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Ukraine denies drone attack on Putin’s residence
President Volodymyr Zelensky has denied allegations by Russia that Ukraine launched a drone attack on one of President Vladimir Putin’s residences, and accused Moscow of trying to derail peace talks.
Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov claimed Kyiv had launched an attack overnight using 91 long-range unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs) on Putin’s state residence in Russia’s northwestern Novgorod region.
Russia said it would now review its position in peace negotiations. It is not yet clear where Putin was at the time of the alleged attack.
Zelensky dismissed the claim as “typical Russian lies”, intended to give the Kremlin an excuse to continue attacks on Ukraine.
He said that Russia had previously targeted government buildings in Kyiv.
Zelensky added on X: “It is critical that the world doesn’t stay silent now. We cannot allow Russia to undermine the work on achieving a lasting peace.”
In a statement shared on Telegram on Monday, Lavrov said all of the 91 drones he claimed were launched at Putin’s residence were intercepted and destroyed by Russian air defence systems.
He added that there were no reports of casualties or damage as a result of the attack.
“Given the final degeneration of the criminal Kyiv regime, which has switched to a policy of state terrorism, Russia’s negotiating position will be revised,” he said.
But he added that Russia did not intend to exit the negotiating process with the US, Russian news agency Tass reported.
The claim by Moscow comes after talks between the US and Ukraine in Florida on Sunday, where Presidents Trump and Zelensky discussed a revised peace plan to end the war.
Following the meeting, Zelensky told Fox News on Monday that there was a “possibility to finish this war” in 2026.
But he said Ukraine could not win the war without US support.
“My feelings of President Trump’s sanctions and economical steps, shows that he’s ready for very strong steps,” Zelensky said. “In this situation, the United States can move the situation to peace quicker.”
The Ukrainian president told Fox News there was no indication that Putin wanted peace and that he did not trust Putin.
“I don’t trust Putin and he doesn’t want success for Ukraine,” Zelensky added.
Zelensky said the US had offered Ukraine security guarantees for 15 years, and Trump said an agreement on this point was “close to 95%” done.
Ukraine’s leader described territorial issues and the Russian-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant as the last unresolved matters, and there was little sign of progress on the future of Ukraine’s contested Donbas region – which Russia wants to seize in full.
Moscow currently controls about 75% of the Donetsk region, and some 99% of the neighbouring Luhansk. The two regions are known collectively as Donbas.
Russia has previously rejected key parts of the plan under discussion.
The White House said on Monday that President Trump had “concluded a positive call” with Putin, following the US-Ukraine talks.
Yuri Ushakov, a Kremlin foreign policy aide, told reporters on Monday that during the call, Putin had pointed out the alleged attack on his residence happened “almost straight after what the US had considered to be a successful round of talks”.
Ushakov said: “The US president was shocked by this information, he was angry and said he couldn’t believe such mad actions. It was stated that this will no doubt affect the US approach to working with Zelensky”.
During a later press conference, Trump initially appeared to say he did not know about the alleged incident, but later told reporters that he was told about it by Putin and was “very angry” about it.
Asked if the US had seen any evidence supporting Russia’s claim, he responded: “Well we’ll find out. You’re saying maybe the attack didn’t take place – that’s possible too, I guess. But President Putin told me this morning it did”.
US President Donald Trump has withdrawn an invite for Canada to join his newly constituted Board of Peace, in the latest spat between the North American neighbours.
“Please let this Letter serve to represent that the Board of Peace is withdrawing its invitation to you regarding Canada’s joining,” Trump said on Truth Social in a post addressed to Prime Minister Mark Carney.
Carney made headlines this week warning of a “rupture” in the US-led global order. Ottawa also said it would not pay to join Trump’s new body.
The board, which gives Trump wide decision-making powers as chairman, is being billed by the US as a new international organisation for resolving conflicts.
Trump did not give a reason in Thursday evening’s post as to why he had decided to revoke Canada’s offer.
Carney’s office did not immediately respond. The prime minster had indicated last week he would accept Trump’s invite on principle.
But Ottawa had indicated in recent days that it would not pay the $1bn (£740m) membership fee which Trump has said permanent members will be asked to pay to help fund the board.
His Board of Peace was originally thought to be aimed at helping end the two-year war between Israel and Hamas in Gaza and oversee reconstruction.
[BBC]
Two people have died and several are feared buried after landslides in New Zealand’s North Island.
The deaths were reported at Welcome Bay, while rescue workers are still searching through rubble at a different site in a popular campground on Mount Maunganui.
There are no “signs of life”, authorities said, adding that they have a “rough idea” of how many people are missing but are waiting for an exact figure. They provided no other details except that the group includes “at least one young girl”.
The landslides were triggered by heavy rains over the last few days, which led to flooding and power outages across the North Island. One minister said the east coast resembled “a war zone”.
New Zealand is “heavy with grief” after the “profound tragedy” caused by recent weather, Prime Minister Christopher Luxon said on X.
Footage from the campsite on Mount Maunganui, an extinct volcano, shows a huge slip near the base of the volcanic dome, as rescuers and sniffer dogs comb through crushed caravans and flattened tents.
Authorities said that the search would continue through the night. “This is a complex and high-risk environment, and our teams are working to achieve the best possible outcome while keeping everyone safe,” said Megan Stiffler, the deputy national commander for the Urban Search and Rescue team,
The extinct volcano is a sacred Māori site and one of the most popular campgrounds in New Zealand, with a local holiday website describing it as a “slice of paradise”. But it has been repeatedly hit by landslides in recent years.
“I heard this huge tree crack and all this dirt come off, and then I looked behind me and there’s this huge landslide coming down,” Australian tourist Sonny Worrall told local broadcaster TVNZ.
“I’m still shaking from it now… I turned around and had to jump out of my seat and just run,”he added. He saw it happen while swimming in a hot pool.
Hiker Mark Tangney told the New Zealand Herald he heard people screaming from under the rubble. “So I just parked up and ran to help… We could hear people screaming: ‘Help us, help us, get us out of here’,” he said.
Those calls persisted for about half an hour and then went silent, Tangney said.
A surf club in another part of Mount Maunganui has been evacuated following fears of more landslides.
A state of emergency has been declared in the Bay of Plenty where Mount Maunganui sits, and various parts of the North Island, including Northland, Coromandel, Tairāwhiti and Hauraki.
Several areas reported their wettest days on record on Thursday. Tauranga in the Bay of Plenty, for example, received three months worth of rain within a day, according to local media.
Some 8,000 people were without power as of Thursday morning, Radio New Zealand (RNZ) reported.
The wife of a man who was swept away in the Mahurangi River is holding out hope that he will survive.
“I know his personality is strong, wise,” she told RNZ, adding that he was a fisherman back home in Kiribati and knew how to swim and dive.
The man, 47, was driving to work with their nephew when the car they were in fell into the river.
He had pushed the nephew towards a branch so the nephew could hoist himself onto land; but the older man did not manage get back up himself, according to the report.
“It’s been a very big event for us as a country, really hitting almost our entire eastern seaboard of the North Island,” said Minister for Emergency Management Mark Mitchell.
“The good news is that everyone responded really quickly, and there was time to get prepared. That helps to mitigate and create a very strong response,” he told RNZ.
December to February are typically the sunnier months in New Zealand but in recent years heavy rains and storms have become more frequent.
In February 2023, parts of the island were devastated by Cyclone Gabrielle, which is to date the costliest cyclone to hit the Southern Hemisphere, with damage amounting to NZ$13.5bn ($7.9bn; £5.9bn).
This week’s flooding has added to the toll for the local communities that are still rebuilding.
[BBC]
Following a difficult Ashes tour, what is left of Bazball ran into an old-fashioned spin-bowling choke in Colombo. There were glimmers of brilliance from England in a chase of 272. But four Sri Lanka spinners, sharing six wickets between them, won through comfortably in the end.
Despite measured 60s from both Joe Root and Ben Duckett, England fell 19 runs short, their run rate having stayed below five an over for the majority of the run-chase. And so England, who had made attacking batting their brand for several years now, delivered the kind of insipid batting performance reminiscent of their woes in South Asia in decades gone by.
The likes of Dunit Wellalage and Jeffrey Vandersay would prosper on a dry Khettarama track, but it was Sri Lanka’s sensible batting that had laid the groundwork for this victory. Kusal Mendis’ 93 not out off 117 was the backbone of the innings, with Janith Liyanage punching out a helpful 46, and Wellalage producing the finishing fillip, hitting 25 not out off 12 balls.
Their 271 for 6 was merely a good total, rather than an imposing one. But then Khettarama is a notoriously difficult venue at which to chase. Though Jamie Overton’s late hitting gave England a sliver of hope, Sri Lanka had the match mostly trussed up at 40 overs, England needing to score at more than 10 an over at that stage, with four wickets in hand.
Overton could still potentially have stolen victory in the final over, off which England needed 20. But he turned down a single first ball, and then holed out trying to clear the infield off the next one.
Brief scores:
Sri Lanka 271 for 6 in 50 overs (Kusal Mendis 93*, Janith Liyanage 46; Adil Rashid 3-44) beat England 252 in 49.2 overs (Ben Duckett 62, Joe Root 61, Jamie Overton 34; Pramod Madushan 3-39, Dunith Wellalage 2-41, Jeffrey Vandersay 2-39 ) by 19 runs
[Cricinfo]
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