Foreign
EU diplomat bombs Trump over dictator comment on Zelensky, points at Putin
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The EU’s top diplomat said Thursday she had initially thought US President Donald Trump had confused Volodymyr Zelensky with Vladimir Putin when he called the Ukrainian leader a “dictator”.
“First when I heard this, I was like, oh, he must be mixing the two, because clearly Putin is the dictator,” Kaja Kallas told reporters in Johannesburg.
In a post on his Truth Social platform Wednesday, Trump wrote that Zelensky was a “dictator without elections”.
Zelensky’s five-year term expired last year but Ukrainian law does not require elections during war-time.
“Zelensky is an elected leader in fair and free elections,” Kallas said in a briefing after attending a meeting of G20 foreign ministers.
The constitutions of many countries allow for elections to be suspended during wartime in order to focus on the conflict, she said.
Russia, which attacked Ukraine in 2022, could choose to hold free elections but “they are afraid of democracy expanding because in democracy, the leaders are held accountable,” the EU foreign policy chief said.
“It’s literally from the dictator’s handbook.”
Trump has rattled Ukraine and its European backers by opening direct talks with Moscow on ending the war but excluding Kyiv and European countries.
Kallas said the focus should remain on supporting Ukraine and putting political and economic pressure on Russia.
The stronger Ukraine is on “the battlefield, the stronger they are behind the negotiation table,” she said, adding, “Russia doesn’t really want peace.”
It was also premature to talk about sending troops to protect Ukraine after any ceasefire deal with Russia, Kallas said.
Rather, Ukraine needed concrete security guarantees that Russia would not attack again, she said, adding that history had shown that ceasefires had only been opportunities for Russia “to regroup and rearm.”
AFP
Russian authorities have accused Ukraine of carrying out a deadly drone attack on a university complex in Starobelsk, in the Russian-controlled Luhansk region, claiming that 21 students were killed in the strike.
According to a statement circulated by Russian officials, the attack occurred on the night of May 22 and targeted the academic building and dormitory of Lugansk State Pedagogical University.
Russian authorities alleged that 16 unmanned aerial vehicles (UAVs), including four heavy drones, were deployed in three waves during the operation.
Officials described the incident as one of the deadliest attacks on a civilian educational facility in the region since the outbreak of the Russia-Ukraine war, claiming that the victims were students residing in the university dormitory.
“Just a week ago, they were students with dreams, plans and a future. Today, all that remains are photographs, memories and unbearable grief,” the statement said.
The authorities further alleged that the strike was deliberate and targeted civilians rather than military infrastructure.
The claims could not be independently verified, and Ukrainian authorities had not publicly responded to the allegations at the time of filing this report.
Since the start of the conflict, both Russia and Ukraine have repeatedly accused each other of carrying out attacks on civilian infrastructure, allegations that are often difficult to verify independently due to ongoing hostilities and restricted access to affected areas.
The reported incident has renewed concerns among humanitarian organizations about the impact of the war on educational institutions and young people caught in the conflict.
The Russia-Ukraine war, now in its fifth year, has resulted in thousands of civilian casualties, widespread displacement and extensive damage to homes, schools, hospitals and critical infrastructure across both countries.
International observers have consistently called for independent investigations into attacks involving civilian casualties, regardless of the parties involved, to establish the facts and ensure accountability under international humanitarian law.
Iran’s foreign ministry on Tuesday accused the United States of violating a fragile ceasefire during the past 48 hours in the southern coastal province of Hormozgan, without specifying the incident.
“The US terrorist army, continuing its illegal and unjustified actions since the ceasefire … has, in the past 48 hours, committed a gross violation of the ceasefire in the Hormozgan region,” the ministry said in a statement.
The US Central Command said forces had on Monday attacked missile sites and boats it said were trying to lay mines in the Gulf, while Iran’s Revolutionary Guards said it had fired at US aircraft attempting to enter the country’s airspace.
AFP
Iranian President Masoud Pezeshkian has ordered the restoration of international internet access in Iran, which had been suspended since the United States and Israel launched attacks against the country, local media reported Monday.
“The decree aimed at restoring internet access to its pre-January state was communicated to the Ministry of Communications by the president,” Iranian news agencies Tasnim and Fars reported.
Authorities shut down the internet during large-scale anti-government protests that peaked in early January, then suspended it again on February 28 at the start of the Middle East war.
Since then, the population has only had access to domestic platforms and websites.
AFP
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