Russia Dismisses Zelenskiy’s ‘Victory Plan’ as Gambit to Keep West Onside 

A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
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Russia Dismisses Zelenskiy’s ‘Victory Plan’ as Gambit to Keep West Onside 

A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)
A view shows a site of a Russian air strike, amid Russia's attack on Ukraine, in Kharkiv, Ukraine September 15, 2024. (Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelenskiy via Telegram/Handout via Reuters)

Russia on Friday dismissed a "victory plan" elaborated by Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy as a gambit to keep the West onside and said it had nothing to do with the search for a diplomatic or political solution to end the war.

Zelenskiy said on Wednesday that his plan, full details of which he has yet to disclose, was complete after much consultation.

He is due to present it to US President Joe Biden and to address a meeting of the United Nations Security Council on Tuesday.

Zelenskiy has said his initiative is designed to create terms acceptable to Ukraine, now locked in conflict with Russia for more than 2-1/2 years.

Russian Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova told reporters that the plan looked like a self-interested gambit from the Ukrainian leader whom Moscow accuses of trying to drag the West into a full-blown war against Russia.

"The only goal is to forge or prevent the collapse of the anti-Russian coalition, and of course this has nothing to do with the task of finding a political and diplomatic settlement of the situation around Ukraine," said Zakharova.

She repeated Moscow's view that the West should stop financing and supplying arms to Kyiv and said any initiative purportedly aimed at reaching a peaceful settlement which did not include Russia was pointless.



Moroccan Community Calls for Calm after Anti-migrant Clashes in Spanish Town

A man throws an object at police, amid anti-migrant unrest following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week, in Torre Pacheco, Spain, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
A man throws an object at police, amid anti-migrant unrest following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week, in Torre Pacheco, Spain, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
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Moroccan Community Calls for Calm after Anti-migrant Clashes in Spanish Town

A man throws an object at police, amid anti-migrant unrest following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week, in Torre Pacheco, Spain, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura
A man throws an object at police, amid anti-migrant unrest following an attack on an elderly man by unknown assailants earlier in the week, in Torre Pacheco, Spain, July 13, 2025. REUTERS/Violeta Santos Moura

Moroccan community leaders in the Spanish town of Torre Pacheco called for calm following four nights of clashes between North African migrants and the far-right, in some of the worst such unrest in the country in recent times.

Police have detained at least 14 people so far over the clashes that flared up on Friday after an attack last week on a local man in his 60s.

Far-right groups have called for anti-migrant protests on Tuesday and over 120 Civil Guard officers have been deployed to maintain security in the town, a government spokesperson for the region said, Reuters reported.

Authorities said three Moroccan citizens suspected of involvement in the assault have been apprehended, including a 19-year-old alleged to be the main perpetrator. He was detained on Monday evening in northern Spain on assault and battery charges.

A spokesperson for the central government's office in the Murcia region said none of the suspects lived in Torre Pacheco.

After xenophobic messages on social media to "hunt down" residents of North African origin, leaders of the local Moroccan community urged calm and advised younger members to remain in their homes after dozens took to the streets over the weekend and on Monday, clashing with far-right groups and police.

"We want peace ... We don't want criminals, we don't want violence or people who come from outside to make trouble here," Abdelali, an informal spokesperson for the Moroccan community who has lived in the town for 25 years, told reporters.

Police arrested three people overnight after a confrontation with dozens of young men in the San Antonio neighbourhood, home to a majority of the town's first- and second generation migrants who represent nearly a third of the town's population of 40,000, according to local government data.

Reuters footage showed some of the protesters, mostly masked, lobbing fireworks at officers clad in riot gear, who responded by firing rubber bullets.

HATE CRIMES INVESTIGATION

Spain's top hate crimes prosecutor, Miguel Angel Aguilar, told SER radio on Tuesday that his office was investigating the events in Torre Pacheco, as well as social media messages inciting violence towards migrants.

He also confirmed regional prosecutors were looking at statements by the leader of far-right party Vox in Murcia, Jose Angel Antelo, who is accused by Spain's ruling Socialist Party of linking immigration to criminality in speeches, media appearances and posts on X.

Late on Monday, the messaging app Telegram shuttered a channel named "DeportThemNowSpain" for "inciting violence".

Reuters reviewed dozens of messages in the channel that included expletive-laden calls to attack Moroccans residing in Torre Pacheco or set fire to their homes.

The Spanish Interior Ministry said police in Mataro, near Barcelona, had arrested an unnamed leader of supremacist movement "Deport Them Now Europe" suspected of inciting hatred and seized two computers.