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After Putin Envoy’s US Talks, Kremlin Says Putin and Trump Have No Plans to Speak

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 04 April 2025. (EPA/Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool / Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 04 April 2025. (EPA/Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool / Pool)
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After Putin Envoy’s US Talks, Kremlin Says Putin and Trump Have No Plans to Speak

Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 04 April 2025. (EPA/Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool / Pool)
Russian President Vladimir Putin attends a meeting with Russian Culture Minister Olga Lyubimova, at the Kremlin in Moscow, Russia, 04 April 2025. (EPA/Vyacheslav Prokofyev / Sputnik / Kremlin Pool / Pool)

The Kremlin said on Friday that Russian President Vladimir Putin and US President Donald Trump had no plans to talk after a visit to Washington by Putin's investment envoy as wider negotiations over a ceasefire in Ukraine appeared stalled.

NBC News reported on Thursday that Trump's inner circle is advising him not to speak to Putin again until the Russian leader commits to a full ceasefire in Ukraine, something Putin has said he is open to in principle, but only if a long list of conditions are met.

Kirill Dmitriev, Putin's investment envoy, said on Thursday that he saw a "positive dynamic" in relations between Moscow and Washington after holding two days of meetings in Washington, but said more meetings were needed to sort out differences.

His visit came as a US-brokered agreement for Russia and Ukraine to stop striking each other's energy infrastructure appeared to be faltering, with Moscow and Kyiv repeatedly accusing each other of violating it. Reuters could not verify to what extent it was being respected.

Asked on Friday whether Putin and Trump would now speak by phone, Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters:

"No, there are no plans for the next few days. There is nothing in the schedule for now."

Peskov said Dmitriev's visit was a cause for "cautious optimism", however. He also echoed Dmitriev's comments that Russia could engage in talks around security guarantees for Ukraine, although he said the subject was very complex.

The two sides have engaged in a flurry of diplomacy over Ukraine since Trump returned to office in January, promising a quick end to the conflict and a restoration of ties with Russia.

But Russia this week said it could not accept US proposals on Ukraine, "in their current form", because they did not address core issues that Moscow says are at the root of the conflict.

Trump previously said he was "pissed off" with Putin due to remarks he had made about Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy.

Trump has spoken of imposing sanctions on countries that buy Russian oil if he feels Moscow is blocking a peace deal on Ukraine. In an announcement of global tariffs on Thursday he did include Russia, which is already heavily sanctioned.

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World

Cuba Hit by Second Nationwide Blackout in a Week

Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo. Yamil LAGE / AFP
Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo. Yamil LAGE / AFP
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Cuba Hit by Second Nationwide Blackout in a Week

Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo. Yamil LAGE / AFP
Cuba has been hit by several blackouts due to an aging power grid and a US fuel embargo. Yamil LAGE / AFP

Cuba plunged into darkness for the second time in less than a week on Saturday after its national power network failed again, strained by aging infrastructure and a US oil blockade.

As night fell, Havana's streets were mostly pitch black, with people navigating using phone lights or flashlights, just five days after the previous blackout.

In the touristy old city, some restaurants were able to stay open thanks to generators, with musicians playing music, but the regular blackouts have made life more difficult for Cubans.

"This is becoming unbearable," Ofelia Oliva, a 64-year-old Havana resident, told AFP.

"It hasn't even been a week since we experienced a similar situation. It is getting tiresome," Oliva said as she returned home after giving up on plans to visit her daughter.

The "total disconnection" of the national electricity system was due to an outage in a power unit at one of the country's thermoelectric plants, causing a "cascading effect", the state-owned Cuban Electric Union said.

It said it was activating micro-grids to provide power to critical facilities, including hospitals and water treatment plants.

"I wonder if we're going to be like this our whole lives. You can't live like this," Nilo Lopez, a 36-year-old taxi driver, told AFP.

- US blockade -

The country's electricity generation is sustained by a network of eight aging thermoelectric plants -- some in operation for over 40 years -- that suffer frequent breakdowns or must be shut down for maintenance cycles.

Cubans face daily blackouts of up to 15 hours in Havana. In the interior of the island, these outages can exceed 40 hours.

The breakdowns have intensified since Cuba's main regional ally and oil supplier, Venezuela's socialist leader Nicolas Maduro, was captured in a US military operation in January.

And US President Donald Trump has threatened to impose tariffs on countries that sell oil to Cuba.

No oil has been imported to the island since January 9, hitting the power sector while also forcing airlines to curtail flights to the island, a blow to the all-important tourism sector.

The blackout occurred as an international aid convoy began to arrive in Havana this week, bringing sorely-needed medical supplies, food, water and solar panels to the island.

- 'Honor of taking Cuba' -

The crisis in the country of 9.6 million people comes as Trump has made no secret of his desire to see regime change in Havana.

"I do believe I'll be...having the honor of taking Cuba," he said.

"Whether I free it, take it -- think I could do anything I want with it, you want to know the truth. They're a very weakened nation right now."

The next day, Cuban President Miguel Diaz-Canel warned that "any external aggressor will encounter an unbreakable resistance."

Tanieris Dieguez, Cuba's deputy chief of mission in Washington, told AFP earlier this week that Havana was open to broad talks with Washington and allowing more investment.

But she said Cuba's political system would "never" be part of the negotiations.

The outages as well as regular shortages of food, medicine and other basics are spurring frustrations, with demonstrators vandalizing a provincial office of the Cuban Communist Party last weekend.

With Cuba in desperate need of fuel, maritime trackers reported this week that two tankers carrying Russian oil and diesel appeared to be on their way to the island, but their status remains unclear.

Some took the latest outage in stride.

Meiven Rodriguez, 40, kept working in a small shop, selling cigarettes and using her phone light to count money.

"You have to keep going, otherwise you won't bring money home," she said.

A few fishermen cast for sardines into the dark waters of the oceanfront city.

"What would we do at home?" said Leonsio Suarez, 50.

World

Blasts Heard, Sirens in Jerusalem after Iran Missile Alerts

An Israeli Orthodox Jew inspects the site of an Iranian missile strike in Arad on March 22, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
An Israeli Orthodox Jew inspects the site of an Iranian missile strike in Arad on March 22, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
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Blasts Heard, Sirens in Jerusalem after Iran Missile Alerts

An Israeli Orthodox Jew inspects the site of an Iranian missile strike in Arad on March 22, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /
An Israeli Orthodox Jew inspects the site of an Iranian missile strike in Arad on March 22, 2026. (Photo by Ilia YEFIMOVICH / AFP) /

Blasts were heard and air raid sirens sounded in Jerusalem on Sunday, AFP journalists said, after the Israeli military warned of incoming missile fire from Iran.

The army issued several alerts saying it had identified that "missiles were launched from Iran toward the territory of the State of Israel".

Israel's Magen David Adom emergency medical service said after the first warning that there were no immediate reports of casualties.

Israel's military said personnel were attending "impact sites" in central Israel, with local media showing images of light damage by a road in the city of Holon near Tel Aviv.

The latest alerts come after Iranian missiles struck two towns in southern Israel on Saturday evening.

The Soroka medical center said it had received and treated 175 people, and 10 were in serious condition, including at least one child.

The blasts in the towns of Dimona and Arad tore open residential buildings and gouged craters in the ground.

Iranian state TV said the strike in Dimona, which houses a nuclear facility, was in response to an earlier strike on its own Natanz nuclear site.

The Israeli military said it was investigating how air defense systems had failed to intercept the incoming missiles.

World

Iran Says Hormuz Open to All But ‘Enemy-linked’ Ships amid US Threat

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
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Iran Says Hormuz Open to All But ‘Enemy-linked’ Ships amid US Threat

A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer
A cargo ship in the Gulf, near the Strait of Hormuz, as seen from northern Ras al-Khaimah, near the border with Oman’s Musandam governance, amid the US-Israeli conflict with Iran, in United Arab Emirates, March 11, 2026. REUTERS/Stringer

The Strait of Hormuz remains open to all shipping except vessels linked to "Iran's enemies", Iran's representative to the UN maritime agency said on Sunday, after US President Donald Trump threatened to target Iranian power plants if ‌the waterway ‌was not "fully open" within 48 ‌hours.

The ⁠threat of Iranian ⁠attacks during the US-Israeli war on Iran has kept most ships from getting through the narrow strait, the conduit for around a fifth of ⁠global oil and liquefied natural ‌gas supplies, ‌threatening a global energy shock, Reuters said.

Ali Mousavi ‌said Tehran was ready to ‌cooperate with the International Maritime Organization to improve maritime safety and protect seafarers in the Gulf, adding that ‌ships not linked to "Iran's enemies" could pass the strait ⁠by ⁠coordinating security and safety arrangements with Tehran.

"Diplomacy remains Iran's priority. However, a complete cessation of aggression as well as mutual trust and confidence are more important," Mousavi said, adding that Israeli and US attacks against Iran were at the "root of the current situation in the Strait of Hormuz".