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Foreign Minister Arzu Rana Deuba held a bilateral meeting with her Ukrainian counterpart Andrii Sybiha in New Delhi today on the sidelines of the 10th edition of the Raisina Dialogue 2025 organized by the Ministry of External Affairs, India.

During the meeting, the two leaders discussed ways for further strengthening Nepal-Ukraine relations and promoting cooperation, according to Minister Rana's Private Secretariat.

Minister Rana urged Ukraine to facilitate the release and repatriation of seven Nepali citizens held as Prisoners of War by Ukrainian soldiers.

According to her, although Nepal has no policy to allow its citizens to join the Russian army, it was later learned that Nepalis were recruited in the Russian army through human traffickers.

In response, Sybiha expressed his commitment to release the Nepali prisoners of war after completing the necessary legal process.

Similarly, Foreign Minister Rana sought the Ukrainian government's support in Nepal's candidacy for membership of the United Nations Human Rights Council for the term 2027 to 2029.

Meanwhile, both nations signed an agreement on visa exemption for holders of diplomatic, official and service passports.

Newly appointed Vice-Chancellor of Kathmandu University, Prof Dr Achyut Prasad Wagle, took the oath of office and secrecy on Tuesday.

Prime Minister and Chancellor of the KU KP Sharma Oli administered the oath and office of secrecy to Wagle amidst a program organized at the Office of Prime Minister and Council of Ministers this afternoon.

Chancellor Oli appointed Dr Wagle to the post on Monday as per the Clause 13 (4) of the KU Act, 2048. The government had formed a three-member search committee for the recommendation of the VC in the university.  

Minister for Education, Science and Technology, Bidya Bhattarai, PM Oli's Chief Advisor Bishnu Prasad Rimal and Chief Secretary Eaknarayan Aryal, among others were present on the occasion.

Newly appointed VC Wagle was Acting Vice-Chancellor and Registrar of the KU.

US President Donald Trump says "many elements" of a peace agreement in Ukraine have been agreed with his Russian counterpart, Vladimir Putin, ahead of their much anticipated phone call, BBC reported.

Trump posted on Truth Social that he will speak with Putin on Tuesday morning.

He said that while there have been agreements, "much remains" to be worked upon.

"Each week brings 2,500 soldier deaths, from both sides, and it must end NOW. I look very much forward to the call with President Putin," Trump wrote.

He earlier told reporters that "we're going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we'll be able to do it".

In his nightly address on Monday, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky accused Putin of prolonging the war.

"This proposal could have been implemented long ago," he said, adding that "every day in wartime means human lives".

There have been inconsistencies from within the Trump administration over how advanced the ceasefire talks are.

Speaking after his meeting in Jeddah with Ukrainian officials, US Secretary of State Marco Rubio said the "bulk" of the conversation had been "what a negotiation process would look like" and not "the specific conditions".

US envoy Steve Witkoff, who met with Putin on Thursday in Moscow, has also struck a more measured tone, according to BBC.

Meanwhile, the UK and France have urged Putin to prove he wants a peace deal with Ukraine.

French President Emmanuel Macron hailed the "courage" of Zelenksy in agreeing to a ceasefire proposal, and challenged Russia to do the same.

"Enough deaths. Enough lives destroyed. Enough destruction. The guns must fall silent," Macron said in a post on X.

UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Putin should agree to a "full and unconditional ceasefire now", telling MPs he had seen "no sign" that Putin was serious about a peace deal.

He warned that the UK and its allies have "more cards that we can play" to help force Russia to negotiate "seriously".

The White House sounded a more upbeat note on the eve of the Trump-Putin talks, which will take place by phone, saying peace in Ukraine has "never been closer".

White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt told reporters on Monday that Trump was "determined" to secure the peace deal.

On what the talks might cover, she said: "There's a power plant that is on the border of Russia and Ukraine that was up for discussion with the Ukrainians, and he will address it in his call with Putin tomorrow."

The facility is likely to be the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant, the largest in Europe. It has been occupied by Russian forces since March 2022, and fears of a nuclear accident have persisted due to fighting in the area.

Asked on Sunday what concessions were being considered in the ceasefire negotiations, Trump said: "We'll be talking about land. We'll be talking about power plants [...] We're already talking about that, dividing up certain assets."

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov declined to comment on what the leaders would discuss, responding, "we never do that".

While Putin has previously said he supports a ceasefire, he also set out a list of conditions for achieving peace, BBC reported.

One of the areas of contention is Russia's Western Kursk region, where Ukraine launched a military incursion last August and captured some territory.

Russia had pushed to recapture it in recent weeks, and Putin now claims it is fully back in control of Kursk.

He has also raised numerous questions about how a ceasefire could be monitored and policed along the frontline in the east, and has said he would not accept Nato troops on the territory.

The peace proposal on the table was discussed by Ukrainian and American delegates in Saudi Arabia last week.

After hours locked away in a room, they announced proposals for a 30-day ceasefire, which Ukraine said it was ready to accept.

France's President Macron and newly elected Canadian Prime Minister Mark Carney, who met on Tuesday, stressed their nations would continue their "unwavering" support of Ukraine and demand "clear commitments" from Russia.

A federal judge on Monday questioned whether the Trump administration ignored his orders to turn around planes carrying deportees to El Salvador, a possible violation of the decision he’d issued minutes before, Associated Press reported.

District Judge James E. Boasberg was incredulous over the administration’s contentions that his verbal directions did not count, that only his written order needed to be followed, that it couldn’t apply to flights that had left the U.S. and that the administration could not answer his questions about the deportations due to national security issues.

“That’s one heck of a stretch, I think,” Boasberg replied, noting that the administration knew as the planes were departing that he was about to decide whether to briefly halt deportations being made under a rarely used 18th century law invoked by Trump about an hour earlier.

“I’m just asking how you think my equitable powers do not attach to a plane that has departed the U.S., even if it’s in international airspace,” Boasberg added at another point.

Deputy Associate Attorney General Abhishek Kambli contended that only Boasberg’s short written order, issued about 45 minutes after he made the verbal demand, counted. It did not contain any demands to reverse planes, and Kambli added that it was too late to redirect two planes that had left the U.S. by that time.

“These are sensitive, operational tasks of national security,” Kambli said.

The hearing over what Boasberg called the “possible defiance” of his court order marked the latest step in a high-stakes legal fight that began when President Donald Trump invoked the 1798 wartime law to remove immigrants over the weekend. It was also an escalation in the battle over whether the Trump administration is flouting court orders that have blocked some of his aggressive moves in the opening weeks of his second term, according to the Associated Press.

“There’s been a lot of talk about constitutional crisis, people throw that word around. I think we’re getting very close to it,” warned Lee Gelernt of the ACLU, the lead attorney for the plaintiffs, during the Monday hearing. After the hearing, Gelernt said the ACLU would ask Boasberg to order all improperly deported people returned to the United States.

Boasberg said he’d record the proceedings and additional demands in writing. “I will memorialize this in a written order since apparently my oral orders don’t seem to carry much weight,” Boasberg said.

On Saturday night, Boasberg ordered the administration not to deport anyone in its custody through the newly-invoked Alien Enemies Act, which has only been used three times before in U.S. history, all during congressionally declared wars. Trump issued a proclamation that the law was newly in effect due to what he claimed was an invasion by the Venezuelan gang Tren de Aragua, Associated Press reported.