Archive June 5, 2025

On Thursday, June 5, 2018, this is how things are going.

Fighting

• At least nine people were hurt when Russian drones struck apartment buildings in Kharkiv, the second-largest city in Ukraine, early on Thursday, according to the city’s mayor.
• According to Russian-installed officials, new Ukrainian drone attacks have affected energy infrastructure in southern Ukraine’s Zaporizhia and Kherson regions. Vladimir Saldo, the newly appointed Russian-appointed Kherson region governor, claimed the attacks left 97 settlements without power and with 68, 000 people living in them.
• According to the Russian Ministry of Defense, the settlements of Ridkodub in eastern Ukraine and Kindrativka in the Sumy region of Ukraine are under Russian control.
• The Kremlin said that despite an explosion, the Crimean bridge, a major Russian-built rail and road bridge connecting Russia and the annexed Crimean Peninsula, was still intact.

talks on a ceasefire

• After accusing Ukraine’s leaders of ordering a bombing attack in Western Russia on Saturday, which left seven people dead and 115 others injured, Russian President Vladimir Putin said he doesn’t believe they want peace.
• The attack, which crossed a railroad line carrying passenger trains, was viewed by Putin as a “terrorist” plot to scuttle the peace talks.
• Putin also stated in a phone call to Donald Trump that he would have to react to Ukraine’s Sunday drone attacks, which targeted Russia’s far-northern and Siberia-area bomber fleet.
• Putin’s foreign policy adviser, Yuri Ushakov, claimed that in spite of Ukrainian attempts to “disrupt” them, the Russian leader said on the phone that the ceasefire talks “on the whole were useful.”
• About 20 Russian warplanes were hit by a drone attack in Siberia, according to two unnamed US officials, about 10 of which were destroyed by Ukraine, according to Volodymyr Zelenskyy, president of Ukraine.
• Following Ukraine’s drone attack over the weekend, Trump’s Ukraine envoy, Keith Kellogg, stated that the risk of an escalation was “going way up.”
• A ceasefire should be in place until a meeting with Putin, according to Zelenskyy. At a briefing in Kyiv, he said, “I think our partners can support” agreeing a ceasefire with the Russians until the leaders meet.
• According to the Vatican, Pope Leo urged Russia to stop its hostility of Ukraine when he for the first time phoned Putin, according to the Vatican.

International diplomacy

• Sergei Shoigu, the head of North Korea, and Kim Jong Un, the head of Russia’s Security Council, met and pledged to support Moscow’s position on Ukraine without condition.
• The military bloc’s head, Mark Rutte, stated that Ukraine will be invited to the NATO summit in The Hague.
• German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul has stated that German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will inform Trump when he travels to show that Europe is firmly on Ukraine’s side and that no chance for peace should be overlooked.
• Wadephul also claimed that Germany is urging Russia to impose new sanctions on Moscow, and that this should be coordinated with the US, because he claimed Russia is not seriously engaging in peace talks.
• By the end of the year, Ukraine and the US have discussed how to make a minerals fund operational. Yulia Svyrydenko, the country’s deputy prime minister, stated during her visit to Washington, DC that the first meeting of the fund is scheduled for July.
• Andriy Yermak, Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, met with Marco Rubio, the US secretary of state, in Washington, DC, during his stay there.
• After meeting with Western counterparts at the Ukraine Defence Contact Group, the Ukrainian Minister of Defense Rustem Umerov stated that Kyiv’s allies have expressed a willingness to pay for Ukrainian companies to manufacture defense in allies.
• With a goal of sending 100 000 drones to Ukraine, United Kingdom Defense Secretary John Healey announced that the country would increase by tenfold the number of drones it would supply there.

According to The Associated Press news agency, US President Donald Trump has signed an executive order that prohibits citizens from traveling in all 12 nations and restates citizens from seven.

Afghanistan, Chad, Congo, Equatorial Guinea, Eritrea, Haiti, Iran, Libya, Myanmar, Somalia, Sudan, and Yemen are among the nations that are prohibited.

People from Burundi, Cuba, Laos, Sierra Leone, Togo, Turkmenistan, and Venezuela will also experience more stringent restrictions in addition to the ban, which goes into effect on Monday.

In his directive, Trump said, “I must act to safeguard the United States’ national security and its interests.”

Trump claimed in a video message that the White House had “understood the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreigners who are not properly vetted” that the recent attack on a pro-Israel rally in Boulder, Colorado had “underscored the extreme dangers posed to our country by the entry of foreigners.”

According to the president, “millions and millions of these illegals should not be in our country.”

We can’t, in any country, allow open migration from any country where we can safely and reliably vet and screen those who enter the United States, he said, adding, “We will not let what happened in Europe happen.”

We won’t permit foreigners who want to harm our nation.

“We cannot allow open migration from any nation where we cannot safely and reliably vet and screen people,” I am signing a new executive order that places restrictions on travel in nations like Yemen, Somalia, Haiti, Libya, and numerous others. – Photo of President Trump twitter.com/ER7nGM4TO2

Trump signed an executive order mandating citizens of seven predominantly Muslim nations’ countries, including Iran, Iraq, Libya, Somalia, Sudan, Syria, and Yemen, during his first term in office.

People from the countries whose names were cited were either denied entry to the US on their flights or held hostage at US airports upon landing. Tourists, visitors to friends and family, businesspeople, students and faculty members in US institutions, and others.

The Supreme Court upheld the order in 2018, which prohibited categories of travellers and immigrants from Iran, Somalia, Yemen, Syria, and Libya, as well as North Korean and some Venezuelan government officials and their families. The order was frequently referred to as the “Muslim ban” or the “travel ban.”

Trump argued that the initial travel ban was intended to safeguard the US and that it was not anti-Muslim, and that it was justified by the president’s assertions. Trump’s first campaign for the White House had pushed for a Muslim travel ban, though.

Following the president’s administration’s decision on Wednesday, Mohamed Soliman’s wife and their five children were detained in an effort to deport them.

Judge Gordon Gallagher ruled that Soliman’s wife, Hayam El Gamal, and her children could remain in the country as long as his decree is in place.

The judge argued that the Court also concluded that irreparable harm could be caused by deportation without recourse.

El Gamal had filed a legal petition for her release, which has not yet been proven guilty.

In addition to the 12 people hurt in the attack on Sunday, Soliman has been charged with a federal hate crime.

If Soliman’s relatives acted unfairly, or if they were merely targeted because of their ties to him, the Trump administration is unsure. Soliman appears to have been acting alone in the attack, according to authorities.

Trump’s administration, however, made it clear that they would aggressively look into and deport people they thought were connected to “terrorism.”

In a social media post on Monday, Secretary of State Marco Rubio said, “All terrorists, their families, and terrorist sympathizers here on a visa should be aware that under the Trump Administration, we will find you, revoke your visa, and deport you,” in light of the horrifying attack that occurred yesterday.

Elgamal, her three daughters, and her two sons, all of whom are minors, were detained by the Department of Homeland Security (DHS) on Tuesday.

In a video released online, Homeland Security Secretary Kristi Noem stated, “We are looking into how much his family knew about this heinous attack, if they knew about it, or if they provided support for it.” “Justice will be provided,”

Before applying for asylum, Soliman and his family, according to DHS, were granted temporary visas in the US in 2022.

In 2023, Soliman’s visa expired. El Gamal, according to media reports, applied for an employment visa while working as a network engineer.

Critics claim that the practice of punishing a criminal suspect’s family constitutes unlawful collective punishment.

Human rights organizations have criticized Israeli actions that targeted Palestinians who were suspected of being involved in armed attacks in the West Bank, for instance.

Israel’s occupation of Gaza, which UN experts have described as a genocide, has been linked to the attack in Colorado. During the firebombing, the suspect allegedly yelled “Free Palestine.”

Other violent incidents have occurred on US soil as a result of the Washington-backed conflict. Following the alleged murder of two Israeli Embassy employees in Washington, D.C., last month, the incident in Colorado occurred.

Another crime connected to the war resulted in the murder of a six-year-old Palestinian boy in the Chicago area in October 2023. The 73-year-old suspect allegedly told the boy’s mother that Muslims “must die” as they were attacked. After being found guilty of murder and hate crimes, he received a 53-year sentence.

Three Palestinian American students were shot and seriously injured in Vermont a few weeks later.