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Ukraine and the United States began talks in Saudi Arabia on Tuesday with a partial ceasefire with Russia on the table, just hours after Kyiv conducted a major drone attack targeting the Moscow area.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Ukraine’s Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga were attending the meeting, with President Donald Trump ramping up pressure on Ukraine to end the war that began with Russia’s 2022 invasion.The talks come days after President Volodymyr Zelensky’s dressing-down at the White House, and Ukraine is hoping its ceasefire offer will persuade Washington to resume the military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery it cut off after the row.”We are ready to do everything to achieve peace,” Ukrainian presidency chief of staff Andriy Yermak told reporters as he entered the meeting, with no Russian delegation expected to attend.Kyiv officials said the “largest drone attack in history”, when hundreds of drones hit Moscow and other areas overnight, was intended to push Russian President Vladimir Putin to agree to an aerial and naval ceasefire.”This is an additional signal to Putin that he should also be interested in a ceasefire in the air,” said Andriy Kovalenko, a national security council official responsible for countering disinformation.Ukraine is hoping the ceasefire offer will persuade the United States to resume the military aid, intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery that was cut off after Trump’s row with Zelensky.Zelensky, who met Saudi Arabia’s de facto ruler in Jeddah on Monday, left the White House without signing an agreement pushed by Trump for the United States to secure control over Ukrainian mineral resources.Zelensky has said he is still willing to sign, although Rubio said it would not be the focus of Tuesday’s meeting.Rubio, who is accompanied by national security advisor Mike Waltz, said the aid suspension was “something I hope we can resolve” in the talks.”Hopefully, we’ll have a good meeting and good news to report,” Rubio said.Rubio said that the United States had not cut off intelligence for defensive operations.- ‘Massive’ drone attack -Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Ukraine carried out what Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a “massive” overnight attack, with 337 drones shot down including 91 around the capital.The attack killed one person and wounded nine others, according to Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region.For its part, Russia has escalated strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and retaken villages in its Kursk region that Ukraine had captured in a bid for bargaining leverage.In the White House meeting, Zelensky refused to bite his tongue in the face of criticism from Vice President JD Vance, with the Ukrainian leader questioning why his country should trust promises from Russia which launched a full-scale invasion in 2022 despite previous diplomacy.He has since written a repentant letter to Trump.Faced with Washington’s pressure, Ukraine will lay out its support for a limited ceasefire.”We do have a proposal for a ceasefire in the sky and ceasefire at sea,” a Ukrainian official told AFP on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.Rubio signalled that the Trump administration would likely be pleased by such a proposal.”I’m not saying that alone is enough, but it’s the kind of concession you would need to see in order to end the conflict,” he told reporters.”You’re not going to get a ceasefire and an end to this war unless both sides make concessions.””The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to force the Russians all the way back to where they were back in 2014,” Rubio added, referring to when Russia seized the Crimea peninsula and backed a separatist offensive in eastern Ukraine.- ‘Possible’ Saudi mediation -In his meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman, Zelensky’s office said he discussed conditions for any permanent peace deal, including the release of prisoners and the return of children Kyiv accuses Moscow of abducting.The two leaders “discussed the possible mediation of Saudi Arabia in the release of… prisoners and the return of deported children”, the Ukrainian statement said.They also “exchanged views on the formats of security guarantees and what they should be for Ukraine so that war does not return again”, it added.Rubio said he did not expect to be “drawing lines on a map” towards a final deal in the Jeddah meeting, but said he would bring ideas back to Russia.Rubio and Waltz met last month, also in Saudi Arabia, with counterparts from Russia, ending a freeze in high-level contacts imposed by former president Joe Biden after Russia defied Western warnings and launched its invasion.Trump last week also threatened further sanctions against Russia to force it to the table as it carried out strikes on Ukraine.But Trump’s abrupt shift in US policy has stunned many allies. Rubio said the United States was objecting to “antagonistic” language on Russia at an upcoming gathering of Group of Seven foreign ministers.burs-sct/th/ser

The arrest on Tuesday of former Philippines President Rodrigo Duterte, by police acting on an International Criminal Court warrant tied to his deadly war on drugs, marks a success for the ICC, which has been struggling for almost 23 years against a lack of recognition and enforcement power.Backed by 125 member states, the jurisdiction seeks to prosecute individuals responsible for the world’s gravest crimes when countries are unwilling or unable to do so themselves.  The wheels of international justice grind slowly, as evidenced by the court’s low conviction rate.However, it’s not all about the final judgement, experts say. The mere fact of pursuing alleged perpetrators of atrocities sends a message that the international community is determined to fight impunity.- Catch me if you can -Since it began work in 2002, the ICC has opened 32 cases for alleged war crimes, crimes against humanity, genocide and offences against the administration of justice. Fourteen of them, or roughly 40 percent, are ongoing, in most cases because the suspects are still at large. Without a police force, the Hague-based court is unlikely to catch them soon. Of the 60 arrest warrants issued since 2002, only 21 had been carried out before Duterte’s arrest.The ICC relies on states to apprehend suspects.But the incentive for them to cooperate is low because the court has “nothing to offer in return, except a commitment to seeing justice served”, former ICC adviser Pascal Turlan said.  The court’s wanted list includes Russian President Vladimir Putin, Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Ugandan warlord Joseph Kony. All three are accused of war crimes.Russia is one of dozens of nations, including the United States, Israel and China, that do not recognise the jurisdiction of the ICC, hampering its ability to investigate their nationals.But some member states also defy its authority by, for instance, refusing to hand over suspects.”When states don’t like what the ICC does, they don’t often cooperate,” said Nancy Combs, professor of law at William & Mary Law School in the United States. – 11 convictions, all Africans -ICC spokesperson Fadi El Abdallah stressed that the court’s role is not to go after all suspected war criminals but to “encourage nations to deal with their own cases”.Each case comes with a unique set of challenges, from interference by national governments to witness intimidation.The latter caused the case against Kenya’s former deputy president William Ruto to fall apart in 2016, according to a former chief prosecutor.These challenges partly explain the court’s low conviction rate.Since its inception it has handed down 11 guilty verdicts, mostly against officials from the war-torn Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC), and four acquittals.All those judged were Africans, leading to accusations that the ICC is unfairly targeting the continent.Combs pointed out that some African countries, including Uganda, Ivory Coast and the DRC, had referred their own wars to the court for investigation in the early days, while other cases had been instigated by the United Nations Security Council.”The ICC has diversified a lot but non-African states have resisted ICC jurisdiction more fiercely,” she pointed out, citing Russia as an example.

Ukraine will present the United States on Tuesday with a plan for a partial ceasefire with Russia, hours after conducting what Moscow said was a “massive” drone attack on the capital and around the country.With US President Donald Trump pushing Ukraine for an agreement to end the war that began with Russia’s invasion in 2022, the Russian military has also ramped up its attacks.The meeting due later Tuesday between Ukrainian and US officials in the Saudi port city of Jeddah will be the most senior since a disastrous White House visit last month when Trump berated Kyiv’s President Volodymyr Zelensky for purported ingratitude.Since Trump’s dressing down of Zelensky, Washington has suspended military aid to Ukraine as well as intelligence sharing and access to satellite imagery in a bid to force it to the negotiating table.Ahead of Tuesday’s meeting, Ukraine carried out what Moscow mayor Sergei Sobyanin described as a “massive” overnight attack, with 337 drones shot down across the country including 91 around the Russian capital.The attack killed one person and wounded nine others, according to Andrei Vorobyov, governor of the Moscow region.Zelensky was in Jeddah on Monday to meet Saudi rulers but left the talks to three top aides.US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who will be joined in Jeddah by Trump’s national security advisor Mike Waltz, said the aid suspension was “something I hope we can resolve” in the talks.”Hopefully, we’ll have a good meeting and good news to report,” Rubio said.Rubio said that the United States had not cut off intelligence for defensive operations.Zelensky left the White House without signing an agreement demanded by Trump that would give the United States access to much of Ukraine’s mineral wealth as compensation for past weapons supplies.Zelensky has said he is still willing to sign, although Rubio said it would not be the focus of Tuesday’s meeting.For its part, Russia has escalated its strikes against Ukrainian infrastructure and retaken villages in its Kursk region that Ukraine had captured in a bid for bargaining leverage.- Forced into concession -In the White House meeting, Zelensky refused to bite his tongue in the face of criticism from Vice President JD Vance, with the Ukrainian leader questioning why his country should trust promises from Russia which launched a full-scale invasion in 2022 despite previous diplomacy.He has since written a repentant letter to Trump.Faced with Washington’s pressure, Ukraine will lay out its support for a limited ceasefire.”We do have a proposal for a ceasefire in the sky and ceasefire at sea,” a Ukrainian official told AFP on Monday, speaking on condition of anonymity.”These are the ceasefire options that are easy to install and to monitor, and it’s possible to start with them.”Rubio signalled that the Trump administration would likely be pleased by such a proposal.”I’m not saying that alone is enough, but it’s the kind of concession you would need to see in order to end the conflict,” he told reporters.”You’re not going to get a ceasefire and an end to this war unless both sides make concessions.””The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine and obviously it will be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to force the Russians all the way back to where they were back in 2014,” Rubio said, referring to when Russia seized the Crimea peninsula and backed a separatist offensive in eastern Ukraine.In a meeting with Saudi Crown Prince Mohammed bin Salman ahead of the US-Ukraine talks, Zelensky’s office said he discussed conditions for any permanent peace deal, including the release of prisoners and the return of children Kyiv accuses Moscow of abducting.The two leaders “discussed the possible mediation of Saudi Arabia in the release of… prisoners and the return of deported children”, the Ukrainian statement said.They also “exchanged views on the formats of security guarantees and what they should be for Ukraine so that war does not return again”, it added.- Reporting back to Russia -Rubio said he did not expect to be “drawing lines on a map” towards a final deal in the Jeddah meeting, but said he would bring ideas back to Russia.Rubio and Waltz met last month, also in Saudi Arabia, with counterparts from Russia, ending a freeze in high-level contacts imposed by former president Joe Biden after Russia defied Western warnings and launched its invasion.Trump last week also threatened further sanctions against Russia to force it to the table as it carried out strikes on Ukraine.But Trump’s abrupt shift in US policy has stunned many allies. Rubio said the United States was objecting to “antagonistic” language on Russia at an upcoming gathering of Group of Seven foreign ministers.burs-sct/ser/ami

South Korean automaker Kia told AFP on Tuesday it had not approved an advertising campaign that featured one of its electric vehicles with a bumper sticker denigrating rival Tesla owner Elon Musk.The advertisement, posted last month on the social media accounts of Kia Norway, features the company’s entry-level electric car, the EV3, with a bumper …

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