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Russian President Putin met with Oman’s Sultan Haitham bin Tariq on tuesday to discuss Iran’s nuclear programme, as Oman continues mediating between Tehran and Washington, Firstpost reported.

The US suspects Iran seeks nuclear weapons, a claim Iran denies.

Yury Ushakov, a Kremlin aide, said Russia is closely monitoring the negotiations and offering assistance where possible. Putin also expressed an interest in increasing energy cooperation with Oman, as stated by Firstpost.

The meeting is part of Russia's larger effort to deepen ties in the Middle East, which follows recent trips by Qatar's emir and Iran's foreign minister.

Russian President Putin has signalled he is open to bilateral talks with Ukrainian leader Zelensky for the first time since the early stages of the war.

As reported by BBC, Putin told Russian state television on Monday that Russia has "always looked positively on any peace initiatives." We hope Kyiv regime representatives feel the same way".

Dmitry Peskov, a Kremlin spokesperson, claimed Putin's words indicated a willingness to engage in direct negotiations with Ukraine about not attacking civilian targets.

Zelensky did not answer directly to Putin's comments, but said Ukraine was "ready for any conversation" to safeguard the safety of citizens, BBC reported.

There have been no direct talks between the two sides since February 2022 when Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Norwegian PM Jonas Gahr Stoere and Finance Minister Jens Stoltenberg will meet U.S. President Trump at the White House on Thursday for talks on NATO, Ukraine, and bilateral trade relations.

The conversations take place in the midst of ongoing trade adjustments, including a recent tariff reduction by the United States from 15% to 10% on specified Norwegian imports for a 90-day period. According to Reuters, Stoere stressed the importance of collaboration between the United States and Norway, referring to America as a "key trade and security partner."

The presidents are expected to discuss ways to enhance economic connections while also addressing shared geopolitical challenges, notably in Europe's security picture.

Norway, although not being a member of the EU, has supported Western sanctions against Russia and increased defense spending in response to the Ukraine crisis, Reuters reported.

 Russia and Ukraine accused each other of thousands of attacks that violated the one-day Easter ceasefire declared by President Vladimir Putin, with the Kremlin saying there was no order to extend the pause in frontline fighting, Reuters reported.

Washington said it would welcome an extension of the truce, and President Volodymyr Zelenskiy reiterated several times Ukraine's willingness to pause strikes for 30 days in the war.

But Putin, who sent thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine in February 2022 and who ordered on Saturday the halt in all military activity along the front line until midnight Moscow time (2100 GMT) on Sunday, did not give orders to extend it, according to Reuters.

Ukraine has signed a memorandum of intent with the United States regarding a minerals deal, marking a step toward an economic partnership agreement.

According to the BBC, Yulia Svyrydenko, the minister of economics, stated that the agreement might possibly establish an investment fund for the country's reconstruction. Officials in the United States hope to reach a formal deal by the end of next week. Earlier talks were derailed by a public disagreement between Trump and Zelensky during a February White House meeting.

Svyrydenko shared pictures of the signing on X to announce it.The agreement aims to secure US access to Ukraine's critical minerals and oil resources while offering the prospect of a US security guarantee in the event of a ceasefire with Russia, BBC reported.

Trump has stated that both Ukrainian President Zelensky and Russian President Putin share responsibility for the "millions of people dead" in the ongoing Ukraine conflict.

His remarks came during a meeting with the President of El Salvador at the White House, where he responded to reporters' inquiries.

"When you start a war, you have to know you can win," he said, also blaming President Joe Biden for the conflict, according to BBC.

Trump's remarks came in response to a recent horrific Russian missile strike on people in the northeastern city of Sumy, which has been described as one of the bloodiest attacks this year. He tweeted, "Millions of people dead because of three people: Putin at number one, Biden who had no idea what he was doing at number two, and Zelensky."

Tensions between Trump and the Ukrainian leader have been high ever since their heated confrontation at the White House in February, BBC reported.

Ukraine's President Volodymyr Zelensky has invited Donald Trump to visit his country ahead of any deal with Russia to end the war.

"Please, before any kind of decisions, any kind of forms of negotiations, come to see people, civilians, warriors, hospitals, churches, children destroyed or dead," Zelensky stated during an interview with CBS's 60 Minutes program, BBC reported.

The interview was conducted before to the deadly Russian missile strike on the Ukrainian city of Sumy on Sunday, which left 117 people injured and 34 dead, including two children.

Trump called the incident "horrible," while Germany's chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, charged Russia of war crimes, according to BBC.

There was no quick formal response from Russia, whose forces over the border are thought to be preparing for a major onslaught.

A Russian missile attack on the Ukrainian city of Sumy, which killed 34 people - including two children - and injured 117 others, has been strongly condemned by Kyiv's Western allies, BBC reported.

Two ballistic missiles struck the city centre mid-morning on Sunday, exploding near the state university and congress centre, leaving bloodied bodies scattered in the streets.

US Secretary of State Marco Rubio called the attack "horrifying" while Germany's chancellor-in-waiting, Friedrich Merz, accused Russia of committing a war crime.

There was no immediate official comment on the attack from Russia, whose forces across the nearby border are said to be preparing for a major offensive, according to BBC.

A Russian strike on Sunday killed 32 people, including two children, and injured many more in the city of Sumy in northeastern Ukraine.

Ukraine said Russia launched ballistic missiles on Sumy's city Centre on Palm Sunday.

The attack came two days after US ambassador Steve Witkoff visited Russia to speak with its leader, Vladimir Putin, and despite US President Donald Trump's calls for Moscow to cease the war, according to AFP.

Sumy is on the Russian border and has been under increasing pressure in recent weeks.

Rescuers said the strike hit the city centre "right when there were many people on the street."

It is one of the deadliest attacks by Russia in Ukraine in recent months as Moscow pushes on with its more than three-year-long invasion of its neighbor, AFP reported.

Moscow has not yet commented on the strike.

US envoy Steve Witkoff met Vladimir Putin in St Petersburg on Friday, as Donald Trump urged the Russian president to "get moving" on a ceasefire in Ukraine.

The Kremlin said the assembly endured for more than four hours and centered on "viewpoints of a Ukrainian settlement", according to BBC.

Trump has communicated disappointment with Putin over the state of talks.

On Friday, he composed on social media "Russia has to get moving. Too many people ere [sic] DYING, thousands a week, in a terrible and senseless war."BBC reported.

It comes as Trump's Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg denied suggesting the country could be partitioned.

Russia has formally invited Prime Minister Narendra Modi to Moscow's triumph Day Parade on May 9, which commemorates the Soviet triumph over Nazi Germany in World War II.

The invitation was confirmed by Andrey Rudenko, Russia's Deputy Foreign Minister. This comes in the midst of speculation that PM Modi may skip the event, Firstpost reported.This suggests that PM Modi's visit is now being discussed between the two countries, with Moscow hoping that the Indian Prime Minister will attend the high-profile event.

Russia has invited leaders of several friendly nations to attend this year's Victory Day parade.In January 1945, the Soviet Army launched an offensive against Germany, according to Firstpost.

For the first time in almost five years, Prime Minister Modi traveled to Russia in July 2024. At an economic conclave in 2019, he traveled to Vladivostok, a place in the far east.
PM Modi invited Russian President Vladimir Putin to come to India during the most recent visit and Putin has already accepted.

However, the dates of Putin's visit have not been revealed yet.
 

NASA astronaut Jonny Kim and two Russian crewmates arrived at the International Space Station on Tuesday on board a Russian spacecraft.

A Soyuz booster rocket launched as planned from Kazakhstan's Russia-leased Baikonur launch complex, putting the trio in orbit aboard the Soyuz MS-27. They arrived at the station slightly more than three hours later, Al Jazeera reported.

Kim and Russians Sergey Ryzhikov and Alexey Zubritsky are expected to spend around eight months in the space station. NASA stated that Kim will undertake scientific investigations and technology demonstrations to assist train the crew for future space flights while also benefiting people on Earth, according to Al Jazeera.

Kim, a Los Angeles native, is a lieutenant commander in the United States Navy with dual designations as a naval aviator and flight surgeon.   Alongside Kim, Ryzhikov, and Zubritsky, the space outpost will also host Russian cosmonauts Alexey Ovchinin, Ivan Vagner, and Kirill Peskov; NASA astronauts Don Pettit, Anne McClain, and Nichole Ayers; and Japan Aerospace Exploration Agency astronaut Takuya Onishi.

Russia and Ukraine have agreed to a naval ceasefire in the Black Sea in separate deals with the US, after three days of peace talks in Saudi Arabia, BBC reported.

Washington said all parties would continue working toward a "durable and lasting peace" in statements announcing the agreements, which would reopen an important trade route.

They have also committed to "develop measures" to implement a previously agreed ban on attacking each other's energy infrastructure, the White House said.

But Russia said the naval ceasefire would only come into force after a number of sanctions against its food and fertiliser trade were lifted, according to BBC.

Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on Monday that Ukraine would have to make concessions over land that Russia had taken since 2014 as part of any agreement to end the war, The New York Times reported. 

Rubio spoke as he was flying to Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, for talks with senior Ukrainian officials, and 10 days after a contentious White House meeting between President Trump and his Ukrainian counterpart, Volodymyr Zelensky. The Trump administration halted military aid to Ukraine after the blowup, which centered on Mr. Trump’s refusal to include any security guarantees in a proposed deal involving Ukraine’s natural resources.

“The most important thing that we have to leave here with is a strong sense that Ukraine is prepared to do difficult things, like the Russians are going to have to do difficult things to end this conflict or at least pause it in some way, shape or form,” Mr. Rubio told reporters.

Rubio declined to offer the outline of a potential agreement but made clear that concessions by both sides would be central to diplomacy.

“I think both sides need to come to an understanding that there’s no military solution to this situation,” Mr. Rubio said. “The Russians can’t conquer all of Ukraine, and obviously it’ll be very difficult for Ukraine in any reasonable time period to sort of force the Russians back all the way to where they were in 2014.”

Rubio added that it would be imperative in future talks with Moscow to determine what Russia was willing to concede, according to The New York Times. 

“We don’t know how far apart they truly are,” Rubio said.

The talks on Tuesday likely will not delve into the proposed agreement on Ukrainian natural resources that Mr. Trump had described as compensation for U.S. military support during the three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion. He has said that an American financial interest in Ukrainian fossil fuels and rare-earth minerals would provide Ukraine with implied security.

Although the United States has stopped sharing some intelligence with Ukraine, including satellite imagery, Rubio said it was still providing Kyiv with information that allowed it to continue defending itself against Russian attacks. He also said that there had never been a threat of removing Ukraine’s access to Starlink, the internet service company owned by Elon Musk’s SpaceX.

Even as the United States has been pressuring Ukraine in recent weeks, Mr. Trump has also threatened to impose additional sanctions on Russia in response to Moscow’s continued military activity. Rubio said that the United States was trying to demonstrate that it still had ways to coerce Russia in an effort to bring it to the negotiating table with Ukraine.

Rubio said he and Ukrainian officials would most likely discuss the resumption of military assistance during the meetings on Tuesday. He said the U.S. position on the issue could change if he believed that Ukraine was seriously committed to peace.

“I can assure you this, we will not be providing military aid to the Russians,” Rubio said.

US President Donald Trump on Friday renewed his criticism of Ukraine’s approach to his diplomatic push to end the war, saying that it has been “easier” to deal with Moscow, while claiming that his Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin wants to get the war “stopped and settled”, The Indian Express reported.

“I’m finding it more difficult, frankly, to deal with Ukraine, and they don’t have the cards,” he said addressing reporters at the Oval Office.

Trump has been stressing for weeks that Ukraine’s position in the conflict is weak and dependent on US support.

The US president underscored his earlier statement threatening Russia with sanctions and tariffs for bombing Ukraine, saying that he is “trying to help” Kyiv.

“Ukraine has to get on the ball and get a job done,” he said, according to The Indian  Express.

Trump also warned Russia, saying it(Russia) “is bombing the hell out of Ukraine” – and that he’s told them they “can’t do that”.

“I think he’s doing what anyone else would do – he’s hitting them harder than he’s been hitting them, and anyone in that position would be doing right now,” Trump said, describing Russian attacks.

“And I think probably anybody in that position would be doing that right now. He wants to get it ended. And I think Ukraine wants to get it ended, but I don’t see – it’s crazy. They’re taking tremendous punishment. I don’t quite get it.”

This comes hour after Trump announced ‘considering sanctions’ on Russia after bombardment of Ukraine.

In a post on Truth Social, Donald Trump appeared to criticise Russia’s latest bombardment.

He posted: “Based on the fact that Russia is absolutely ‘pounding’ Ukraine on the battlefield right now, I am strongly considering large scale Banking Sanctions, Sanctions, and Tariffs on Russia until a Cease Fire and FINAL SETTLEMENT AGREEMENT ON PEACE IS REACHED.

Trump’s vague threat was in contrast to the punitive steps he has already taken against Ukraine, including an end to US military supplies announced earlier this week and the intelligence shutdown.