Резюме: | Ukrainian drones struck a major gas processing plant in southern Russia, sparking a fire and forcing it to suspend its intake of gas from Kazakhstan, Russian and Kazakh authorities said Sunday. U.S. President Donald Trump meanwhile suggested that Kyiv may have to give up territory in exchange for an end to Moscow’s more than 3 1/2-year invasion, in the latest of apparent reversals on how to pursue peace. The Orenburg plant, run by state-owned gas giant Gazprom and located in a region of the same name near the Kazakh border, is part of a production and processing complex that is one of the world’s largest facilities of its kind, with an annual capacity of 45 billion cubic meters. It handles gas condensate from Kazakhstan’s Karachaganak field, alongside Orenburg’s own oil and gas fields. According to regional Gov. Yevgeny Solntsev, the drone strikes set fire to a workshop at the plant and damaged part of it. The Kazakh Energy Ministry on Sunday said, citing a notification from Gazprom, that the plant was temporarily unable to process gas originating in Kazakhstan, “due to an emergency situation following a drone attack.” Ukraine’s General Staff said in a statement Sunday that a “large-scale fire” erupted at the Orenburg plant, and that one of its gas processing and purification units was damaged. Kyiv has ramped up attacks in recent months on Russian energy facilities it says both fund and directly fuel Moscow’s war effort. Trump says Ukraine may have to give up land for peace Trump appeared to edge back in the direction of pressing Ukraine to give up on retaking land it has lost to Russia, in exchange for an end to Moscow’s aggression. Asked in a Fox News interview conducted Thursday whether Russian President Vladimir Putin would be open to ending the war “without taking significant property from Ukraine,” Trump responded: “Well, he’s going to take something.” “They fought and he has a lot of property. He’s won certain property,” Trump said. “We’re the only nation that goes in, wins a war and then leaves.” The interview was aired on Sunday on Fox News’ “Sunday Morning Futures,” but was conducted before Trump spoke to Putin and Zelenskyy last week. The comments amounted to another shift in position on the war by the U.S. leader. In recent weeks, Trump had shown growing impatience with Putin and expressed greater openness to helping Ukraine win the war. In Thursday’s interview, he was noncommittal about sending Tomahawk missiles requested by Ukraine, saying “I’m looking at it” but expressing concern about depleting U.S. weapons stocks. “We need them for ourselves too,” Trump said. “We can’t give all our weapons to Ukraine. We just can’t do that.” Contrary to Kyiv’s hopes, Trump did not commit to providing it with Tomahawks following their meeting at the White House on Friday. The missiles would be the longest-range weapons in Ukraine’s arsenal and would allow it to strike targets deep inside Russia, including Moscow, with precision. Deliveries of Tomahawks could provide leverage to help push the Kremlin into negotiations, analysts say, after Trump expressed frustration over Putin’s refusal to budge on key aspects of a possible peace deal. Russians modified bombs for deeper strikes Meanwhile, Ukrainian prosecutors claim that Moscow is modifying its deadly aerial-guided bombs to strike civilians deeper in Ukraine. Local authorities in Kharkiv said Russia struck a residential neighborhood using a new […] |