WESTERN PERSPECTIVE
Russia launches air attack on Ukraine's capital Kyiv, mayor says
Ukraine's air defence units were trying to repel a Russian air attack on the capital Kyiv, Mayor Vitali Klitschko said early on Sunday on the Telegram messaging app on Sunday.
** Seven killed after bridge collapse, train derailment in Russia's Bryansk region bordering Ukraine
At least seven people were killed and 30 hospitalised after "illegal interference" caused a bridge to collapse and a train to derail in Russia's Bryansk region that borders Ukraine, Russian authorities said early on Sunday.
The train's locomotive and several cars derailed "due to the collapse of a span structure of the road bridge as a result of an illegal interference in the operation of transport," Russian Railways said on the Telegram messaging app.
Two children were among those hospitalised, one of them in a serious condition, Alexander Bogomaz, the governor of the Bryansk region, said on Telegram. Among those killed was the locomotive driver, Russia's state news agencies reported, citing medics.
Russia's ministry of emergency situations said on Telegram that its main efforts were aimed at finding and rescuing victims, and that some 180 personnel were involved in the operation.
Russia's Baza Telegram channel, which often publishes information from sources in the security services and law enforcement, reported, without providing evidence, that according to preliminary information, the bridge was blown up.
Reuters could not independently verify the Baza report. There was no immediate comment from Ukraine.
Since the start of the war that Russia launched more than three years ago, there have been continued cross-border shelling, drone strikes, and covert raids from Ukraine into the Bryansk, Kursk and Belgorod regions that border Ukraine.
The train was going from the town of Klimovo to Moscow, Russian Railways said. It collided with the collapsed bridge in the area of a federal highway in the Vygonichskyi district of the Bryansk region, Bogomaz said. The district lies some 100 km (62 miles) from the border with Ukraine.
U.S. President Donald Trump has urged Moscow and Kyiv to work together on a deal to end the war, and Russia has proposed a second round of face-to-face talks with Ukrainian officials next week in Istanbul.
Ukraine is yet to commit to attending the talks on Monday, saying it first needed to see Russian proposals, while a leading U.S. senator warned Moscow it would be "hit hard" by new U.S. sanctions.
RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE
Defeating Russia impossible – German foreign minister
It has been clear from the very beginning of the Ukraine conflict that Russia cannot be defeated, particularly due to its nuclear status, German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has told the SZ newspaper.
Kiev’s Western backers, including top officials in Germany, France, and the UK, as well as the US under former President Joe Biden’s administration, repeatedly stated the intent to inflict a “strategic defeat” on Moscow in the Ukraine conflict, or at least to ensure that it does not emerge victorious. That justification has been used to support continued military assistance to Kiev.
Wadephul admitted on Friday that it was obvious the conflict between Moscow and Kiev can only be resolved in a diplomatic way.
“It was clear from the beginning that this war would most likely end through a negotiated settlement,” Germany’s top diplomat told SZ in a lengthy interview.
“One thing is true: a complete defeat in the sense of a capitulation by nuclear-armed Russia could not have been expected,” the minister stated, adding that “we have now become a little more honest” in this regard. He still maintained that Kiev’s troops have been “successfully defending” against Moscow’s forces, although the Ukrainian military has been losing ground along the entire front over the past several months.
The foreign minister maintained it was important to help Kiev get a “strong negotiating position” at peace talks and claimed that Russia was “threatening” Germany as he justified a planned military buildup and increase in defense expenditures. He also said that relations between Moscow and Berlin could no longer be described as a “clear peace situation.”
Berlin has taken an even more hardline position on Russia under new Chancellor Friedrich Merz. In the weeks since taking office, Merz has lifted range restrictions on Ukrainian strikes with German-supplied missiles and hinted at the possibility of providing Kiev with Taurus missiles, which have a range of 500km and could reach Moscow.
Germany has also announced a new military aid package for Kiev worth €5.2 billion ($5.6 billion), which Berlin says would be allocated mostly to long-range weaponry production inside Ukraine.
Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov reacted to Merz’s statements by saying that Berlin’s “direct involvement in the war is now obvious.”Germany already followed a similar “slippery slope” a couple of times in the last century “down toward its own collapse,” he added.
Reuters/RT