Taipei Scrambles Jets as Chinese Fighters Cross Taiwan Strait Median Line

In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (CCTV via AP)
In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (CCTV via AP)
TT
20

Taipei Scrambles Jets as Chinese Fighters Cross Taiwan Strait Median Line

In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (CCTV via AP)
In this image taken from video footage run by China's CCTV, a projectile is launched from an unspecified location in China, Thursday, Aug. 4, 2022. (CCTV via AP)

Taiwan scrambled jets on Thursday to warn away 22 Chinese aircraft in its air defense zone, the Taiwanese defense ministry said.

All 22 Chinese aircraft crossed the Taiwan Strait median line, a ministry statement said.

China also fired live missiles near Taiwan on Thursday in its biggest drills in the Strait, a day after US House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi made a solidarity trip to the self-ruled island.

China's military confirmed multiple firings of conventional missiles in waters off Taiwan as part of planned exercises in six zones set to run until noon on Sunday. It activated more than 100 planes, including fighter jets and bombers, and over 10 warships, state broadcaster CCTV said.

Responding to the Chinese drills, President Tsai Ing-wen said Taiwan would not provoke conflicts but would firmly defend its sovereignty and national security.

"Taiwan will never be knocked down by challenges," Tsai said in a recorded video message to the people of Taiwan.

"We are calm and not impetuous, we are rational and not provocative, but we will also be firm and not shirk."

To avoid escalating tensions with Beijing any further, the United States postponed a routine test launch of an Air Force Minuteman III intercontinental ballistic missile, the Wall Street Journal reported on Thursday, citing US officials. One official said the delay might last 10 days, the report said.

Chinese Foreign Minister Wang Yi called Pelosi's visit to Taiwan a "manic, irresponsible and highly irrational" act, state broadcaster CCTV reported.

Wang, speaking at a meeting of Southeast Asian foreign ministers in Cambodia, said China had tried to avert crisis by diplomatic means but would never let its core interests be hurt.



Trump, Putin Reiterate Positions on Ukraine War in Phone Call, Kremlin Aide Says

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in 2019. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in 2019. (Reuters)
TT
20

Trump, Putin Reiterate Positions on Ukraine War in Phone Call, Kremlin Aide Says

US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in 2019. (Reuters)
US President Donald Trump and Russian President Vladimir Putin meet in 2019. (Reuters)

US President Donald Trump pushed for a quick halt to the Ukraine war in a Thursday phone call with Vladimir Putin, while a Kremlin aide said the Russian president reiterated that Moscow would keep pushing to solve the conflict's "root causes." 

The two leaders did not discuss a recent pause in some US weapons shipments to Kyiv during the nearly hour-long call, according to a readout provided by Putin aide Yuri Ushakov. Within hours of the call, an apparent Russian drone attack sparked a fire in an apartment building in a northern suburb of Kyiv, Ukrainian officials said, indicating little change in the trajectory of the conflict immediately after the call. 

In Kyiv itself, Reuters witnesses reported explosions and sustained heavy machine gun fire as air defense units battled drones over the capital. 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, meanwhile, told reporters in Denmark that he hopes to speak to Trump as soon as Friday about the ongoing pause in some weapons shipments, which was first disclosed earlier this week. 

Trump, who was due to speak at a campaign-style event in Iowa later in the day, did not comment on the conversation with Putin, but he said on social media beforehand that he would speak to the Russian leader. 

"Root causes" has become Russian shorthand for the issue of NATO enlargement and Western support for Ukraine, including the rejection of any notion of Ukraine joining the NATO alliance. Russian leaders are also angling to establish greater control over political decisions made in Kyiv and other eastern European capitals, NATO leaders have said. 

The diplomatic back-and-forth comes as the US has paused shipments of certain critical weapons to Ukraine due to low stockpiles, sources earlier told Reuters, just as Ukraine faces a Russian summer offensive and frequent attacks on civilian targets.  

That decision led to Ukraine calling in the acting US envoy to Kyiv on Wednesday to underline the importance of military aid from Washington, and caution that the move would weaken Ukraine's ability to defend against intensifying Russian airstrikes and battlefield advances. 

The Pentagon's move led in part to a cut in deliveries of Patriot air defense missiles that Ukraine relies on to destroy fast-moving ballistic missiles, Reuters reported on Wednesday. 

Ushakov, the Kremlin aide, said the issue of weapons deliveries to Ukraine did not come up during the Trump-Putin phone call. 

Ushakov added that while Russia was open to continuing to speak with the US, any peace negotiations needed to occur between Moscow and Kyiv. 

That comment comes amid some indications that Moscow is trying to avoid a trilateral format for any peace negotiations. The Russians asked American diplomats to leave the room during such a meeting in Istanbul in early June, Ukrainian officials have said. 

Trump and Putin did not talk about a face-to-face meeting, Ushakov said.