(PUNTA CANA, Dominican Republic) — Joshua Riibe, the Minnesota college student who was with University of Pittsburgh student Sudiksha Konanki the night she went missing on a spring break trip to the Dominican Republic, said in court that he’s “ready to go home and go back to my life.”
The 22-year-old Iowa native — who has not been charged with a crime — said Konanki’s family hugged him and thanked him.
“Her mother gave me a hug and said, ‘Thank you for saving my daughter the first time,”‘ Riibe said in court Tuesday. “It was really tough.”
Riibe’s court appearance was for a habeas corpus hearing that was requested by his lawyers, who believe the 22-year-old is being detained illegally.
Prosecutors claimed in court that Riibe is a witness and is not detained.
Authorities have confiscated Riibe’s passport, and Riibe said in court that police have followed him to meals and watched him eat. Riibe’s attorneys asked to get his passport returned and to get the ability to leave the hotel without surveillance.
“I can’t go anywhere. And I really want to be able to go home, talk to my family, give them hugs, tell them I miss them,” Riibe said. “I understand I’m here to help, but it’s been 10 days and I can’t leave.”
Riibe’s father traveled to the Dominican Republic to support him. When asked by reporters if he would be able to take his son home, he replied, “I don’t even know where he’s at right now.”
“I’m just doing what I can, and at this point there’s nothing more I can do,” Riibe said during his appearance in court.
Following the court appearance on Tuesday, it was determined that Riibe will no longer be under police surveillance. However, Dominican Republic officials are not yet returning his passport.
The judge is expected to rule on the habeas corpus request on March 28.
Authorities have said they believe 20-year-old Konanki died by drowning in Punta Cana early on March 6, officials told ABC News. Her missing persons case is being treated as an accident, sources said.
Riibe — who met Konanki that night — told prosecutors the two went swimming and kissed in the ocean. He said they were then hit by a wave and pulled into the ocean by the tide, according to a transcript provided to ABC News from two Dominican Republic sources.
Riibe said he held Konanki and tried to get them out of the water.
“I was trying to make sure that she could breathe the entire time — that prevented me from breathing the entire time and I took in a lot of water,” he said.
“When I finally touched the sand, I put her in front of me. Then she got up to go get her stuff since the ocean had moved us,” Riibe told the prosecutor. “She was not out of the water since it was up to her knee. She was walking at an angle in the water.”
“The last time I saw her, I asked her if she was OK. I didn’t hear her response because I began to vomit with all the water I had swallowed,” he said. “After vomiting, I looked around and I didn’t see anyone. I thought she had taken her things and left.”
Riibe said he passed out on a beach chair and woke up hours later and returned to his hotel room.
Konanki’s family has sent a formal request to Dominican police requesting they declare their daughter dead, according to two sources with knowledge of the investigation. The parents noted Riibe was cooperating with the investigation and they acknowledged there was no evidence of foul play, the sources said.
(NEW YORK) — Astronomers have confirmed the existence of four planets orbiting a star less than 6 light-years away with help from some of the world’s most powerful telescopes.
Research published in October 2024 revealed that one planet was rotating around Barnard’s Star, the second-closest single star system to Earth. But a combination of telescopes all over the world confirmed the presence of four small exoplanets, according to a study published last week in The Astrophysical Journal Letters.
The Gemini Telescope in Hawaii and the Very Large Telescope in Chile were used to detect the additional rocky planets, the astronomers said.
“It’s signaling a breakthrough with the precision of these new instruments from previous generations,” said Ritvik Basant, Ph.D student at the University of Chicago and lead author of the paper, in a statement.
The first planet was detected using a 27-foot diameter telescope at the European Space Observatory’s Paranal Observatory in Chile and a spectrograph that could quickly detect changes in the star’s velocity, according to the 2024 paper, published in the journal Astronomy & Astrophysics.
Barnard’s Star, a low-mass red dwarf, was discovered in 1916. Since then, astronomers have discovered that at least 70% of all stars in the Milky Way are this type of star, which is why researchers want to know about the types of planets that orbit them, according to the University of Chicago.
“It’s a really exciting find — Barnard’s Star is our cosmic neighbor, and yet we know so little about it,” Basant said.
The planets are 20% to 30% the mass of Earth and make a full orbit around the sun in days, according to the paper. They are likely rocky planets, rather than gas.
Since they are so close to Barnard’s Star, they are likely too hot to sustain life. The researchers ruled out the existence of other planets within the habitable zone of Barnard’s Star.
The planets are difficult to detect because their stars shine so brightly next to them, the researchers said.
Scientists from the Gemini Observatory, National Science Foundation NOIRLab, Heidelberg University and the University of Amsterdam calibrated and analyzed data taken during 112 different nights over three years, where they found “solid evidence” to the existence of the additional planets orbiting Barnard’s Star, according to the paper.
“We observed at different times of night on different days,” Basant said. “They’re in Chile; we’re in Hawaii. Our teams didn’t coordinate with each other at all.”
He added, “That gives us a lot of assurance that these aren’t phantoms in the data.”
(WASHINGTON) — President Donald Trump will hold a high-stakes call with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Tuesday as he tries to win his approval of a 30-day ceasefire with Ukraine.
“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”
That positive assessment follows his prediction Sunday night that “we’ll see if we have something to announce — maybe by Tuesday,” saying “a lot of work” had been done over the weekend. “Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance.”
The Kremlin on Tuesday said it expects the call within a two-hour window beginning at about 9 a.m. ET. The encounter would be the first known call between Trump and Putin since peace talks between U.S. and Ukrainian officials a week ago in Saudi Arabia yielded Kyiv agreeing to an immediate, temporary stop to hostilities should Russia do the same.
Since then, Putin has been noncommittal on the proposal while fighting intensifies in Kursk.
Putin said he was “for” a ceasefire but raised concerns and set out his own conditions, such as certain security guarantees. Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy, meanwhile, has accused the Russian leader of obstructing peace and “prolonging” the war.
Trump on Monday said the only reason he was involved in negotiations is “for humanity.”
“A lot of people are being killed over there. And, we had to get Ukraine to do the right thing. It was not an easy situation. You got to see a little glimpse at the Oval Office, but I think they’re doing the right thing right now. And we’re trying to get a peace agreement done. We want to get a ceasefire and then a peace agreement,” he said.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy will monitor the conversation between Trump and Putin with caution and great interest, a Ukrainian official informed about the matter told ABC News.
“We agreed to the U.S. ceasefire proposal with zero conditions, and if Putin is gonna start playing with Trump setting demands — it will not work,” the source added.
A key question moving forward is how far Trump will go in pressuring Russia to agree to a ceasefire and ultimately bring an end to the three-year conflict, which began when Putin’s forces invaded its sovereign neighbor.
The Trump administration took drastic steps in stopping military aid and pausing some intelligence sharing with Ukraine after the Oval Office clash between Trump and Zelenskyy. Those two tools resumed after Ukraine agreed to the ceasefire last Tuesday.
Plus, U.S. officials have said it would be unrealistic for Ukraine to return to its prewar borders and expressly ruled out its bid for NATO membership.
Meanwhile, the Trump administration has not publicly made similar demands of Putin.
Trump on Sunday said land and power plants were on the table for Tuesday’s discussion, as well as “dividing up certain assets” between the two countries.
“Well, I think we’ll be talking about land. It’s a lot of land. It’s a lot different than it was before the wars, you know. And we’ll be talking about land, we’ll be talking about power plants. That’s a big question, but I think we have a lot of it already discussed, very much by both sides,” he told reporters on Air Force One.
Trump last week said his administration could ramp up pressure on Russia but hoped it wouldn’t be “necessary.”
“There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense,” he said. “I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia. I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
ABC News’ Oleksiy Pshemyskiy and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(GAZA CITY) — Israel hit Gaza with a series of “extensive strikes” overnight Tuesday, vowing to open the “gates of hell” because Hamas has not released the remaining hostages.
Israel’s Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu and Defense Minister Israel Katz said the Israel Defense Forces is targeting Hamas terrorists throughout the region and will act with “increasing military force” against Hamas from now on.
“Israel will, from now on, act against Hamas with increasing military strength,” Netanyahu’s office said in a statement on Tuesday.
The Ministry of Health, which is run by Hamas, said in a statement Tuesday that at least 404 people had been killed in the strikes. The human toll in Gaza had risen steadily throughout the morning, the ministry said in a series of updates. At least 562 others were injured, the ministry said.
“Tonight we returned to fighting in Gaza due to Hamas’ refusal to release the hostages and threats to harm IDF soldiers and Israeli communities,” Katz said in a statement.
“If Hamas does not release all the hostages, the gates of hell will open in Gaza,” he added.
The strikes are targeting areas in Gaza including Rafah, Khan Younis, Deir al-Balah, Nuseirat, Al-Bureij, Al-Zaytoun, Al-Karama and Beit Hanoun. The IDF’s Arabic spokesperson issued a broad evacuation order covering of the entire perimeter of Gaza. Residents were warned to “evacuate immediately to the known shelters in western Gaza City and those in Khan Younis.”
An Israeli official told ABC News the preemptive offensive will continue “as long as necessary,” and will “expand beyond air strikes.”
The strikes targeted Hamas’ mid-ranking military commanders, leadership officials and infrastructure, the official said.
“The IDF is prepared and spread out in all arenas, both in personnel manning the borders and the Aerial Defence Array,” the official added.
Netanyahu and Katz said the changes to the IDF’s defensive guidelines come after Hamas “rejected all offers” on a conclusive hostage deal with Steve Witkoff, the U.S.’s special envoy to the Middle East.
Hamas said in a statement Tuesday that overturning the ceasefire agreement and the series of strikes put “the prisoners in Gaza at an unknown fate.”
White House Press Secretary Karoline Leavitt said in an appearance on Fox News that the Trump administration was consulted by Israeli officials on their decision to strike Gaza.
Earlier this month, President Donald Trump took to his social media to threaten Hamas with a “last warning” about the remaining hostages.
Trump wrote on Truth Social on March 7 that “it will be OVER” for Hamas if it does not comply.
“I am sending Israel everything it needs to finish the job, not a single Hamas member will be safe if you don’t do as I say,” he added.
Witkoff reiterated the president’s threat at the time, saying, “I wouldn’t test President Trump.”
Fifty-nine hostages are believed to remain in Gaza — 24 of whom are presumed to be alive. Edan Alexander is the last American-Israeli hostage to remain alive in captivity.
ABC News’ Dana Savir and Guy Davies contributed to this report.
(WASHINGTON) — Presidents Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin are expected to speak on Tuesday as the White House continues its campaign for a ceasefire and eventual peace deal to end Russia’s devastating war on Ukraine.
“It’s a bad situation in Russia, and it’s a bad situation in Ukraine,” Trump said on Monday. “What’s happening in Ukraine is not good, but we’re going to see if we can work a peace agreement, a ceasefire and peace, and I think we’ll be able to do it.”
Since Trump’s return to the White House in January, his new administration has sought to bring an end to Russia’s war by berating and pressuring Kyiv. Trump has repeatedly said that Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zeleneskyy “does not have the cards” to come out on top of the negotiations.
Meanwhile, Moscow has been offered normalization and hinting at territorial gains and sanctions relief.
Thus far, the carrot has been for Russia and the stick for Ukraine.
There remains only a slight indication of what concessions Trump is seeking from Russia. “When we talk about leverage, it suggests that he wants to use this leverage to get some concessions from Russia,” Oleg Ignatov, the International Crisis Group think tank’s senior Russia analysts, told ABC News.
“But is he really interested in serious concessions from Russia or not?”
Does Trump have ‘the cards’?
The president has hinted at ramping up pressure on the Kremlin if it fails to commit to peace talks. “There are things you could do that wouldn’t be pleasant in a financial sense,” he said last week.
“I can do things financially that would be very bad for Russia,” Trump added. “I don’t want to do that because I want to get peace.”
Earlier this month, Trump wrote on Truth Social, “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.”
The implementation of tariffs — a cornerstone of Trumpian foreign and economic policy — would be only a symbolic measure, given that Russian exports to the U.S. have fallen to their lowest level since the collapse of the Soviet Union.
In a possible preview of things to come, the White House has already expanded the unprecedented sanctions campaign kicked off by former President Joe Biden in 2022.
This month, the administration said Russians were among 43 nationalities being considered for travel bans. It also allowed to lapse a sanctions exemption allowing Russian banks to use U.S. payment systems for energy transactions.
Trump may seek to further tighten the screws on Russia’s economy, in which inflation is rising and dollars are increasingly difficult and expensive to access.
“What the U.S. can do is put even more pressure on the Russian financing sector, increasing the sanctions against banks that that basically also have a stake in the oil and gas sector in order to compromise the financial sustainability of the Russian Federation and make it basically unsustainable for Russia to continue the war,” Federico Borsari of the Center for European Policy Analysis think tank told ABC News.
The U.S. may also seek further action to identify and penalize vessels in Russia’s so-called “shadow fleet,” by which Moscow has been able to continue exporting its fossil fuels and avoid sanctions, Borsari added.
Still, Russia has shown an ability to adapt to and skirt sanctions, even if the measures have undermined the national economy. The impact of new sanctions may not be immediate enough to force Putin to the negotiating table, Ignatov said.
Seeking to further curtail Russia’s energy exports or expanding secondary sanctions — meaning measures against those still doing business with sanctioned entities — may also bring the U.S. into conflict with key Russian customers like China and India.
“There is no magic bullet in terms of sanctions,” Ignatov said.
Putin’s hand
Trump has praised Putin’s supposed readiness for peace, instead framing Ukraine and Zelenskyy as the main impediments to a deal. Still, Moscow has shown no sign of downgrading its war goals, which still include the annexation of swaths of its neighbor, the “demilitarization” of Ukraine and its permanent exclusion from NATO.
Putin was non-committal to last week’s U.S.-Ukraine proposal of a 30-day ceasefire. Moscow is “for” the pause, the president said, but framed any pause as a military benefit for Kyiv and said several difficult conditions would need to be fulfilled before the Kremlin would give its full support.
Russia “needs” a pause in the fighting to reform its own shattered military, Pavel Luzin — a Russian political analyst at The Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy — told ABC News. “But at the same time, Russia does not have desirable conditions on the battlefield.”
“What Russia has been trying to do since the fall of 2022 is defeat a big group of Ukrainian forces as a pre-condition for negotiations about a break,” he added. “Russia wanted to demoralize the Ukrainian leadership and society. After two-and-a-half years, Russia was not successful.”
Ignatov said Moscow’s recent engagement with the Trump administration does suggest an appetite for some kind of deal.
“I think both Russia and the U.S. are looking at this negotiation seriously,” he said. “It doesn’t mean that both sides are thinking about any good deal for Ukraine, but I think that both sides want to finish this conflict.”
The Russians, he added, “want to avoid a direct confrontation with Trump, because they really value this process of normalization. I think what they tried to do is to decouple Ukraine from the normalization of the other issues. Even if they don’t succeed on Ukraine, they want to continue to work on other issues.”
Still, Moscow is “not ready to sacrifice their interests” in Ukraine, Ignatov continued. “They are not ready to make very big concessions — serious concessions, to leave territories or something like this.”
Opportunity, crisis for Ukraine
Trump’s radical pivot away from Ukraine in the opening months of his second term left Kyiv and its other foreign partners reeling. Though the pause to U.S. military aid and intelligence sharing was brief, it rattled leaders and commanders in Kyiv.
“We consider this turbulence to be part of negotiations, which I think was quite often used by Trump in his past when he was in business,” Yehor Cherniev — a member of the Ukrainian Parliament and the chairman of his country’s delegation to the NATO Parliamentary Assembly — told ABC News. “So, we understand.”
Trump’s inherent unpredictability has given Ukrainians hope that his interactions with Putin may not necessarily play in Russia’s favor.
“Trump should say directly: ‘Vladimir, if you don’t agree unconditionally to my proposal then I’ll have to make a deal with a new leader of Russia instead of you,'” Oleksandr Merezhko, a member of the Ukrainian parliament and the chair of the body’s foreign affairs committee, told ABC News. “If he tried it with Zelenskyy, then why not with Putin?”
A threat to expand American military aid to Ukraine could give such coercion bite, analysts and Ukrainian lawmakers who spoke with ABC News said.
Lifting restrictions on U.S. weapon use inside Russia, requesting more military aid funding from Congress, replenishing supplies of long-range ATACMS missiles and delivering new long-range strike weapons like the Joint Air-to-Surface Standoff Missile could all underscore the U.S. demand for Russia to negotiate.
But such steps would run counter to Trump’s repeated statements that the war must end as soon as possible — with or without American involvement.
“I’m not sure if he has any desire to escalate the war, because he’s the ‘peace president,'” Ignatov said, noting that any request for more funding from Congress could also touch off unwelcome domestic political disputes.
“He’s said that if we are not able to succeed, the U.S. will be out of the war,” Ignatov added. “So, it means that he is not going to escalate.”
It remains to be seen if Trump’s ambition for a deal will be enough to overcome the decades-long complexity of Russia’s aggression against its “brotherly nation,” as Putin was still describing Ukraine months into the 2022 full-scale invasion.
“The Russians have quite clearly showed already that they are not ready,” Cherniev said. “Now there are not so many options for Trump’s administration.”
“Trump wants to be a peacemaker,” he added. “If he just leaves these negotiations, that will mean that Putin wins. And I doubt that Trump will allow Putin to win.”
Trump’s turn against Ukraine begun to erode the trust built up by decades of American backing. But for now, at least, some hope remains.
The president “might” ultimately side with Moscow, Merezhko said. “But that goes against American values — Americans and public opinion in the U.S. have always been on the side of the underdogs.”
(ROATÁN, HONDURAS) — An aircraft crashed into the sea with 17 people on board in Roatán, Honduras, on Monday, according to local officials.
Honduras Civil Aviation confirmed that the accident occurred at 6:18 p.m. at Juan Manuel Gálvez International Airport. There were 15 passengers and two crew members on board, HCA said.
The Jetstream 32 was departing from Roatán with the intended destination of La Ceiba, which is located on the north coast of Honduras. Preliminary reports indicate that the plane crashed seconds after takeoff.
Honduran police said that they’re present at the scene and attempting to rescue those involved in the crash.
Honduran President Xiomara Castro released a statement saying that she activated an Emergency Operations Committee.
“They have immediately arrived at the scene of the plane crash that occurred 1 km from Roatán International Airport and are tirelessly assisting in the unfortunate incident,” she said in the statement.
“The public hospitals in San Pedro Sula and La Ceiba are now ready to treat injured passengers,” Castro added.
This is a developing story. Please check back for updates.
(LONDON) — President Donald Trump on Monday said that further attacks or retaliation by the Houthis would be considered an attack by Iran and it would face “dire” consequences.p
Trump’s threat comes after the U.S. launched a new series of airstrikes against the Yemeni group beginning Saturday. The Houthis on Sunday claimed to have thwarted “a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country.” A U.S. official told ABC News that the Houthis fired 11 drones and one ballistic missile at the USS Harry S Truman aircraft carrier group in the Red Sea, none of which came close to hitting any U.S. vessels.
In a post on his Truth Social platform, Trump called the Houthis “sinister mobsters and thugs” said their attacks “emanate from, and are created by, IRAN.”
Trump said Iran is “dictating every move, giving them the weapons, supplying them with money and highly sophisticated Military equipment, and even, so-called, ‘Intelligence.'”
“Every shot fired by the Houthis will be looked upon, from this point forward, as being a shot fired from the weapons and leadership of IRAN, and IRAN will be held responsible, and suffer the consequences, and those consequences will be dire!” Trump said.
The Houthis claimed to have fired 18 ballistic missiles and a drone in two separate attacks over the previous 24 hours. All drones were downed by fighters — 10 shot down by Air Force planes and one by Navy planes — while the ballistic missile was not intercepted as it fell far short of the vessels, the U.S. official said.
Trump described the U.S. strikes as “decisive and powerful military action” against the Iranian-backed group. The Houthis have been targeting Western-linked shipping and launching munitions into Israel since the fall of 2022, in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft and drones,” Trump posted on Truth Social on Saturday. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Sunday that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis that sends a strong message to Iran.
The Yemeni Health Ministry said the strikes killed 53 people and injured 98 more.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he was not concerned about retaliatory strikes related to the latest American strikes.
National security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the strikes represented “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”
Detailing their latest attack on U.S. Navy vessels, the Houthis said in a Sunday statement that they will “continue to ban the passage of Israeli ships through the zone of operations until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky, Nicholas Kerr and Michelle Stoddart contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin “stole” another week of war in Ukraine with his vague response to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Washington and Kyiv last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
Both Ukraine and Russia are seeking to avoid blame for prolonging Moscow’s 3-year-old war and undermining nascent U.S.-led ceasefire and peace talks. American negotiators have now met with representatives from both Kyiv and Moscow in their bid to formulate a deal.
Following the U.S.-Ukraine meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last week, the two sides proposed a full 30-day ceasefire as a springboard for a wider peace agreement. Putin said he was “for” the would-be freeze in fighting, though set out additional conditions for its implementation and suggested a pause would benefit Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has since released several statements framing Putin as intentionally hindering ceasefire talks.
“After the talks in Jeddah and the American proposal for a ceasefire on the frontline, Russia stole almost another week — a week of war that only Russia wants,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media on Sunday.
“We will do everything to further intensify diplomacy,” he added. “We will do everything to make diplomacy effective.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram, “Russia continues to attack, Ukraine is responding to the attacks and will respond until Putin stops the war.”
Zelenskyy and his top officials are striving to present Ukraine as ready for peace, seemingly hoping to neutralize repeated — and at times misleading — criticism from President Donald Trump’s administration that Kyiv, rather than Moscow, is the main obstacle to a deal.
Trump said Sunday he expects to speak with Putin by phone on Tuesday.
“A lot of work” on a potential deal was done over the weekend, Trump said. “We’ll see if we have something to announce. Maybe by Tuesday.” He said that his administration wants “to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
“Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance,” the president said, speaking onboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.
Fighting continues at key points along the front as the parties maneuver for advantage in further ceasefire talks.
Particular attention has been paid to the western Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces seized territory in a surprise August 2024 offensive. Russian officials have said there can be no peace talks while the area remains partially occupied.
Recent weeks have seen Ukrainian positions there collapse under intense Russian attacks, with Putin visiting the region last week and saying that Kyiv’s troops there could choose to “surrender or die.”
Both sides have also continued their long-range cross-border strikes. On Monday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 90 of 174 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, with another 70 drones lost in flight without causing damage. Seven regions were impacted by the attack, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Monday its forces shot down 72 Ukrainian drones since Sunday evening.
Some drones attacked the Astrakhan region of southern Russia, around 500 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Igor Babushkin, the regional governor, said Ukraine “attempted a massive drone attack on facilities located in the region, including the fuel and energy complex.”
Babushkin said falling drone debris sparked a fire at one facility, though did not specify where. “The situation is under control,” the governor wrote on Telegram. “One person was injured during the attack. The victim has now been taken to the hospital.”
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram that “unknown drones struck a fuel and energy complex” in Astrakhan. “The intensity of the work of unknown drones is increasing,” he added.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — Russian President Vladimir Putin “stole” another week of war in Ukraine with his vague response to a 30-day ceasefire proposed by Washington and Kyiv last week, Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said on Sunday.
Both Ukraine and Russia are seeking to avoid blame for prolonging Moscow’s 3-year-old war and undermining nascent U.S.-led ceasefire and peace talks. American negotiators have now met with representatives from both Kyiv and Moscow in their bid to formulate a deal.
Following the U.S.-Ukraine meeting in Jeddah, Saudi Arabia, last week, the two sides proposed a full 30-day ceasefire as a springboard for a wider peace agreement. Putin said he was “for” the would-be freeze in fighting, though set out additional conditions for its implementation and suggested a pause would benefit Ukraine.
Zelenskyy has since released several statements framing Putin as intentionally hindering ceasefire talks.
“After the talks in Jeddah and the American proposal for a ceasefire on the frontline, Russia stole almost another week — a week of war that only Russia wants,” the Ukrainian president wrote on social media on Sunday.
“We will do everything to further intensify diplomacy,” he added. “We will do everything to make diplomacy effective.”
Andriy Yermak, the head of Zelenskyy’s presidential office, wrote on Telegram, “Russia continues to attack, Ukraine is responding to the attacks and will respond until Putin stops the war.”
Zelenskyy and his top officials are striving to present Ukraine as ready for peace, seemingly hoping to neutralize repeated — and at times misleading — criticism from President Donald Trump’s administration that Kyiv, rather than Moscow, is the main obstacle to a deal.
Trump said Sunday he expects to speak with Putin by phone on Tuesday.
“A lot of work” on a potential deal was done over the weekend, Trump said. “We’ll see if we have something to announce. Maybe by Tuesday.” He said that his administration wants “to see if we can bring that war to an end.”
“Maybe we can. Maybe we can’t, but I think we have a very good chance,” the president said, speaking onboard Air Force One as he returned to Washington, D.C., on Sunday night.
Fighting continues at key points along the front as the parties maneuver for advantage in further ceasefire talks.
Particular attention has been paid to the western Russian region of Kursk, where Ukrainian forces seized territory in a surprise August 2024 offensive. Russian officials have said there can be no peace talks while the area remains partially occupied.
Recent weeks have seen Ukrainian positions there collapse under intense Russian attacks, with Putin visiting the region last week and saying that Kyiv’s troops there could choose to “surrender or die.”
Both sides have also continued their long-range cross-border strikes. On Monday, Ukraine’s air force said it shot down 90 of 174 Russian drones launched into the country overnight, with another 70 drones lost in flight without causing damage. Seven regions were impacted by the attack, the air force said.
Russia’s Defense Ministry, meanwhile, said Monday its forces shot down 72 Ukrainian drones since Sunday evening.
Some drones attacked the Astrakhan region of southern Russia, around 500 miles from the closest Ukrainian-controlled territory.
Igor Babushkin, the regional governor, said Ukraine “attempted a massive drone attack on facilities located in the region, including the fuel and energy complex.”
Babushkin said falling drone debris sparked a fire at one facility, though did not specify where. “The situation is under control,” the governor wrote on Telegram. “One person was injured during the attack. The victim has now been taken to the hospital.”
Andriy Kovalenko, the head of the Counter-Disinformation Center operating as part of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, said on Telegram that “unknown drones struck a fuel and energy complex” in Astrakhan. “The intensity of the work of unknown drones is increasing,” he added.
ABC News’ Nicholas Kerr and Kevin Shalvey contributed to this report.
(LONDON) — The Houthis’ retaliatory missile and drone attack on U.S. Navy ships in the Red Sea did not come close to hitting any American vessels, a U.S. official confirmed to ABC News, after President Donald Trump’s administration launched a new series of airstrikes targeting the Yemeni group.
The Houthis claimed on Sunday to have fired 18 ballistic missiles and a drone at the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier group in two separate attacks over the previous 24 hours. The strike, the group said, “succeeded in thwarting a hostile attack the enemy was preparing to launch against our country.”
A U.S. official told ABC News that the Houthis fired 11 drones and one ballistic missile, none of which came close to hitting any U.S. vessels.
All drones were downed by fighters — 10 shot down by Air Force planes and one by Navy planes — while the ballistic missile was not intercepted as it fell far short of the vessels, the official said.
The Houthi retaliation came after a wave of U.S. airstrikes in Yemen beginning on Saturday, which Trump described as “decisive and powerful military action” against the Iranian-backed group. The Houthis have been targeting Western-linked shipping and launching munitions into Israel since the fall of 2022, in protest of Israel’s war against Hamas in the Gaza Strip.
“They have waged an unrelenting campaign of piracy, violence, and terrorism against American, and other, ships, aircraft and drones,” Trump posted on his social media platform, Truth Social, on March 15. “We will use overwhelming lethal force until we have achieved our objective.”
A U.S. official confirmed to ABC News on Sunday that U.S. air and naval assets hit dozens of Houthi targets in Yemen, including missiles, radars and drone and air defense systems. The official characterized the attacks as an opening salvo against the Houthis that sends a strong message to Iran.
The Yemeni Health Ministry said the strikes killed 53 people and injured 98 more.
Speaking with reporters on Air Force One on Sunday, Trump said he was not concerned about retaliatory strikes related to the latest American strikes.
National security adviser Mike Waltz told ABC’s “This Week” on Sunday that the strikes represented “an overwhelming response that actually targeted multiple Houthi leaders and took them out. And the difference here is, one, going after the Houthi leadership, and two, holding Iran responsible.”
Detailing their latest attack on U.S. Navy vessels, the Houthis said in a Sunday statement that they will “continue to ban the passage of Israeli ships through the zone of operations until the blockade on the Gaza Strip is lifted.”
ABC News’ Will Gretsky and Nicholas Kerr contributed to this report.
