Russia’s largest search engine operator and tech giant Yandex says it is struggling to keep services running after suffering strikes on two of its major data centres.
"Our teams are working day and night to do everything possible to keep services running and to help those affected by the incident. Right now this is our most important task, but unfortunately it is not an easy one," the company said in a statement.
Yandex said it was very difficult to estimate how long it would take to restore the damaged equipment.
Earlier, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused the US of being unwilling to help Ukraine defend itself after a Russian bomb attack on two passenger buses killed at least 35 people.
Speaking to reporters in Pryluky, the Ukrainian leader criticised Washington for pursuing economic ties with Moscow while attempting to broker an end to the war, now in its fifth year.
Ukrainian negotiators are travelling to the US today for talks with their American counterparts, Zelensky added, urging Donald Trump to increase sanction pressure on Russia.
Bus engulfed in flames after Russian strike in Ukraine’s Kramatorsk
Russia's Yandex says 'not easy' to keep services running after Ukrainian drone attacks
Russia’s largest search engine operator and tech giant Yandex says it is struggling to keep services running after suffering strikes on two of its major data centres.
"Our teams are working day and night to do everything possible to keep services running and to help those affected by the incident. Right now this is our most important task, but unfortunately it is not an easy one," the company said in a statement.
Yandex said it was very difficult to estimate how long it would take to restore the damaged equipment.
Kremlin: Russia agrees with Rubio that Ukraine conflict is in a stalemate
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov was quoted as saying on Thursday that Russia agreed with US secretary of state Marco Rubio that the Ukraine conflict was in a stalemate.
"Yes, we agree with him," Russian news agencies quoted Peskov as saying on the sidelines of a meeting of leaders of ex-Soviet states in Turkmenistan.
State news agency RIA quoted Peskov as saying it was up to diplomats to find ways of moving towards peace.
"The art of diplomacy precisely involves finding some way out that would allow moving onto a peaceful track," Peskov was quoted as saying.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will meet Ukrainian representatives on Friday in Miami to discuss new ideas and try to produce a unified proposal for resolving the war, an American source familiar with the plan said on Thursday.
Peskov was quoted as saying he saw no immediate prospect for a three-way summit between Putin, Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky and US president Donald Trump.
He restated the Kremlin's position that Russia wanted an overall solution to the conflict and was not interested in temporary measures, like a limited ceasefire.
"We are not for a fragmented solution, we are for a comprehensive solution that will allow for sustainable settlement for many, many years, for decades," the agencies quoted him as saying.
Zelensky accuses US of inaction as Russian strikes kill over 70 in two days
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky accused the US of being unwilling to help Ukraine after a Russian bomb attack on Thursday killed at least 35 people in the east, sending the two-day death toll from Russian strikes to over 70.
Hours after the strike on the embattled city of Kramatorsk tore through two buses, Zelensky criticised Washington's effort to pursue economic ties with Russia while also seeking to mediate the more than four-year war.
City authorities reported a new drone attack in the evening that killed two people. That brought to 35 the total death toll in the city.
Local authorities reported that a Russian guided aerial bomb killed two people in a village in southeastern Dnipropetrovsk and one person died in the western city of Ivano-Frankivsk.
The attacks were launched a day after a mass Russian drone and missile assault killed dozens across Ukraine – 22 of them in a residential building in the central town of Pryluky, around 130km (80 miles) east of Kyiv.
Speaking in the early evening, Zelensky said 78 people were killed and 215 wounded by strikes in the last two days across Ukraine.
Speaking to reporters in Pryluky, the Ukrainian leader urged the US to accede to his requests to expand Ukraine's access to the Starlink satellite service to help it target Russian ballistic-missile launchers.
Schroeder celebrates Putin's birthday at president's home
Former German chancellor Gerhard Schroeder attended celebrations for Russian president Vladimir Putin's 74th birthday at the leader's home, the Kremlin said on Thursday.
Pictures posted on Telegram showed Schroeder and Putin smiling broadly and shaking hands, with an old-style stove and a Russian samovar used to boil water for tea in the background.
"Vladimir Putin found out from the morning news the day before that Gerhard Schroeder was in Moscow and had come on business for the company Globus," the Kremlin said on Telegram.
"The president invited his old friend to his home. Gerhard Schroeder was with Vladimir Putin when the head of state celebrated his birthday yesterday."
Schroeder, who served as chancellor from 1998 to 2005, recently joined the supervisory board of Russian supermarket chain Hyperglobus.
He visited one of its Moscow stores on Wednesday and was greeted with applause from employees, Russian TV footage showed.
Schroeder has faced criticism, including in Germany, over his links to Russian business and Putin, ties that have persisted despite Moscow's 2022 invasion of Ukraine and subsequent waves of Western sanctions.
Putin suggested in May that Schroeder could represent European countries in peace talks to settle the conflict.
European foreign ministers rejected the notion of any such role for Schroeder.
Why North Korea is at the heart of South Korea’s strange rift with Ukraine
The unusual public confrontation between Ukraine and South Korea has raised questions about how relations between two nations facing the consequences of growing Russian-North Korean military cooperation deteriorated so sharply, Shweta Sharma reports.
Zelensky's comments about American inaction in full
Volodymyr Zelensky accused the US of “unwillingness” to help in the war after Russian strikes killed more than 70 people over two days.
Speaking to reporters in Pryluky after a Russian guided aerial bomb attack on Kramatorsk that killed at least 30 people, he pushed back against US secretary of state Marco Rubio’s earlier comment that the war was at a “stalemate” and that Washington would keep working toward a settlement.
“We have heard about many different moments during the war. Many hopeless situations, difficult corners and so on. We – people, leaders, politicians – drive ourselves into a corner… Even on the first day of the war, we were not in a corner. Because one person tried to drive an entire nation into a corner, and the nation rose up and defended its state,” he said.
“You see, you cannot negotiate economic projects for the future with the Russians on the one hand and, on the other, say that we are at a… diplomatic deadlock. We are not at a diplomatic stalemate. Shut down their entire economy. Shut Russia’s mouth. Do not feed them with your sales. Just impose sanctions on their weapons. Open Starlink to us, to Ukraine,” he added.
“So where’s the truth here, where’s the honesty? Where’s the stalemate? ... That’s called unwillingness,” he said.
“One cannot, on the one hand, negotiate with the Russians about future economic projects, whilst on the other hand say that we find ourselves in some sort of … diplomatic stalemate,” Zelensky added.
Former Ukrainian security officer claims military intelligence ordered Monaco bombing
A former Ukrainian security services officer linked to a bomb attack targeting a millionaire businessman in Monaco has claimed that the operation was authorised by senior figures in Ukraine’s military intelligence agency, HUR.
Vitalii Zhykovych alleged that an active-duty HUR officer, Vladyslav Reut, had proposed the operation against Ukrainian-born businessman Vadym Yermolayev, in an interview with the BBC.
Yermolayev and his 13-year-old son were seriously injured in the June explosion, while his partner suffered catastrophic injuries.
Zhykovych, who describes himself as a freelance operative for Ukraine’s SBU security service, said he believed the mission had official approval.
“As Reut informed me, this operation […] had been authorised and approved by Reut's superiors, who served in the Main Intelligence Directorate of the Ministry of Defence [HUR],” he said.
He denied involvement in planting the bomb or killing Anastasia Berezovska, the woman filmed placing the explosive device in Monaco. Her body was discovered with gunshot wounds in woodland near Kyiv a week later.
Zhykovych and Reut were subsequently arrested over her murder.
Reut initially confessed to investigators before changing his account in court to blame Zhykovych.
HUR has not commented on the latest allegations but previously said it was committed to a full investigation and would cooperate with law enforcement authorities.
Ukrainian negotiators to travel to US for talks
A Ukrainian delegation will travel to the US on Friday and Saturday for talks aimed at advancing efforts to end the war, president Volodymyr Zelensky has said.
Zelensky urged US president Donald Trump to increase sanctions pressure on Russia and said he expected Ukraine’s European allies to participate in the discussions.
The talks, scheduled to take place in Florida, will involve Zelensky’s chief of staff Kyrylo Budanov, alongside senior Ukrainian officials Rustem Umerov, Sergiy Kyslytsya and David Arakhamia.
Ukrainian drone strike sparks fire at industrial facility in Russia
A Ukrainian drone attack has sparked a fire at an industrial facility in Russia’s Tver region, according to the state-run TASS news agency.
TASS cited the regional governor as confirming the blaze following the attack.
The extent of the damage and whether there were any casualties were not immediately clear.