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IMF approves $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine

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The International Monetary Fund (IMF) said its executive board had approved a four-year $15.6 billion loan program for Ukraine, part of a global $115 billion package to support the country’s economy as it battles Russia’s 13-month-old invasion.

A $2.6 billion U.S. military aid package that could include air surveillance radars, anti-tank rockets and fuel trucks for Ukraine’s fight against Russia is expected to be announced as soon as Monday, three U.S. officials said on Friday.

A senior Ukrainian official ruled out any ceasefire in Russia’s war on his country that would involve Russian forces remaining on territory they now occupy in Ukraine, Reuters reported.

Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said Russia faced “existential threats” to its security and development from “unfriendly states” as he presented President Vladimir Putin with an updated foreign policy doctrine.

U.S. Secretary of State Blinken will push back on Russia’s attempts to “weaponize energy” and rally support for a Ukrainian counteroffensive when he meets NATO foreign ministers in Brussels next week, an official said.

Belarusian President Alexander Lukashenko said Russia, which has decided to station tactical nuclear weapons in Belarus, could if necessary put intercontinental nuclear missiles there too.

At least six Russian missiles hit the eastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv late on Thursday, and officials are gathering details about damage and casualties, the regional governor said.

The advance of Russian soldiers on the outskirts of the eastern frontline town of Bakhmut “has been halted – or nearly halted”, the director of the Ukrainian defense publication Defense Express said.

Reuters could not verify battlefield reports.

Russia said on Friday that if the United States threatened Moscow over its arrest of Wall Street Journal reporter Evan Gershkovich, it would “reap the whirlwind”, the state-owned news agency RIA reported.

A Nobel prize-winning Russian journalist said he did not believe that arrested American reporter Evan Gershkovich was a spy, adding he hoped diplomacy could bring about his quick release.

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Zelenskyy warns against ‘repeat of Afghanistan scenario’ in Ukraine

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US President Donald Trump’s move to advance peace negotiations with Russia – but without Ukraine’s participation – has sparked serious concerns in Kyiv and across Europe with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy warning that the end of the Ukraine war could result in a situation similar to Afghanistan in 2021.

Zelenskyy’s remarks came on the eve of talks between Russia’s Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov and US Secretary of State Marco Rubio in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia.

These talks, which are part of new efforts by US President Donald Trump to advance peace negotiations, have sparked concerns that Washington and Moscow might shape Ukraine’s future without its involvement.

Zelenskyy meanwhile said: “You can’t just take that off the table. That’s not how it works. I don’t think anyone is interested in an Afghanistan 2.0,” Zelenskyy said, referring to US government statements that Ukraine would not become a NATO member.

He specifically pointed to the hasty withdrawal of Western troops from Afghanistan, which was negotiated during Donald Trump’s first term and rapidly implemented under former president Joe Biden in 2021. This led to a chaotic retreat and the collapse of the former Afghan government.

Zelensky stressed that back then, “lack of respect for human life” led to the “tragedy.” He added: “So there are experiences with what happens when someone ends something without thinking it through and withdraws very quickly.”

While acknowledging that Ukraine is now a different country than at the beginning of Russia’s invasion, with experience in its own arms production, Zelenskyy emphasized that “there will definitely be no victory for Ukraine without US support.”

UK reacts to Trump’s initiative

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer also spoke out against Trump’s move to broker peace with Russia, without Ukraine’s involvement, and warned the US president against letting Ukraine become an “Afghanistan-style disaster”.

Starmer made the comparison with the collapse of Kabul in 2021 – which Trump branded “one of the greatest defeats in American history” and urged the US not to make too many concessions to Russia.

Starmer stressed that any resolution must be lasting and prevent Russia’s President Vladimir Putin from “coming again” for more territory.

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Israel receives shipment of heavy bombs cleared by Trump

The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000-pound (907-kg) bomb, which can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius, Reuters reported.

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Israel has received a shipment of heavy MK-84 bombs from the United States, after U.S. President Donald Trump lifted a block imposed on the export of the munitions by the administration of predecessor Joe Biden, the defence ministry said on Sunday.

Speaking to reporters on Sunday, Trump said he lifted a Biden-era block on the export of the bombs to Israel despite a ceasefire agreement being in place because he believed in “peace through strength.”

“They contracted for the weapons a long time ago with the Biden administration, and then Biden wouldn’t deliver the weapons. But I look at it differently. I say, ‘peace through strength,'” Trump told reporters after returning to West Palm Beach, Florida, after a short trip to Daytona Beach. “They were sitting there. Nobody knew what to do with them. They bought them.”

The MK-84 is an unguided 2,000-pound (907-kg) bomb, which can rip through thick concrete and metal, creating a wide blast radius, Reuters reported.

The Biden administration declined to clear them for export to Israel out of concern about the impact on densely populated areas of the Gaza Strip.

The Biden administration sent thousands of 2,000-pound bombs to Israel after the Oct. 7, 2023, attack by Palestinian Hamas militants from Gaza but later held up one of the shipments. The hold was lifted by Trump last month.

“The munitions shipment that arrived in Israel tonight, released by the Trump administration, represents a significant asset for the Air Force and the IDF and serves as further evidence of the strong alliance between Israel and the United States,” Defence Minister Israel Katz said late on Saturday.

The shipment arrived after days of concern about whether a fragile ceasefire in Gaza agreed last month would hold, after both sides accused each other of violating the terms of the deal to halt fighting to allow the exchange of hostages held in Gaza for Palestinian prisoners and detainees in Israeli jails, read the report.

Washington has announced assistance for Israel worth billions of dollars since the war began.

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Zelenskiy says Ukraine has ‘low chance’ of survival without US backing

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Ukraine has little chance of surviving Russia’s assault without U.S. support, President Volodymyr Zelenskiy said on Friday after phone calls this week by U.S. President Donald Trump with Zelenskiy and Russian President Vladimir Putin.

“Probably it will be very, very, very difficult. And of course, in all the difficult situations, you have a chance. But we will have low chance – low chance to survive without support of the United States,” Zelenskiy said in an interview on the NBC News program “Meet the Press.”

An excerpt was released on Friday from the interview, which will be broadcast on Sunday. Reuters reported.

Trump discussed the war on Wednesday in separate calls with Putin and Zelenskiy, in the U.S. president’s first big step toward diplomacy in a conflict he has promised to end quickly.

Trump later said he did not think it was practical for Kyiv to join NATO and that it was unlikely Ukraine would get back all its land. Russia, which annexed Crimea in 2014, launched a full-scale invasion of Ukraine in February 2022.

Ukraine demands Russia withdraw from captured territory and says it must receive NATO membership or equivalent security guarantees to prevent Moscow from attacking again.

Zelenskiy said in the interview that Putin wanted to come to the negotiating table not to end the war but to get a ceasefire deal to lift some global sanctions on Russia and allow Moscow’s military to regroup.

“This is really what he wants. He wants pause, prepare, train, take off some sanctions, because of ceasefire,” Zelenskiy said.

Trump said his call with Putin was a good conversation that lasted over an hour, while the Kremlin said it lasted nearly an hour and a half. Zelenskiy’s office said Trump and Zelenskiy spoke for about an hour. Trump said the call “went very well.”

 

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