UNITED NATIONS: The United States told the UN Security Council on Thursday that its proposal for a ceasefire in Ukraine was “Russia’s best possible outcome” and President Vladimir Putin should take the deal.
The United States wants Russia to agree to a comprehensive 30-day land, air, sea and critical infrastructure ceasefire. A first round of direct talks between Russia and Ukraine on May 16 failed to reach an agreement on a ceasefire — which Moscow has said is impossible to achieve before certain conditions are met.
“We want to work with Russia, including on this peace initiative and an economic package. There is no military solution to this conflict,” Acting Deputy US Ambassador John Kelley told the Security Council. “The deal on offer now is Russia’s best possible outcome. President Putin should take the deal.”
US President Donald Trump began his second term in January vowing to swiftly end Russia’s three-year-old war in Ukraine. Kelley said the first US step was to put forward a proposal for an immediate, unconditional and comprehensive ceasefire, which had been accepted by Ukraine, pending Russia’s agreement.
“Since then, we have been urging Russia to accept a ceasefire,” he said.
“If Russia makes the wrong decision to continue this catastrophic war, the United States will have to consider stepping back from our negotiation efforts to end this conflict,” he warned, adding that Washington could also impose further sanctions on Russia.
Kelley said that after Trump and Putin spoke by phone last week, Russia was now expected to provide a term sheet broadly outlining its vision for a ceasefire in the conflict, which began when Moscow invaded its neighbor in February 2022.
“We will judge Russia’s seriousness toward ending the war, not only by the contents of that term sheet, but more importantly, by Russia’s actions,” said Kelley, condemning Russia’s recent attacks on Ukraine as not demonstrating “a desire for peace.”
Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov said on Wednesday that Moscow had drafted a memorandum outlining a settlement position in the Ukraine war. But Ukraine said Moscow has not yet shared its proposal.
Russia’s UN Ambassador Vassily Nebenzia said Moscow intended to continue serious, direct negotiations with Ukraine. Russia has suggested a second round of direct talks take place on Monday in Istanbul.
“The ball is in Ukraine’s court: either talks, followed by peace, or the unavoidable defeat of Ukraine on the battlefield with different conditions for the conflict’s end,” Nebenzia told the Security Council.
Ukraine’s Deputy UN Ambassador Khrystyna Hayovyshyn said Russia was “not signaling any genuine intention to stop its war” and urged countries to impose stronger sanctions on Moscow.
“Ukraine has consistently demonstrated commitment to diplomacy and remains open to any format that can yield tangible results,” she said, but added that Kyiv would never recognize Russia’s claim to any occupied Ukrainian territory.
“We will not tolerate interference in sovereign decisions, including our defense or alliances. There must be no appeasement of the aggressor. Such attempts only embolden future aggression,” Hayovyshyn told the council.
At UN Security Council, US urges Russia to take Ukraine ceasefire deal
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At UN Security Council, US urges Russia to take Ukraine ceasefire deal
- Threatens to step back as mediator if Russia makes wrong choice
- Moscow responds that the ball is in Kyiv’s court now
Mass shooting at a South African bar leaves 11 dead, including 3 children
- Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital
- The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl
CAPE TOWN: A mass shooting carried out Saturday by multiple suspects in an unlicensed bar near the South African capital left at least 11 people dead, police said. The victims included three children aged 3, 12 and 16.
Another 14 people were wounded and taken to the hospital, according to a statement from the South African Police Services. Police didn’t give details on the ages of those who were injured or their conditions.
The shooting happened at a bar inside a hostel in the Saulsville township west of the administrative capital of Pretoria in the early hours of Saturday. Ten of the victims died at the scene and the 11th died at the hospital, police said.
The children killed were a 3-year-old boy, a 12-year-old boy and a 16-year-old girl. Police said they were searching for three male suspects.
“We are told that at least three unknown gunmen entered this hostel where a group of people were drinking and they started randomly shooting,” police spokesperson Brig. Athlenda Mathe told national broadcaster SABC. She said the motive for the killings was not clear. The shootings happened at around 4.15 a.m., she said, but police were only alerted at 6 a.m.
South Africa has one of the highest homicide rates in the world and recorded more than 26,000 homicides in 2024 — an average of more than 70 a day. Firearms are by far the leading cause of death in homicides.
The country of 62 million people has relatively strict gun ownership laws, but many killings are committed with illegal guns, authorities say.
There have been several mass shootings at bars — sometimes called shebeens or taverns in South Africa — in recent years, including one that killed 16 people in the Johannesburg township of Soweto in 2022. On the same day, four people were killed in a mass shooting at a bar in another province.
Mathe said that mass shootings at unlicensed bars were becoming a serious problem and police had shut down more than 11,000 illegal taverns between April and September this year and arrested more than 18,000 people for involvement in illegal liquor sales.
Recent mass killings in South Africa have not been confined to bars, however. Police said 18 people were killed, 15 of them women, in mass shootings minutes apart at two houses on the same road in a rural part of Eastern Cape province in September last year.
Seven men were arrested for those shootings and face multiple charges of murder, while police recovered three AK-style assault rifles they believe were used in the shootings.
