Kremlin: No Heavy Weapons at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
TT

Kremlin: No Heavy Weapons at Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Plant

Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)
Members of the Ukrainian National guard demining team Battalion Dnipro 1 navigate in mine fields, as Russia's attack on Ukraine continues, in the northern part of the Donetsk region of Ukraine, December 12, 2022. (Reuters)

The Kremlin said on Tuesday that Russia had not placed heavy weapons at the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant in southern Ukraine.

Kyiv has repeatedly accused Russian forces of using the nuclear facility, which Russia seized in the first days of the conflict, as a de facto weapons depot. Both sides have accused each other of shelling the plant, Europe's largest nuclear power station.

In a conference call with reporters on Tuesday, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov also said Russia remains in contact with the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), which is trying to broker the creation of a demilitarized zone around the power station.

The Kremlin also said Ukraine must take into account the "realities" that have developed in the Ukraine conflict for there to be peace between the two sides.

Peskov dismissed a reported three-step proposal from Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy to bring about peace, adding that progress was not possible "without taking realities into account".

He was responding to a request by Zelenskiy to leaders from Group of Seven powers on Monday for more military equipment, support for financial and energy stability, and backing for a peace solution that would start with Russia withdrawing troops from Ukraine.

Russia has repeatedly said it is willing to hold peace talks but that it does not see Ukraine and the West, which is supplying Kyiv with weapons, as ready to do so. Ukraine says Russia must halt its attacks and withdraw from all territory it has occupied.



Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
TT

Trump Administration to Cancel Student Visas of Pro-Palestinian Protesters

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)
The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump will sign an executive order on Wednesday to combat antisemitism and pledge to deport non-citizen college students and others who took part in pro-Palestinian protests, a White House official said.

A fact sheet on the order promises "immediate action" by the Justice Department to prosecute "terroristic threats, arson, vandalism and violence against American Jews" and marshal all federal resources to combat what it called "the explosion of antisemitism on our campuses and streets" since the Oct. 7, 2023, attack on Israel by Palestinian Islamist group Hamas.

"To all the resident aliens who joined in the protests, we put you on notice: come 2025, we will find you, and we will deport you," Trump said in the fact sheet.

"I will also quickly cancel the student visas of all Hamas sympathizers on college campuses, which have been infested with radicalism like never before."

The Hamas attacks and the subsequent Israeli assault on Gaza led to several months of pro-Palestinian protests that roiled US college campuses, with civil rights groups documenting rising antisemitic, anti-Arab and Islamophobic incidents.

The order will require agency and department leaders to provide the White House with recommendations within 60 days on all criminal and civil authorities that could be used to fight antisemitism, and would demand "the removal of resident aliens who violate our laws."

The fact sheet said protesters engaged in pro-Hamas vandalism and intimidation, blocked Jewish students from attending classes and assaulted worshippers at synagogues, as well as vandalizing US monuments and statues.

Many pro-Palestinian protesters denied supporting Hamas or engaging in antisemitic acts, and said they were demonstrating against Israel's military assault on Gaza, where health authorities say more than 47,000 people have been killed.

The Council on American-Islamic Relations, a large Muslim advocacy group, accused the Trump administration of an assault on "free speech and Palestinian humanity under the guise of combating antisemitism," and described Wednesday's order as "dishonest, overbroad and unenforceable."

During his 2024 election campaign, Trump promised to deport those he called "pro-Hamas" students in the United States on visas.

On his first day in office, he signed an executive order that rights groups say lays the groundwork for the reinstatement of a ban on travelers from predominantly Muslim or Arab countries, and offers wider authorities to use ideological exclusion to deny visa requests and remove individuals already in the country.