Zelensky said during his daily evening address on Friday. He said Putin was ready to continue the war and “manipulate world leaders”.
Putin said he is “ready to negotiate” on the war in Ukraine with Donald Trump and suggested that it would be a good idea for them to meet. The Russian president struck a favorable tone toward his American counterpart, describing his relationship with Trump as “businesslike, pragmatic and reliable.” Putin repeated the US president’s claim that he would have prevented the war in Ukraine from starting in 2022, and echoed Trump’s debunked claim that the 2020 US election were “stolen” by him.
US Secretary of State Marco Rubio did ordered a freeze on almost all US foreign aidbut made an exception for funding Israel and Egypt, according to an internal memo to US State Department staff. The sweeping order appears to affect everything from development aid to military aid — including potentially to Ukraine, which received billions of dollars in arms from Donald Trump’s predecessor, Joe Biden, as it tries to fend off a Russian invasion. The scope of the order was not immediately known, and it was unclear what funding might be cut, given that the U.S. Congress sets the federal government’s budget.
North Korea prepares to send more troops to fight in Ukraine military officials in South Korea saiddespite reports of heavy losses among troops from the communist state. South Korea’s Joint Chiefs of Staff said in a statement on Friday that four months after the North sent an estimated 11,000 troops to the conflict in Ukraine – a significant number of whom were killed or wounded – the regime “is suspected of accelerating follow-up and preparations for additional deployment of troops”.
Russian airstrikes near Kiev killed three people and wounded several others, Ukrainian officials said on Friday. “Three people were killed in an enemy attack in the Kyiv region,” emergency services said in a statement on social media. Fragments of a drone hit a 10-story apartment building after the regional chief said a private home was also hit, he added.
A Ukrainian overnight attack involving more than 121 drones targeted 13 Russian regions, the Russian Defense Ministry said on Friday, but they were repulsed. The Ukrainian military said the attack hit a Russian oil refinery and microchip factory in the Bryansk region, with video posted online showing a huge plume of smoke and flames engulfing an oil refinery in the Ryazan region.
Tens of thousands of protesters gathered in a central square in the Slovak capital Bratislava on Friday, waving banners opposing Prime Minister Robert Fico’s policy rapprochement with Russia. Last week, opposition parties said they were launching a no-confidence vote against Fitzo’s government, but it appeared the prime minister would survive the vote. The latest round of protests came after Fico traveled privately to Moscow in December to meet Vladimir Putin, a rare meeting for an EU leader since Russia invaded Ukraine in 2022.
US military equipment sales to foreign governments in 2024 rose 29 percent to a record $318.7 billion as countries seek to replenish supplies sent to Ukraine and prepare for major conflict, the U.S. State Department said Friday. Sales approved during the year include F-16 fighter jets worth $23 billion. dollars for Turkey, F-15 fighters worth 18.8 billion dollars to Israel and M1A2 Abrams tanks worth 2.5 billion dollars for Romania.
