Watch: Putin warns foreign troops in Ukraine would be a target for Russian forcesPutin warns foreign troops in Ukraine would be a target for Russian forces
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 05:09
Portugal PM urges China’s Xi to push Russia for Ukraine peace
Portugal’s prime minister Luis Montenegro met with Chinese president Xi Jinping in Beijing and urged him to use his country’s close relationship with Russia to push for a “just and sustainable peace” in Ukraine.
The in-person meeting came just days after the Chinese capital hosted a military parade where Xi, North Korea’s leader Kim Jong Un, and Russian president Vladimir Putin took centre stage, representing what EU foreign policy chief Kaja Kallas called an “autocratic alliance”.
China’s Xi said that the world’s second-largest economy was willing to strengthen its strategic communications with Portugal.
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 05:06
Kremlin says sanctions will never force Russia to change course
No sanctions will ever be able to force Russia to change course on Ukraine, the Kremlin said just hours after both the US and European Union indicated they were considering additional measures.
“No sanctions will be able to force the Russian Federation to change the consistent position that our president has repeatedly spoken about,” Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov told Kremlin reporter Alexander Yunashev.
Peskov said that Europe and Ukraine are doing everything they can to draw the United States into their orbit.
He said the Kremlin’s preference was to resolve the conflict through diplomatic means but if that was impossible then what Vladimir Putin calls the “special military operation” would continue.
The West has imposed thousands of different sanctions on Russia over the 2022 war in Ukraine and the 2014 annexation of Crimea in a bid to sink Russia’s $2.2 trillion economy and undermine support for Putin.
Russian president Vladimir Putin chats with Russian presidential press secretary Dmitry Peskov after a joint press conference following a US-Russia summit on Ukraine at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Anchorage in Alaska (POOL/AFP via Getty Images)
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 04:38
Russia hit Ukrainian government building with cluster ammunition, says EU official
Russia struck a Ukrainian government building with a cluster munition, the EU’s ambassador to Ukraine said yesterday.
“I saw it with my own eyes: Putin knows exactly what he is doing,” said Katarina Mathernova, who was visiting the cabinet of ministers building in Kyiv after the attack, alongside other diplomatic mission heads.
“The Iskander ballistic missile that struck the cabinet of ministers was aimed right there – at the heart of Ukraine’s government,” the EU envoy said.
“We were shown sizeable remnants of the actual missile. And a multitude of shrapnel coming from the cluster munition embedded in the Iskander [missile],” she said.
“Only thanks to the missile failing to fully detonate, the entire building was not reduced to rubble,” Mathernova said.
She added: “The evidence of this existential battle is right in front of us: Putin is deliberately targeting the country’s lifelines – its government, its energy, its people.”
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 04:26
Zelensky’s chief of staff discusses Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets with Rubio
Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff discussed Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets with US secretary of state Marco Rubio yesterday and told him a government building that came under attack on Sunday was hit by a Russian ballistic missile.
“I informed him of the constant Russian strikes that attack our cities, our residential buildings with drones and missiles,” Ukraine’s presidential chief of staff Andriy Yermak wrote.
“They kill civilians and children, destroy our infrastructure. For the first time, the enemy attacked the Ukrainian government building – the strike was carried out by an Iskander ballistic missile,” he said.
Yermak said he and Rubio discussed US military aid for Ukraine, security guarantees for Ukraine that have been under discussion with Kyiv’s allies, and increased pressure on Russia.
On Sunday, after the war’s biggest air attack set fire to a government building in Kyiv, US president Donald Trump said he was ready to move to a second phase of restrictions.
US secretary of state Marco Rubio and Ukrainian head of presidential office Andriy Yermak speaking as they attend the Ukrainian and US delegations meeting in Jeddah (AFP/Getty)
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 04:07
Putin awards sanctioned Russian General Gerasimov medal for ‘courage’
Russian president Vladimir Putin has awarded the Order of Courage to General Valery Gerasimov, chief of the general staff of Russia’s armed forces and the overall commander of Russia’s war in Ukraine.
Gerasimov, one of the most powerful men in the Russian military and against whom the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for alleged crimes in Ukraine, is credited as the chief architect of Russia’s modern warfare strategy. He turned 70 yesterday.
The Order of Courage, a prestigious state decoration, was given to Gerasimov “for courage, bravery, and dedication displayed in the fulfilment of military duty,” according to a decree published on Russia’s official legal acts website late last night.
Gerasimov is thought to hold one of the three nuclear briefcases that can transmit orders for a nuclear strike. He played key roles in Russia’s seizure of Crimea from Ukraine in 2014 and in Russia’s game-changing military support for president Bashar al-Assad in the Syrian civil war.
The United States sanctioned him the day after the Russian February 2022, invasion of Ukraine, saying he was among those directly responsible. Putin appointed Gerasimov to lead the Ukraine campaign in January 2023.
Vladimir Putin shakes hands with Chief of the General Staff General Valery Gerasimov as he visits military headquarters in the Kursk region of Russia (Russian Presidential Press Service)
Arpan Rai9 September 2025 03:56
Why Russia launched the largest aerial strike of the war so far
Russia launched the biggest aerial strikes of the war so far Ukraine over the weekend, killing four people including a mother and her three-month-old baby.
More than 800 drones and 13 missiles were fired at cities across Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, in the early hours of Sunday 7 September. The strike marked the first attack of the war on the main Ukrainian government building, and is the second major assault on the capital within two weeks.
In response, president Volodymyr Zelensky called the attack “a deliberate crime and prolongation of the war” and called on the US to provide a “strong response” to Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Moscow’s aerial attack on Ukraine is the latest in a streak of record-breaking aerial strikes over the past three months.
Below, The Independent looks at how, and why, Russia has decided to target Ukraine’s cities with such devastating force.
Bryony Gooch9 September 2025 03:00
Watch: Smoke rises from government building after Russian attack on KyivSmoke rises from government building after Russian attack on Kyiv
Bryony Gooch9 September 2025 02:00
What could Trump’s ‘second phase’ of sanctions against Russia involve?
On Sunday, Mr Trump signalled he may finally escalate sanctions on Moscow or its oil buyers, which he has so far delayed to pursue peace talks.
The European Union followed on Monday with confirmation it is coordinating new sanctions with the US, echoing US treasury secretary Scott Bessent’s comments that Washington would need “European partners to follow us” if they were to exert further economic pressure.
After repeatedly vowing to end the war within 24 hours, the US leader has grown increasingly frustrated with Putin as fighting continues to intensify.
Steffie Banatvala reports:
Bryony Gooch9 September 2025 01:00
Zelensky’s chief of staff discusses Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets with Rubio
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky’s chief of staff discussed Russian strikes on Ukrainian targets with US secretary of state Marco Rubio on Monday and told him a government building that came under attack on Sunday was hit by a Russian ballistic missile.
Chief of staff Andriy Yermak, writing on Telegram, also said he and Rubio discussed US military aid for Ukraine, security guarantees for Ukraine that have been under discussion with Kyiv’s allies, and increased pressure on Russia.
“I informed him of the constant Russian strikes that attack our cities, our residential buildings with drones and missiles,” Yermak wrote.
“They kill civilians and children, destroy our infrastructure. For the first time, the enemy attacked the Ukrainian Government building – the strike was carried out by an Iskander ballistic missile.”
In a separate post, Yermak said he had held a video conference with the national security advisers of Britain, France, Germany, and Italy.
He said the discussion was a continuation of a meeting in Paris last week with Ukrainian allies within the Coalition of the Willing and said “a further strengthening of Ukraine’s positions in confronting Russian aggression is necessary.”
The European Union’s top sanctions official was in Washington with a team of experts to discuss what would be the first coordinated transatlantic measures against Russia since President Donald Trump returned to office.
On Sunday, after the war’s biggest air attack set fire to a government building in Kyiv, Trump said he was ready to move to a second phase of restrictions.
Bryony Gooch9 September 2025 00:00