RUSSIAN PERSPECTIVE

US rejected Ukraine’s security guarantee demands – NYT

The US has rejected Ukraine’s request for security guarantees as part of a newly signed mineral resources agreement, the New York Times reported on Wednesday, citing sources familiar with the talks.

The nine-page deal, signed the same day after months of negotiations and published on Thursday by the Ukrainian government, gives Washington preferential access to Ukraine’s mineral projects, including rare-earth metals. It also establishes a joint investment fund to support Ukraine’s post-conflict reconstruction.

Despite its scope, the final agreement contains no formal pledge of future US military support, a key demand from Ukraine during negotiations. Instead, it vaguely mentions a “long-term strategic alignment” and promises US backing for Ukraine’s “security, prosperity, reconstruction, and integration into global economic frameworks.”One source told the NYT that the US dismissed the idea of providing Kiev with explicit security guarantees early in the talks.

State Department spokeswoman Tammy Bruce defended the agreement, suggesting that US involvement alone offers implicit protection.

“When America is your friend and your partner, your nation is going to be better off. And there is a security component just in our presence,”she told Fox Business.

Analysts told the NYT that the deal could help secure US President Donald Trump’s continued interest in Ukraine now that he is directly invested, and will potentially open the door to further discussions on military aid and a ceasefire with Russia. Still, critics argued that without binding guarantees, the deal’s impact may be limited if the conflict continues.

Ukraine’s parliament is expected to ratify the agreement within two weeks. The US has framed the deal as a way for Ukraine to repay past military aid – estimated at $350 billion by Trump, though Kiev claims the figure is closer to $100 billion and that the support was unconditional. The debt repayment clause, however, was dropped from the final text. After signing, Trump said the US could “in theory”recover “much more” than $350 billion through the deal.

Commenting on the deal, deputy head of the Russian Security Council Dmitry Medvedev said the US has essentially “forced the Kiev regime to pay for American aid with minerals,” warning that all future military supplies will have to be paid “with the national wealth of a vanishing country.”

WESTERN PERSPECTIVE

Russian drone attack kills two, injures 15 in Ukraine's Odesa

Russian drones attacked Ukraine's Black Sea port city of Odesa early on Thursday, killing two people and injuring 15 more, in addition to sparking fires and damaging infrastructure, emergency services said.

"The enemy attack damaged residential high-rises, private houses, a supermarket, a school, and cars," regional governor Oleh Kiper wrote on the Telegram messaging app. "Fires broke out in some places and are being extinguished by our rescuers."

Ukraine's state-owned railway Ukrzaliznytsia said the overnight attack also damaged its tracks, the contact network and three freight cars.

"Railway employees are carrying out rapid repair work to ensure that freight trains run to ports without interruption. They are currently following an alternative route."

Passenger trains were running on schedule, it added on Telegram. One of the people killed in his home during the attack on Odesa was a railway worker, according to the company.

Ukraine's air force said that Russia launched five ballistic missiles and 170 drones during the overnight attack.

The air force shot down 74 drones while another 68 drones did not reach their targets likely due to electronic warfare countermeasures, it said.

It did not specify what happened to the missiles or remaining 28 drones.

Videos posted by Kiper showed heavily damaged facade of a high-rise building, a storefront with shattered windows and fire-fighters battling flames at one of the sites in the city.

In Kharkiv, Ukraine's second-largest city in the northeast, Mayor Ihor Terekhov said a drone had struck a petrol station in the city centre, sparking a fire.

RT/Reuters