Zelensky Announces Ukraine-US Talks in Geneva Thursday 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he attends a joint press conference following his meeting with Nordic and Baltic states leaders in Kyiv on February 24, 2026, as Ukraine marks the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. (AFP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he attends a joint press conference following his meeting with Nordic and Baltic states leaders in Kyiv on February 24, 2026, as Ukraine marks the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. (AFP)
TT

Zelensky Announces Ukraine-US Talks in Geneva Thursday 

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he attends a joint press conference following his meeting with Nordic and Baltic states leaders in Kyiv on February 24, 2026, as Ukraine marks the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. (AFP)
Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky gestures as he attends a joint press conference following his meeting with Nordic and Baltic states leaders in Kyiv on February 24, 2026, as Ukraine marks the fourth anniversary of the Russian invasion. (AFP)

Lead Ukrainian negotiator Rustem Umerov will meet with US envoy Steve Witkoff in Geneva on Thursday, Kyiv has announced, ahead of fresh trilateral talks with Russia expected in early March.

The meetings are the latest round of negotiations spearheaded by US President Donald Trump that so far have failed to make meaningful progress on ending the Kremlin's four-year invasion of Ukraine.

"Tomorrow he will meet with American negotiators Witkoff and (Jared) Kushner," Ukrainian President Zelensky told a group of reporters, including from AFP.

He added that the meeting was part of "preparations for a trilateral meeting with Russia, which we believe will take place in early March".

Umerov's adviser told reporters separately that the meeting on Thursday will be in Geneva, which hosted talks with Russian, Ukrainian, and US officials earlier this month.

Other issues on the agenda for Thursday are prisoner-of-war exchanges and a "prosperity package" for the reconstruction of Ukraine, Zelensky said.

Witkoff confirmed the talks earlier this week saying the aim was to "explore different iterations about how we might get to a peace deal."

United States has been pushing for an end to the war that has entered its fifth year and which has killed tens of thousands and destroyed much of eastern and southern Ukraine.

Moscow and Kyiv remain at odds over who gets what land in a post-war settlement.

Russia is pushing for full control of Ukraine's eastern Donetsk region, and has threatened to take it by force if Kyiv does not cave at the negotiating table.

But Ukraine has rejected the demand and signaled it would not sign a deal without security guarantees that deter Russia from invading again.



Trump Says US Would Need Two Weeks to Hit All Iran Targets

 08 May 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters ahead of departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House. (Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
08 May 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters ahead of departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House. (Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
TT

Trump Says US Would Need Two Weeks to Hit All Iran Targets

 08 May 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters ahead of departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House. (Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)
08 May 2026, US, Washington: US President Donald Trump speaks to reporters ahead of departing on Marine One from the South Lawn of the White House. (Jen Golbeck/SOPA Images via ZUMA Press Wire/dpa)

US President Donald Trump has said in an interview aired Sunday that it would only take two weeks to hit "every single target" in Iran, adding that the country was "militarily defeated."

In the interview with independent journalist Sharyl Attkisson, which was recorded last week, he also called NATO a "paper tiger" and accused Washington's allies of failing to assist in the campaign against Tehran.

The comments come as Iran is reported to have responded to the latest US proposal on ending a conflict that began on February 28 with US and Israeli strikes on Iran.

"They're militarily defeated. In their own minds, maybe they don't know that. But I think they do," Trump said in the interview, before adding: "That doesn't mean they're done."

He suggested the US military could "go in for two more weeks and do every single target. We have certain targets that we wanted, and we've done probably 70 percent of them, but we have other targets that we could conceivably hit."

"But even if we didn't do that, you know, that would just be final touches," Trump said.

On NATO, he said the alliance "has proven to be a paper tiger. They weren't there to help."


Russia Accuses Ukraine of Violating US-Brokered Three-Day Truce

A drone engine lies near as Ukrainian rescuers and local people inspect the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 07 May 2026, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
A drone engine lies near as Ukrainian rescuers and local people inspect the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 07 May 2026, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
TT

Russia Accuses Ukraine of Violating US-Brokered Three-Day Truce

A drone engine lies near as Ukrainian rescuers and local people inspect the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 07 May 2026, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)
A drone engine lies near as Ukrainian rescuers and local people inspect the site of a Russian strike on a residential area in Kharkiv, Ukraine, 07 May 2026, amid the ongoing Russian invasion. (EPA)

Russia accused Kyiv of breaking a US-brokered ceasefire on Sunday, while Ukrainian officials said that one person had been killed and more injured by Russian drone and artillery strikes in the past 24 hours.

Two people were injured by Ukrainian shelling in the Russian-occupied part of Ukraine's Kherson region, the area's Moscow-installed leader Vladimir Saldo said.

Separately, Russia's Ministry of Defense accused Kyiv of committing more than 1,000 ceasefire violations, state media reported, citing a daily briefing on Sunday. The ministry said Ukrainian forces had attacked civilian targets in several Russian regions and carried out strikes against Russian military positions on the front line.

Russia's military “responded in kind” to the ceasefire violations,” the ministry said.

Ukrainian officials said Russia had launched attacks, although they stopped short of accusing Moscow of violating the US-brokered truce that came into force on Saturday.

Ivan Fedorov, head of Ukraine's southeastern Zaporizhzhia region, said one person had been killed and three more injured by artillery and drone attacks in the past 24 hours.

Oleksandr Prokudin, the head of Ukraine's Kherson, said that seven people had been wounded over the same period.

Five people were also injured when a Russian drone attack damaged a nine-storey apartment block in the industrial district of Ukraine’s second-largest city, Oleh Syniehubov, the head of the Kharkiv regional administration, said late Saturday.

US President Donald Trump said Friday that Russia and Ukraine had bowed to his request for a ceasefire running Saturday through Monday to mark Victory Day, the Russian celebration marking the defeat of Nazi Germany.

Trump said there would also be an exchange of prisoners, declaring that the break in fighting could be the “beginning of the end” of the war.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, who had said Russian authorities “fear drones may buzz over Red Square” during the May 9 parade in Moscow, followed up on Trump’s statement by mockingly declaring Red Square temporarily off-limits for Ukrainian strikes to allow the Russian parade to go ahead. The Kremlin shrugged off the comment as a “silly joke.”

Russian presidential aide Yuri Ushakov said on Sunday he expects US envoy Steve Witkoff and Trump's son-in-law, Jared Kushner, who have both taken a leading role in negotiations to end the war, to visit Moscow “soon enough.”

However, he stressed that Moscow would not move from its demand that Kyiv's troops withdraw from Ukraine's eastern Donbas region.

“Until (Ukraine) takes that step, we can hold several more rounds, dozens of rounds (of negotiations), but we’ll be stuck in the same place,” Ushakov was cited by the state news agency Tass as saying.


Iran's Supreme Leader Briefs Military Chief on 'New Guiding Measures'

An Iranian woman walks a mosque decorated with a banner depicting Iran's current leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in the capital Tehran on May 9, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) /
An Iranian woman walks a mosque decorated with a banner depicting Iran's current leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in the capital Tehran on May 9, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) /
TT

Iran's Supreme Leader Briefs Military Chief on 'New Guiding Measures'

An Iranian woman walks a mosque decorated with a banner depicting Iran's current leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in the capital Tehran on May 9, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) /
An Iranian woman walks a mosque decorated with a banner depicting Iran's current leader Mojtaba Khamenei, in the capital Tehran on May 9, 2026. (Photo by ATTA KENARE / AFP) /

The head of Iran's armed forces unified command met Supreme Leader Mojtaba Khamenei and received from him "new guiding measures to pursue military operations and ‌firmly confront ‌adversaries", the ‌semi-official Fars ⁠news reported on ⁠Sunday.

The Fars report said that Ali Abdollahi, who commands the Khatam al-Anbiya Central ⁠Headquarters, had briefed ‌Khamenei ‌on the readiness of ‌the country’s armed ‌forces. It did not say when their meeting took place, Reuters said.

"The ‌armed forces are ready to confront any ⁠action ⁠by the American-Zionist (Israeli) enemies. In case of any error by the enemy, Iran's response will be swift, severe, and decisive," Abdollahi was reported as saying.