KYIV, Ukraine: Russian forces began an assault Saturday on two key cities in the eastern Donetsk region and kept up rocket and shelling attacks on other Ukrainian cities, including one close to Europe’s largest nuclear power plant, Ukraine’s military and local officials said.
Both cities of Bakhmut and Avdiivka have been considered key targets of Russia’s ongoing offensive across Ukraine’s east, with analysts saying Moscow needs to take Bakhmut if it is to advance on the regional hubs of Sloviansk and Kramatorsk.
“In the Donetsk direction, the enemy is conducting an offensive operation, concentrating its main efforts on the Bakhmut and Avdiivka directions. It uses ground attack and army aviation,” the Ukrainian General Staff said on Facebook.
The last Russian strike on Sloviansk was July 30, but Ukrainian forces are fortifying their positions around the city in expectation of new fighting.
“I think it won’t be calm for long. Eventually, there will be an assault,” Col. Yurii Bereza, head of the volunteer national guard regiment, told The Associated Press.
Russian shelling killed five civilians and injured 14 others in the Donetsk region in the last day, Donetsk governor Pavlo Kyrylenko wrote Saturday on Telegram, saying two people were killed in Poprosny, and one each in Avdiivka, Soledar and Pervomaiskiy.
The governor of the eastern Dnipropetrovsk region said three civilians were injured after Russian rockets fell on a residential neighborhood in Nikopol, a city across the Dnieper River from the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power station. The nuclear plant has been under Russian control since Moscow’s troops seized it early in the war.
“After midnight, the Russian army struck the Nikopol area with (Soviet-era) Grad rockets, and the Kryvyi Rih area from barrel artillery,” Valentyn Reznichenko wrote on Telegram.
Another Russian missile attack overnight damaged unspecified infrastructure in the regional capital of Zaporizhzhia. On Thursday, Russia fired 60 rockets at Nikopol, damaging 50 residential buildings in the city of 107,000 and leaving residents without electricity.
Rafael Grossi, head of the International Atomic Energy Agency, warned this week that the situation was becoming more perilous day by day at the Zaporizhzhia plant.
“Every principle of nuclear safety has been violated” at the plant, he said. “What is at stake is extremely serious.”
He expressed concern about the way the plant is being operated and the danger posed by the fighting going on around it. Experts at the US-based Institute for the Study of War said Russia is shelling the area intentionally, “putting Ukraine in a difficult position.”
The Ukrainian company operating the nuclear power station said Saturday that Russian troops are using the plant’s basement to hide from Ukrainian shelling and have barred its Ukrainian staff from going there.
“Ukrainian personnel do not yet have access to these premises, so in the event of new shelling, people have no shelter and are in danger,” Enerhoatom, a Ukrainian state enterprise, said on its Telegram channel.
Enerhoatom said Friday that Russian rockets had damaged the plant’s facilities, including a nitrogen-oxygen unit and a high-voltage power line. Local Russian-appointed officials acknowledged the damage, but blamed it on the Ukrainians.
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Russian forces begin assault on two eastern Ukraine cities
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Russian forces begin assault on two eastern Ukraine cities
- The last Russian strike on Sloviansk was July 30, but Ukrainian forces are fortifying their positions around the city in expectation of new fighting
Trump administration reaches a trade deal to lower Taiwan’s tariff barriers
- The gap reached nearly $127 billion in the first 11 months of 2025. US officials attended the signing through the American Institute in Taiwan
- The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the US and Taiwan
WASHINGTON: The Trump administration reached a trade deal with Taiwan on Thursday, with Taiwan agreeing to remove or reduce 99 percent of its tariff barriers, the office of the US Trade Representative said.
The agreement comes as the US remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.
Most of Taiwan’s exports to the US will be taxed at a 15 percent rate, the USTR’s office said. The 15 percent rate is the same as that levied on other US trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan’s Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.
“President Trump’s leadership in the Asia-Pacific region continues to generate prosperous trade ties for the United States with important partners across Asia, while further advancing the economic and national security interests of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.
The Taiwanese government said in a statement that the tariff rate set in the agreement allows its companies to compete on a level field with Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It also said the agreement “eliminated” the disadvantage from a lack of a free trade agreement between Taiwan and the US
The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the US and Taiwan.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the US — from having formal ties with Taipei.
Cheng said Taiwan hopes the agreement will make it a strategic partner with the US “so as to jointly consolidate the democratic camp’s leading position in high technology.”
The agreement would make it easier for the US to sell autos, pharmaceutical drugs and food products in Taiwan. But the critical component might be that Taiwanese companies would invest in the production of computer chips in the US, possibly helping to ease the trade imbalance.
In a separate but related deal, Taiwan will make investments of $250 billion in US industries, such as computer chips, artificial intelligence applications and energy. The Taiwanese government says it will provide up to an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to help smaller businesses invest in the US
The investments helped enable the US to reduce its planned tariffs from as much as 32 percent initially to 15 percent.
Taiwan’s government said it will submit the reciprocal trade deal and investment plans to its legislature for approval.
In Taipei, President Lai Ching-te told reporters that Taiwan had agreed to reduce tariffs on imports from the US but stressed that the rate on 93 items would remain unchanged to protect important agriculture and industrial sectors such as rice farming.
The US side said the deal with Taiwan would help create several “world-class” industrial parks in America in order to help build up domestic manufacturing of advanced technologies such as chips. The Commerce Department in January described it as “a historic trade deal that will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector.”
In return, the US would give preferential treatment to Taiwan regarding the possible tariffs stemming from a Section 232 investigation of the importing of computer chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
TSMC, the chip-making giant, is expected to be the key investor. It has committed to $165 billion in investments in the US, including not only fabrication plants but also a major research and development center that would help build a supply chain to power US artificial intelligence ambitions. Major US tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD rely on TSMC for manufacturing highly advanced chips.
When asked whether investing in the US would endanger Taiwan’s most advanced industries, Lai said: “Whether it’s TSMC or other industries, as long as their R&D centers are in Taiwan, their advanced manufacturing processes are in Taiwan and their largest production volume is in Taiwan, Taiwan can continue to develop steadily.”
Taiwan said the investments will be two-way, with US companies also investing in key Taiwanese industries. Nvidia this week signed a land deal in Taipei to build a headquarters office there.
The agreement comes as the US remains reliant on Taiwan for its production of computer chips, the exporting of which contributed to a trade imbalance of nearly $127 billion during the first 11 months of 2025, according to the Census Bureau.
Most of Taiwan’s exports to the US will be taxed at a 15 percent rate, the USTR’s office said. The 15 percent rate is the same as that levied on other US trading partners in the Asia-Pacific region, such as Japan and South Korea.
Trade Representative Jamieson Greer and Commerce Secretary Howard Lutnick attended the signing of the reciprocal agreement, which occurred under the auspices of the American Institute in Taiwan and the Taipei Economic and Cultural Representative Office in the United States. Taiwan’s Vice Premier Li-chiun Cheng and its government minister Jen-ni Yang also attended the signing.
“President Trump’s leadership in the Asia-Pacific region continues to generate prosperous trade ties for the United States with important partners across Asia, while further advancing the economic and national security interests of the American people,” Greer said in a statement.
The Taiwanese government said in a statement that the tariff rate set in the agreement allows its companies to compete on a level field with Japan, South Korea and the European Union. It also said the agreement “eliminated” the disadvantage from a lack of a free trade agreement between Taiwan and the US
The deal comes ahead of President Donald Trump’s planned visit to China in April and suggests a deepening economic relationship between the US and Taiwan.
Taiwan is a self-ruled democracy that China claims as its own territory, to be annexed by force if necessary. Beijing prohibits all countries it has diplomatic relations with — including the US — from having formal ties with Taipei.
Cheng said Taiwan hopes the agreement will make it a strategic partner with the US “so as to jointly consolidate the democratic camp’s leading position in high technology.”
The agreement would make it easier for the US to sell autos, pharmaceutical drugs and food products in Taiwan. But the critical component might be that Taiwanese companies would invest in the production of computer chips in the US, possibly helping to ease the trade imbalance.
In a separate but related deal, Taiwan will make investments of $250 billion in US industries, such as computer chips, artificial intelligence applications and energy. The Taiwanese government says it will provide up to an additional $250 billion in credit guarantees to help smaller businesses invest in the US
The investments helped enable the US to reduce its planned tariffs from as much as 32 percent initially to 15 percent.
Taiwan’s government said it will submit the reciprocal trade deal and investment plans to its legislature for approval.
In Taipei, President Lai Ching-te told reporters that Taiwan had agreed to reduce tariffs on imports from the US but stressed that the rate on 93 items would remain unchanged to protect important agriculture and industrial sectors such as rice farming.
The US side said the deal with Taiwan would help create several “world-class” industrial parks in America in order to help build up domestic manufacturing of advanced technologies such as chips. The Commerce Department in January described it as “a historic trade deal that will drive a massive reshoring of America’s semiconductor sector.”
In return, the US would give preferential treatment to Taiwan regarding the possible tariffs stemming from a Section 232 investigation of the importing of computer chips and semiconductor manufacturing equipment.
TSMC, the chip-making giant, is expected to be the key investor. It has committed to $165 billion in investments in the US, including not only fabrication plants but also a major research and development center that would help build a supply chain to power US artificial intelligence ambitions. Major US tech companies such as Nvidia and AMD rely on TSMC for manufacturing highly advanced chips.
When asked whether investing in the US would endanger Taiwan’s most advanced industries, Lai said: “Whether it’s TSMC or other industries, as long as their R&D centers are in Taiwan, their advanced manufacturing processes are in Taiwan and their largest production volume is in Taiwan, Taiwan can continue to develop steadily.”
Taiwan said the investments will be two-way, with US companies also investing in key Taiwanese industries. Nvidia this week signed a land deal in Taipei to build a headquarters office there.
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