Kremlin on Ukraine peace talks: Do not expect miracles
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Saturday that Kyiv has sent Moscow an offer to hold another round of peace talks in Turkey this week, and that he wants to speed up negotiations for a ceasefire.
"There is no reason to expect any breakthroughs in the category of miracles - it is hardly possible in the current situation," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters.
"We intend to pursue our interests, we intend to ensure our interests and fulfil the tasks that we set for ourselves from the very beginning."
Asked if he could give a sense of how the Kremlin saw the potential time frame of a possible peace agreement, Peskov said he could give no guidance on timing.
"There is a lot of work to be done before we can talk about the possibility of some top-level meetings," Peskov added, a day after Zelenskiy renewed a call for a meeting with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
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BBC News
2 hours ago
- BBC News
School-leavers losing their lives for Russia in Putin's war with Ukraine
Vladimir Putin has repeatedly promised that no 18-year-olds called up to serve Russia will be sent to fight in Ukraine, but a BBC Russian investigation has found at least 245 soldiers of that age have been killed there in the past two government rules mean teenagers fresh out of school have been able to bypass military service and go straight into the regular army as contract may make up only a fraction of Russian losses, but cash bonuses and patriotic propaganda have made signing up an attractive Petlinsky enlisted two weeks after his 18th birthday. He was killed in Ukraine just 20 days later: one of hundreds of thousands of soldiers killed in Russia's full-scale war in Ukraine which has also claimed the lives of at least 13,500 Ukrainian civilians since Putin launched the invasion in February 2022. Petlinsky's aunt Ekaterina said he had dreamed of a career in medicine and won a place at a medical college in Chelyabinsk, an industrial regional centre in the Urals."But Sasha had another dream," she told a school memorial event. "When the special military operation began, Sasha was 15. And he dreamed of going to the front."In Ukraine, the call-up age is has managed to avoid a national mobilisation by offering lavish sums to men of fighting age - an especially attractive deal for those in poorer regions with few job men had to have at least three months of conscript service under their belts before signing a restriction was quietly dropped in April 2023, despite protests from some MPs, so now any young man who has reached the age of 18 and finished school can sign up to join the education system has ensured they are ready to enlist. Since the full-scale invasion began, teachers have been required by law to hold classes dedicated to the "special military operation", as the war is officially returning from the front visit schools to talk about their experiences, children are taught how to make camouflage nets and trench candles, and even nursery school pupils are encouraged to send letters and drawings to the the start of the last school year on 1 September 2024, a new subject was brought into the a throwback to the Soviet era, senior students are once again being taught how to use Kalashnikov rifles and hand grenades as part of a course called "The Basics of Safety and Homeland Defence".In many regions, military recruiters now attend careers lessons in schools and technical colleges, telling young people how to sign up as contract soldiers after they Ivanov grew up in a small village in Siberia and dropped out of college where he was learning to be a got into trouble with police, and when he was accused of robbing a small shop in November 2024, he complained to his mother and girlfriend he had been beaten into giving a confession. His friend Mikhail told the BBC that Vitaly had always planned to do his military service when he turned 18. Then, together, they would go and find work building roads in Kazan, a city about 3,700km (2,300 miles) to the he signed a contract to join the army. His family have not ruled out that it was the police who "persuaded" day before he left he called his mother, Anna, to say he was about to leave."I'm off to the North-Eastern Military District," he other words, he was heading for and Alexander reached the frontline at about the same time in last message home on 5 February was to say he was being sent into combat."This was his first and last combat mission," says enlistment office rang her a month later to say he had died on 11 February. As part of BBC Russian's ongoing project using open sources to count Russia's war dead, we have identified and confirmed 245 names of 18-year-old contract soldiers killed in Ukraine between April 2023 - when the rules for joining up were eased - and July were enlisted as contract servicemen and, judging from published obituaries, most joined the armed forces according to our research, since the start of the full-scale invasion at least 2,812 Russian men aged 18-20 years have been killed in BBC's figures are based on open-source information and because not every death is publicly reported, the real losses are bound to be late July the BBC had established the names of 120,343 Russian soldiers killed during the full-scale war. Military experts estimate that makes up 45-65% of the real death toll, which would equate to 185,143 to 267,500 dead. When Alexander Petlinksy turned 18 on 31 January, the first thing he did was to apply to take a year out of college so he could sign a contract with the Defence he had wanted to become a doctor, he also dreamed of going to fight in next month he was already at the front, and on 9 March he died."As a citizen of the Russian Federation, I am proud of my son," his mother, Elena, told the BBC."But as a mother - I can't cope with this loss."She declined to say friend Anastasia says the fact that 18-year-olds are signing contracts to join the army is now a very "painful subject" for her."They're young and naive, and there's so much they don't understand," she says. "They just don't grasp the full responsibility of what they're doing."
The Guardian
3 hours ago
- The Guardian
Cambodia calls for ‘immediate ceasefire' with Thailand after two days of deadly clashes
Cambodia wants an 'immediate ceasefire' with Thailand, the country's envoy to the United Nations has said, with Bangkok also signalling an openness to talks after two days of deadly clashes that have left 15 dead and thousands displaced. 'Cambodia asked for an immediate ceasefire – unconditionally – and we also call for the peaceful solution of the dispute,' said UN ambassador Chhea Keo, after a closed meeting of the Council attended by Cambodia and Thailand. A steady thump of artillery strikes could be heard from the Cambodian side of the border on Friday, after a day earlier a long-running border dispute erupted into intense fighting with jets, artillery, tanks and ground troops, prompting the UN security council to hold an emergency meeting on the crisis. More than 138,000 people have been evacuated from Thailand's border regions, its health ministry said, reporting 15 fatalities – 14 civilians and a soldier – with a further 46 wounded, including 15 troops. Officials in the Cambodian province of Oddar Meanchey reported one civilian – a 70-year-old man – had been killed and five more wounded, but have otherwise not provided further details of any casualties. Cambodian authorities said more than 23,000 people have evacuated from areas near the border. After the first day of clashes, fighting resumed in three areas around 4am on Friday, the Thai army said, however foreign ministry spokesperson Nikorndej Balankura told AFP that it had begun to ease off by Friday afternoon. Balankura also said that Bangkok was open to talks, possibly aided by Malaysia. 'We are ready, if Cambodia would like to settle this matter via diplomatic channels, bilaterally, or even through Malaysia, we are ready to do that. But so far we have not had any response,' Nikorndej told AFP, speaking before the UN meeting had been held. Malaysia currently holds the chair of the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (Asean) regional bloc, of which Thailand and Cambodia are both members. Earlier, acting Thai prime minister Phumtham Wechayachai had warned that if the situation escalated, 'it could develop into war.' 'For now, it remains limited to clashes,' he told reporters in Bangkok. On Thursday, both sides blamed each other for firing first, while Thailand accused Cambodia of targeting civilian infrastructure, including a hospital hit by shells and a petrol station hit by at least one rocket. At the UN, Cambodia's envoy questioned Thailand's assertion that his country, which is smaller and less militarily developed than its neighbour, had initiated the conflict. '[The Security Council] called for both parties to [show] maximum restraint and resort to a diplomatic solution. That is what we are calling for as well,' said Chhea Keo. The fighting marks a dramatic escalation in a long-running dispute between the neighbours over their shared 800km border. Dozens of kilometres in several areas are contested and fighting broke out between 2008 and 2011, leaving at least 28 people dead and tens of thousands displaced. A UN court ruling in 2013 settled the matter for over a decade, but the current crisis erupted in May when a Cambodian soldier was killed in a new clash. With Agence France-Presse and the Associated Press
BBC News
4 hours ago
- BBC News
Cambodia calls for immediate ceasefire with Thailand
Cambodia has called for an "immediate" ceasefire with Thailand, after two days of cross-border fighting between the two South East Asian ambassador to the UN, Chhea Keo, said his country asked for a truce "unconditionally", adding that Phnom Penh also wanted a "peaceful solution of the dispute".Thailand has not publicly commented on the ceasefire proposal. It earlier declared martial law in eight districts bordering least 16 people have been killed and tens of thousands displaced in both countries, who accuse each other of firing the first shots on Thursday. Thailand's acting Prime Minister Phumtham Wechayachai on Friday warned that the clashes could "move towards war".He said the fighting now included heavy weapons and had spread to 12 locations along the also accused Cambodia of firing into civilian areas and evacuated all villages deemed to be within the radius of its for its part, accused Thailand of using cluster munitions. Cluster munitions are banned in much of the world because of their indiscriminate effect on civilian populations. Thailand has not responded to the Thailand's foreign minister told the Reuters news agency there was "no need" for third-party mediation in the conflict, even as global leaders appealed for an immediate Prime Minister Anwar Ibrahim, who chairs the Association of South East Asian Nations (Asean), had earlier offered to facilitate talks between the two US also called for an "immediate cessation of hostilities, protection of civilians and a peaceful resolution of the conflict". Thailand says 14 civilians and one soldier have been killed in the country's Surin, Ubon Ratchathani and Srisaket provinces, while provincial authorities in Cambodia say at least one civilian was says the clashes began with Cambodia's military deploying drones to conduct surveillance of Thai troops near the says Thai soldiers initiated the conflict when they violated a prior agreement by advancing on a Khmer-Hindu temple near the dispute between the two countries dates back to more than 100 years ago, when the borders of the two nations were drawn after the French occupation of have been sporadic clashes over the years which saw soldiers and civilians killed on both latest tensions ramped up in May after a Cambodian soldier was killed in a clash, plunging bilateral ties to their lowest point in more than a decade.
