Connect with us

Latest News

Zelenskyy Meets New British Leader Over Drone Projects, Missile Defense For Kyiv

Published

on

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy and new U.K. Prime Minister Andy Burnham met Monday at a British naval base and discussed joint drone projects and Ukraine’s urgent need for ballistic missile interceptors to counter Russian attacks.

Zelenskyy’s visit was the first by a foreign leader since Burnham took office a week ago, and the prime minister said it signaled the U.K.’s “unwavering” support for Kyiv to defend itself against Russia’s 4-year-old, full-scale invasion.

His predecessor, Keir Starmer, was in the Ukrainian capital less than two weeks ago in his last overseas trip before leaving office, and Burnham said he planned to visit soon.

Burnham is the fifth British prime minister Zelenskyy has dealt with since Russia launched the war in 2022.

“You are the first leader I have welcomed in person since taking office, and that is no accident,” Burnham told Zelenskyy. “It is intended to send a very clear message: we are with Ukraine 100%, I am personally with you 100%, and I will honor every commitment this country has made to Ukraine in full.”

Zelenskyy said the two countries’ relationship was “stronger than ever.”

The meeting, aboard the aircraft carrier HMS Queen Elizabeth docked at Portsmouth on England’s south coast, came a day before Zelenskyy is expected to visit U.S. President Donald Trump in Washington.

Burnham said they had “talked at length” about Kyiv’s need for more interceptors to shoot down Russian ballistic missiles, “particularly in terms of Ukraine protecting critical national infrastructure during the winters.”

“We’ve taken away some things that we will now follow up with our partners,” Burnham said after the meeting.

Russia has intensified strikes on gas stations, power facilities and other infrastructure this year in a broad campaign to strain Ukraine’s logistics and energy networks.

Zelenskyy said on X that the leaders also discussed “joint defense production.” Britain and Ukraine already have a deal to work together on new drones, and Zelenskyy told Sky News beforehand that he hoped to build a “big, big factory” in Britain.

They also met more than 200 Ukrainian military personnel who have spent three weeks in Britain for an exercise aimed at strengthening their fighting capabilities and measures to counter mines in the Black Sea, the U.K. government said.

Burnham announced that the U.K. will give Ukraine the intellectual property behind its new “Stone Cloak” electronic warfare system, which is capable of jamming Russian air defenses to stop drones from being detected.

Ukraine has expanded its campaign of frequent drone attacks deep inside Russia that have targeted oil facilities, military factories and, most recently, logistical centers, bringing the war home to millions of Russians and raising pressure on President Vladimir Putin.

The raids have shattered Putin’s narrative of the conflict as something that doesn’t affect the lives of ordinary people in his country. But he has remained undeterred and Russia has ramped up its aerial campaign, regularly bombarding Ukraine with missiles and drones.

Russia again attacked Ukraine overnight with 147 long-range drones, according to Ukraine’s air force, which said it intercepted or jammed 123 of them.

In Zaporizhzhia, one person was killed and two injured in attacks on the city that damaged a residential high-rise and several private homes overnight, according to regional administration head Ivan Fedorov.

A Russian strike on the town of Balakliia in the Kharkiv region killed one person and wounded eight, according to Vitalii Karabanov, head of the city military administration.

In the Nikopol district of the Dnipropetrovsk region, Russian strikes damaged a kindergarten, residential buildings and infrastructure, injuring a woman and a 6-year-old boy, according to administration head Oleksandr Hanzha.

In the eastern Kharkiv region, regional council member Oleksandr Skoryk said Russian forces destroyed every gas station along the highway between Kharkiv and Poltava, a distance of about 150 kilometers (93 miles). The highway is a key supply route linking Kharkiv, the country’s second-largest city and a regional hub close to the Russian border, with central Ukraine.

Romania’s Ministry of National Defense said a drone briefly entered its airspace before crossing the river border into Ukraine, where explosions were subsequently reported. It said two F-16 fighter jets were deployed to monitor airspace.

The drone’s incursion into Romanian airspace marked the fourth such incident in as many days. The three previous drones were all shot down by the NATO member.

In Moscow, Russia’s Defense Ministry said air defenses downed 276 Ukrainian drones overnight.

Rostov regional Gov. Yuri Slyusar said five people, including a child, were killed when a Ukrainian drone hit an apartment building in Rostov-on-Don. Ukraine’s military General Staff said Ukrainian forces struck an export terminal in Rostov-on-Don, setting it ablaze.

The Ukrainian military said other strikes in the Moscow-held part of the Kherson region targeted a ground relay station used to control drones and a bridge over the Henichesk Strait that Russia uses for military logistics. Russian fuel and supply depots were also hit.

In the city of Belgorod in southwestern Russia near the border with Ukraine, a Ukrainian drone attack injured 12, including two children, according to regional emergency officials.

Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi said Ukraine struck an Iranian vessel in the Caspian Sea, killing a sailor.

In a statement on X on Sunday, Araghchi denounced the attack as a “blatant U.N. Charter violation done at Israel’s behest to drag Europe into its war.” He said he made it clear in calls with the European Union foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas and Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov that the attack “can’t go unanswered.”

Zelenskyy said on X that Ukrainian long-range strikes in the Caspian Sea over the weekend achieved “very good results,” adding the targets included “vessels involved in transporting military cargo linked to Iran, as well as a warship.”

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha rejected Iran’s threats of retaliation as unjustified and groundless, saying Tehran’s weapons supplies to Russia have made it a direct accomplice to Moscow’s aggression. “Iran has no standing to pretend to be a victim,” he posted on X, and called its references to the U.N. Charter “absurd.”

Sybiha said Iran’s statements were an attempt to divert attention from Russia’s attacks on civilian shipping in the Black Sea, which would be a focus of an emergency U.N. Security Council meeting Monday.

Continue Reading
Click to comment

Leave a Reply

Your email address will not be published. Required fields are marked *

Business

More than 700 trucks loaded with relief supplies have crossed into Afghanistan from Pakistan.

Published

on

By

The United Nations said Sunday that more than 700 trucks delivering international humanitarian aid reached Afghanistan via Pakistan, despite a near-total shutdown of the land border between the two countries during skirmishes in October.

The convoy was transporting “food and other critical humanitarian items,” Olga Cherevko, spokesperson for the UN Office for the Coordination of Humanitarian Affairs (OCHA) in Afghanistan, told AFP.

“724 trucks of humanitarian cargo have crossed into Afghanistan thru Torkham, reaching families who need it most,” tweeted Mo Yahya, the United Nations Resident & Humanitarian Coordinator for Pakistan.

He also thanked Islamabad and “all those who made it possible for us to maintain the humanitarian lifeline”.

But in early August, the World Food Program (WFP) warned that acute child malnutrition had risen to crisis levels in Afghanistan this year.

WFP said approximately 14 million Afghans are facing acute hunger, following deadly earthquakes last year, several climate-related calamities this year and the return of millions of Afghans from Iran and Pakistan since 2023.

The conflict with Pakistan has caused the near-total closure of the land border between the two countries since October 2025, significantly disrupting logistical routes for the delivery of humanitarian aid, WFP Deputy Executive Director Carl Skau told AFP in May.

Continue Reading

Latest News

Goods transporters cease 40-day national strike after discussions with goverment

Published

on

By

 Goods transporters have announced that they will defer their nationwide strike for 40 days following negotiations with government representatives in Karachi.

The talks were held at the Governor House in Karachi and were attended by Sindh Governor Nihal Hashmi, Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab, Federal Minister for Communications Abdul Aleem Khan and All Pakistan Goods Transporters Association President Malik Shahzad.

Addressing a press conference after the negotiations, Malik Shahzad said the transporters had decided to defer the strike following government assurances.

He said the nationwide strike had continued for nine days and the Sindh government had assured them that the parking issue would be resolved.

He added that the government had sought 15 days to determine whether petroleum prices would be reviewed every 15 days or once a month.

According to Malik Shahzad, Abdul Aleem Khan also assured the transporters that a committee would be formed to review toll taxes and consider reducing them.

He said the government had also assured them that 10-wheelers would be allowed to carry an appropriate weight.

“Some of our issues have been resolved by the federal and provincial governments, while others require cabinet approval,” he said, adding that assurances had also been given to address those matters.

Read also: Govt, goods transporters meet today as strike enters eighth day

He said meetings of the relevant committees would continue and expressed hope that the government would honour its commitments.

“We are not ending the strike; we are deferring it. If the assurances are not implemented, we may resume our protest,” Malik Shahzad said.

Federal Communications Minister Abdul Aleem Khan said the government had addressed the transporters’ issues that could be resolved immediately, while some demands required formal procedures.

He said several committees had been constituted to complete the necessary process.

Aleem Khan also said the Karachi-Hyderabad road did not qualify as a motorway in its current condition. He announced that work on a new motorway from Sukkur to Hyderabad and Karachi would begin this year.

Sindh Governor Nihal Hashmi said the regional situation was unusual and that the economic impact of ongoing conflicts was being felt not only in Pakistan but around the world.

He said the prime minister and field marshal were working to ensure that the positive outcomes of their efforts reached the public.

Hashmi added that the government and transporters had listened to each other and agreed that both sides were ready to make every possible sacrifice for the country.

Karachi Mayor Murtaza Wahab said the authorities had spent the day working to resolve the issues. He assured that the Sindh government would address matters falling within its jurisdiction and said efforts would continue to resolve the problems through dialogue.

Continue Reading

Business

SBP: Federal government debt swells by Rs18.8tr in 28 months

Published

on

By

In the first 28 months of the current period, federal government debt soared by Rs18,832 billion, with considerable increases in both domestic and external borrowing, documents of the State Bank of Pakistan stated.

The documents revealed that the overseas debt of the federal government climbed by Rs2,066 billion and its internal debt by Rs16,766 billion from March 2024 to June 2026. The surge means an average daily increase in debt of more than Rs22.40 billion.

The data showed that the federal government’s debt stood at Rs64,810 billion by February 2024, the last month of the caretaker government. The government’s total debt increased by Rs18,832 billion to Rs83,642 billion by June 2026 over the next 28 months.

According to the State Bank, the federal government’s internal debt stood at Rs42,675 billion in February 2024, which climbed to Rs59,441 billion by June 2026.

Similarly, the external debt of the federal government was Rs22,134 billion in February 2024, which increased to Rs24,201 billion in June 2026.

Continue Reading

Trending