By The Guardian (World News) | Created at 2024-09-28 07:50:10 | Updated at 2024-09-30 07:18:41
1 day ago
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Opening summary
At least six people were killed Saturday morning following two consecutive Russian strikes on a medical centre in Sumy, a city in northeastern Ukraine.
Ihor Klymenko, Ukraine’s interior minister, said on Telegram that one person died in the initial shelling that destroyed several floors of the hospital – but during the evacuation of the hospital’s patients, Russian forces struck again, killing more. A policeman was one of the six confirmed dead.
The deadly attack came after President Volodymyr Zelenskyy met with Donald Trump in New York amid concerns over the future of US aid to Ukraine if Trump – who has frequently made complimentary remarks about Vladimir Putin – wins in November. The sit-down lasted less than an hour, during which Trump told Zelesnkyy that if he won November’s presidential election he would get the Ukraine war “resolved very quickly”.
“We have a very good relationship, and I also have a very good relationship, as you know, with President Putin,” Trump said as he stood next to Zelenskyy before the meeting. “And I think if we win, I think we’re going to get it resolved very quickly … I really think we’re going to get it … but, you know, it takes two to tango.”
Zelenskyy described the meeting as “very productive”.
Elsewhere:
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China and Brazil on Friday pressed ahead with an effort to gather developing countries behind a plan to end Russia’s war in Ukraine – an effort that Zelenskyy has dismissed as one that serves Moscow’s interests. Seventeen countries attended a meeting on the sidelines of the UN general assembly chaired by China’s foreign minister, Wang Yi, and Brazilian foreign policy adviser Celso Amorim. Wang told reporters they discussed the need to prevent escalation in the war, avoid the use of weapons of mass destruction and prevent attacks on nuclear power plants. Zelenskyy, in a speech to the assembly earlier this week, questioned why China and Brazil were proposing an alternative to his own peace formula. Proposing “alternatives, half-hearted settlement plans, so-called sets of principles” would only give Moscow the political space to continue the war, he said.
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US secretary of state Antony Blinken, speaking after a meeting with Wang, underscored strong US concerns about China’s support for Russia’s defence industrial base. He told reporters that China, while saying it seeks an end to the Ukraine conflict, “is allowing its companies to take actions that are actually helping Putin continue the aggression. That doesn’t add up.”
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South Korea’s foreign minister said Russia was engaging in illegal arms trade with North Korea, reiterating statements by the US, Ukraine and independent analysts that Pyongyang is supplying rockets and missiles in return for economic and other military assistance from Moscow. Misuse of Russia’s right to veto as a permanent member of the UN security council is hindering the UN’s efforts to end war, foreign minister Cho Tae-yul said during the UN general assembly on Saturday.
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Finland will place a key Nato base less than 200 kilometers (125 miles) from its border with Russia, “sending a message” to its eastern neighbour, the defence ministry said Friday. Finland became a Nato member last year, dropping decades of military non-alignment after Russia’s invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.
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A Russian drone may have breached the national airspace of Nato member Romania for “a very brief period of under three minutes” overnight during an attack on neighbouring Ukraine, the Romanian defence ministry said on Friday. Three people were killed in the attack, according to Ukrainan officials.
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Russia’s FSB security service is investigating three foreign journalists for reporting in parts of Russia’s Kursk region occupied by Ukrainian forces, bringing the total of such investigations to 12. The three, Kathryn Diss and Fletcher Yeung from Australia’s ABC News and Romanian journalist Mircea Barbu, are being investigated for illegally crossing the Russian border, state news agency Ria Novosti reported.
