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Zelensky Rejects Land-for-peace Deal Ahead Of Trump-Putin Alaska Summit

Published

4 weeks ago

August 9, 2025

Ukraine won’t surrender land to Russia to buy peace, President Volodymyr Zelensky warned, on Saturday, after Washington and Moscow agreed to hold a summit in a bid to end the war.

Presidents Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump will meet in the US state of Alaska next Friday to try to resolve the three-year conflict, despite warnings from Ukraine and Europe that Kyiv must be part of the negotiations.

Announcing the summit on Friday, Trump said that “there’ll be some swapping of territories to the betterment of both” sides, without providing further details.

“Ukrainians will not give their land to the occupier,” Zelensky said on social media hours later.

“Any decisions against us, any decisions without Ukraine, are also decisions against peace. They will achieve nothing,” he said, adding that the war “cannot be ended without us, without Ukraine”.

Zelensky also urged Ukraine’s allies to take “clear steps” towards achieving a sustainable peace during a call with Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer.

National security advisors from Kyiv’s allies — including the United States, EU nations, and the UK — were gathering in Britain on Saturday to align their views ahead of the Putin-Trump summit.

French President Emmanuel Macron, following phone calls with Zelensky, Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz, said “the future of Ukraine cannot be decided without Ukrainians” and that Europe also had to be involved in the negotiations.

Later Saturday, in his evening address, Zelensky added: “There must be an honest end to this war, and it is up to Russia to end the war it started.”

– A ‘dignified peace’ –

Three rounds of talks between Russia and Ukraine this year have failed to bear fruit, and it remains unclear whether a summit could bring peace any closer as the warring sides’ positions are still far apart.

Tens of thousands of people have been killed since Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022, with millions forced to flee their homes.

Putin has resisted multiple calls from the United States, Europe, and Kyiv for a ceasefire.

Putin, a former KGB officer in power in Russia for over 25 years, has ruled out holding talks with Zelensky at this stage.

Ukraine’s leader has been pushing for a three-way summit and has frequently said meeting Putin is the only way to make progress towards peace.

– Far from the war –

The summit in Alaska, the far-north territory which Russia sold to the United States in 1867, would be the first between sitting US and Russian presidents since Joe Biden met Putin in Geneva in June 2021.

Nine months later, Moscow sent troops into Ukraine.

Zelensky said of the location that it was “very far away from this war, which is raging on our land, against our people”.

The Kremlin said the choice was “logical” because the state close to the Arctic is on the border between the two countries, and this is where their “economic interests intersect”.

Moscow has also invited Trump to pay a reciprocal visit to Russia later.

Trump and Putin last sat together in 2019 at a G20 summit meeting in Japan during Trump’s first term. They have spoken by telephone several times since January, with Trump trying to broker peace in Ukraine without making a breakthrough.

On Friday, Putin held a round of calls with allies, including Brazil, China, and India, in a diplomatic flurry ahead of the Alaska summit.

In a 40-minute phone conversation Saturday between Putin and President Luiz Inacio Lula da Silva, the Brazilian leader reiterated his support for dialogue “and the pursuit of a peaceful solution”, his office said.

The US president had earlier imposed an additional tariff on India for buying Russia’s oil in a bid to nudge Moscow into talks. He also threatened to impose a similar tax on China, but so far has refrained from doing so.

– Fighting goes on –

Russia and Ukraine continued pouring dozens of drones onto each other’s positions in an exchange of attacks in the early hours of Saturday.

A bus carrying civilians was hit in Ukraine’s frontline city of Kherson, killing two people and wounding 16.

The Russian army claimed to have taken Yablonovka, another village in the Donetsk region, the site of the most intense fighting in the east and one of the five regions Putin says is part of Russia.

Four people were killed as of Saturday morning in Donetsk after Russian shelling, Ukrainian authorities said.

In 2022, the Kremlin announced the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — Donetsk, Lugansk, Zaporizhzhia, and Kherson — despite not having full control over them.

Russia had previously annexed the Crimean peninsula from Ukraine in 2014.

As a prerequisite to any peace settlement, Moscow demanded Kyiv pull its forces out of the regions and commit to being a neutral state, shun Western military support, and be excluded from joining NATO.

Kyiv said it would never recognise Russian control over its sovereign territory, though it acknowledged that getting land captured by Russia back would have to come through diplomacy, not on the battlefield.

Headline

US Commits $32.5m To Support Food Security In Nigeria

Published

5 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

The United States Government has committed $32.5m to the United Nations World Food Programme to support food and nutrition assistance for hundreds of thousands of people affected by conflict in Nigeria.

According to a statement released by the US Embassy in Abuja on Wednesday, the funding will enable WFP Nigeria to reach approximately 764,205 vulnerable individuals in the Northeast and Northwest regions of the country.

These areas have been severely impacted by ongoing insecurity and displacement, with millions struggling to access necessities.

The assistance package includes general food distributions as well as targeted nutritional support.

Among the beneficiaries are 41,569 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls, and 43,235 children who will receive specialised nutrition support through electronic food vouchers, according to the statement.

“World Food Program Nigeria, with US Government’s contribution of $32.5m, will provide food assistance and nutrition support to internally displaced persons across conflict-affected areas.

“With the US Government’s donation, the World Food Programme Nigeria will provide food and nutrition assistance to 764,205 beneficiaries across Northeast and Northwest Nigeria.

“This includes complementary nutrition top-ups for 41,569 pregnant and breastfeeding women and girls and 43,235 children through electronic food vouchers,” the statement read.

On December 18, 2024, PUNCH Online reported that the United States Agency for International Development has denounced recent media reports misrepresenting US agricultural initiatives in Nigeria, stating that its programmes operate transparently and align with the country’s laws.

In a statement issued by the US Mission in Nigeria, USAID highlighted the significant achievements of its agricultural collaboration with Nigeria, which it claimed has supported over five million Nigerian farmers since 2019.

The agency maintained it has boosted food production and strengthened rural economies across the country through its efforts.

Headline

UK To Ban Sale Of Energy Drinks To Children

Published

7 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

The United Kingdom government has unveiled plans to prohibit the sale of high-caffeine energy drinks, including popular brands such as Red Bull, to anyone under the age of 16 in England.

Health Secretary, Wes Streeting, announcing the move on Wednesday, said the step was aimed at safeguarding young people’s wellbeing.

“By stopping children from buying these drinks, we’re laying the groundwork for healthier and happier generations,” he explained.

Government figures suggest that up to one in three teenagers aged 13 to 16 regularly consume energy drinks, many of which contain more caffeine than two cups of coffee.

While most major supermarkets already enforce a voluntary restriction, the new policy would make it a nationwide rule.

“How can we expect pupils to thrive in the classroom if they’re running on the equivalent of a double espresso every day?” Streeting asked, stressing that the government was responding to concerns raised by parents and teachers. “We’re determined to address the root causes of poor health and educational struggles head-on.”

Headline

Indian Man Gets Death Sentence For Burning Wife Alive Over Skin Colour

Published

7 hours ago

September 3, 2025

Editor

A court in India recently sentenced a man to death for setting his wife, Lakshmi, ablaze alive due to her dark skin colour. This harsh punishment reflects the gravity of the crime and its impact on society.

As reported by BBC on Wednesday, the attack on Lakshmi took place on the night of 24 June 2017, the murder dates eight years back, and the judgment, delivered at the weekend, has made headlines in a country where public obsession with colourism is well documented.

The attack on Lakshmi took place on the night of 24 June 2017, according to the court order seen by the BBC.

Before her death, Lakshmi revealed that her husband, Kishandas, frequently mocked her for being dark-skinned, calling her “kali” and body-shaming her since their marriage in 2016.

On the night of her attack, Kishandas brought a plastic bottle containing a brown liquid, purportedly a skin-lightening medicine.

According to Lakshmi’s statements, he applied the liquid on her body, and when she complained about a strong acid-like smell, he set her on fire with an incense stick.

Adding to the cruelty, Kishandas poured the remaining liquid on her while she was burning and then fled. Her family rushed her to the hospital, but she later died from her injuries.

The judge, Rahul Choudhary, condemned the act as not only a murder but “a crime against humanity,” stressing that Kishandas “broke her trust” and showed “excessive cruelty in throwing the remaining liquid on her” while she burned.

He described the case as fitting the “rarest of the rare” category, saying, “It will not be an exaggeration to say that this heart-rending brutal crime was not just against Lakshmi, but it’s a crime against humanity.”

He added, “It’s a crime that shocks the conscience of humanity, which cannot even be imagined in a healthy and civilised society.”

The public prosecutor called the verdict “historic,” hoping it would serve as “a lesson for others in society.”

He said, “A young woman in her early 20s was brutally murdered. She was someone’s sister, someone’s daughter; there were people who loved her. If we don’t save our daughters, then who would?”

This tragic story highlights the deep-rooted issue of colourism, where darker-skinned women face widespread discrimination and abuse.

Despite ongoing campaigns to challenge these prejudices, the preference for fair skin remains strongly embedded in many areas of life, continuing to cause immense harm. Until societal attitudes change, such heartbreaking incidents are likely to persist.