Headline

Ukraine Offers Russia Peace To End Conflict

Published

1 year ago

August 13, 2024

Ukraine said Tuesday it would not hold on to Russian territory captured in its surprise cross-border incursion and offered to stop raids if Moscow agreed a “just peace”.

Ukrainian forces entered Russia’s Kursk region last Tuesday, taking over two dozen settlements in the biggest attack by a foreign army on Russian soil since World War II. Russia said Tuesday it had fended off new attacks in Kursk.

More than 120,000 people have fled the area and Ukraine’s military chief Oleksandr Syrsky said Monday that his troops controlled about 1,000 square kilometres of Russian territory.

At least 800 square kilometres was under Ukrainian control as of Monday, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War.

Foreign ministry spokesman Georgiy Tykhy on Tuesday said Kyiv was not interested in “taking over” Russian territory and defended Ukraine’s actions as “absolutely legitimate”.

“The sooner Russia agrees to restore a just peace… the sooner the raids by the Ukrainian defences forces into Russia will stop,” he told reporters.

Ukraine meanwhile said it was imposing movement restrictions in a 20-kilometre zone in Sumy region along the border with Kursk region due to an “increase in the intensity of hostilities” and “sabotage” activities.

Russia’s defence ministry said it had “foiled” new Ukrainian attacks in Kursk by “enemy mobile groups in armoured vehicles to break through deep into Russian territory”.

Alexander Bortnikov, head of Russia’s FSB security service, also said in a statement that Ukraine had carried out the attack “with the support of the collective West”.

• ‘I saw a lot of death’ –

Since launching its invasion in February 2022, Russia has captured territory in southern and eastern Ukraine and subjected Ukrainian cities to missile and drone barrages.

Ukraine’s offensive was the biggest cross-border action since the invasion and it caught Russia off guard.

“They didn’t protect the border,” a Ukrainian serviceman who took part in the offensive and identified himself as Ruzhyk told AFP in Sumy region.

“They only had anti-personnel mines scattered around trees at the side of the road and a few mines that they managed to quickly throw along the highways,” he said.

A 27-year-old squad leader, who identified himself as Faraon, was sparing but direct in his description of battles in Kursk.

“I saw a lot of death in the first few days. It was terrifying at first but then we got used to it,” he told AFP.

“There have been many deaths,” he repeated stood next to a forest road leading to the frontier, without elaborating.

Ukrainian military analyst Mykola Bielieskov told AFP: “Russian complacency prevailed”.

“Russia assumed that since it had initiative elsewhere, Ukraine wouldn’t dare to do things we’ve seen,” he said, referring to months of Russian advances along the front.

ISW figures also showed that Russian troops had captured 1,360 square kilometres of Ukrainian territory since the start of 2024.

• ‘Sow discord’ –

Russian President Vladimir Putin has vowed to “dislodge” Ukrainian troops.

Putin told a televised meeting with officials on Monday that “one of the obvious goals of the enemy is to sow discord” and “destroy the unity and cohesion of Russian society”.

Putin also said Ukraine wanted to “improve its negotiating position” for any future talks with Moscow.

Regional governor Alexei Smirnov told the same meeting that Ukrainian forces had entered at least 12 kilometres into the region and the new front was now 40 kilometres wide.

Russia had conceded earlier that Ukrainian forces had penetrated up to 30 kilometres (20 miles) into Russian territory in places.

A Ukrainian security official told AFP, on condition of anonymity, at the weekend, that Ukraine sought to “stretch the positions of the enemy, to inflict maximum losses and to destabilise the situation in Russia as they are unable to protect their own border”.

The Ukrainian official said thousands of Ukrainian troops were involved in the operation.

Headline

42 Killed In Israeli Attacks, Says Gaza’s Civil Defense

Published

14 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Gaza’s civil defence agency reported at least 42 people killed in Israeli attacks on Sunday, as the Israeli army prepared for a new assault on the Palestinian territory’s largest city.

Civil defence spokesman Mahmud Bassal said there had been several air strikes around Gaza City — which the military is gearing up to capture — including one in the Al-Sabra neighbourhood that killed eight people.

Attacks were also reported elsewhere across the territory, he said, with the “total tally currently rising to 42 dead”.

The army did not immediately respond to a request for comment on the figure.

“The situation is extremely dangerous… Each day, each minute, there are bombings, martyrs, death and blood — we can’t take it anymore,” Al-Sabra resident Ibrahim Al-Shurafa told AFP, explaining strikes and shelling were ongoing.

“We don’t know where to go. Death follows us everywhere,” he added.

Media restrictions in Gaza and difficulties in accessing many areas mean AFP is unable to independently verify the tolls and details provided by the civil defence agency or the Israeli military.

The October 2023 Hamas attack on Israel that sparked the war resulted in the deaths of 1,219 people, mostly civilians, according to an AFP tally based on official figures.

Israel’s offensive has killed at least 62,686 Palestinians, most of them civilians, according to figures from the health ministry in Hamas-run Gaza that the United Nations considers reliable.

AFP

Headline

Venezuela Frees Eight Opposition Leaders

Published

15 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Venezuelan authorities released eight opposition leaders from jail early Sunday, including a former congressman and two Italian citizens, and granted house arrest to five others, an opposition politician said.

Most of those released had been charged with corruption in opposition-run mayoral offices.

Also set free was Congressman, Amirico de Grazia, detained amid protests that erupted during President Nicolas Maduro’s reelection in 2024.

“Today, several families are once again embracing their loved ones. We know there are many left, and we have not forgotten them; we continue to fight for everyone,” two-time former presidential candidate Henrique Capriles said on X.

Opposition leaders Victor Jurado, Simon Vargas, Arelis Ojeda Escalante, Mayra Castro, Diana Berrio, Gorka Carnevalli, as well as Italian nationals Margarita Assenzo and de Grazia were released, Capriles said.

Nabil Maalouf, Valentin Gutierrez Pineda, Rafael Ramirez, Pedro Guanipa, and David Barroso were placed under house arrest.

The Italian government confirmed the release of de Grazia and Assenzo, who must appear in court to clarify the conditions of their release. It also vowed to continue working on securing the release of other detained Italians.

“We have always said, and we maintain it: we will talk to whomever we need to talk to so that there is not a single political prisoner in our Venezuela!” Capriles added.

AFP

Headline

Russia, Ukraine Exchange Prisoners Of War, Civilians

Published

15 hours ago

August 24, 2025

Editor

Russia and Ukraine each sent back more prisoners of war on Sunday in the latest in a series of exchanges that have seen hundreds of POWs released this year, the two sides said.

Large-scale prisoner exchanges were the only tangible result of three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine in Istanbul between May and July.

They remain one of the few areas of cooperation between the two countries since Russia’s offensive began in 2022.

“On August 24, 146 Russian servicemen were returned from the territory controlled” by Kyiv, the Russian defence ministry said on Telegram.

“In exchange, 146 prisoners of war of the Ukrainian Armed Forces were transferred” to Ukraine, it added. Ukraine did not confirm any figures for the release.

Russia also said that “eight citizens of the Russian Federation—residents of the Kursk region, illegally detained” by Kyiv were also returned.

Ukrainian forces launched a surprise incursion into Russia’s Kursk region in August last year, seizing hundreds of square kilometres (miles) of territory in a major setback for the Kremlin.

Russia deployed thousands of troops from its ally North Korea as part of a counterattack but did not fully reclaim the region until April.

Among the Ukrainians released on Sunday was journalist Dmytro Khyliuk, President Volodymyr Zelensky said.

Khyliuk was kidnapped in the Kyiv region in March 2022. He is finally home in Ukraine,” Zelensky said on social media.

Also freed was former Kherson mayor Volodymyr Mykolayenko, “who spent more than three years in captivity,” Zelensky’s aide Andriy Yermak wrote on X.

“In 2022, he was on the list for return, but Volodymyr voluntarily refused to be exchanged in favour of a seriously ill prisoner with whom he was sharing a cell in a Russian prison,” Yermak said.

AFP