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KYIV — The Kremlin accused Kyiv Wednesday of countering US-Russia efforts to end the conflict in Ukraine, saying it had tried to strike Russian energy infrastructure despite Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump agreeing a halt on such attacks.

Putin announced a 30-day pause on striking Ukrainian energy facilities following a call with Trump on Tuesday, after turning down the US president's previous demand to pause all hostilities.

"Unfortunately, so far see there has been no reciprocity on the part of the Kyiv regime. There were attempts to strike our energy infrastructure," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said.

"These attacks are countering our common [Russian-American] efforts."

Peskov said Putin had "immediately" given the command to stop energy attacks on Ukraine, claiming that seven Russian drones were "in the air" to be used on Ukrainian energy infrastructure but were instead shot down by air defences.

Both countries attacked each other with drones after the Putin-Trump call.

The Kremlin said Putin had only committed to a ceasefire in strikes on energy infrastructure, clarifying a discrepancy between Russian and US reports after US envoy Steve Witkoff said Moscow had agreed to halt strikes on all infrastructure.

Kyiv had last week committed to an unconditional ceasefire with Russia.

The Kremlin said that Putin and Trump "trust each other and are intent to gradually move towards the normalisation of ties" more than three years into Moscow's offensive.

Peskov said the phone call between Trump and Putin lasted around two hours and that the pair had also discussed military aid to Ukraine, without giving details as "it is quite a sensitive topic and probably should not be discussed in public".

WASHINGTON — Home at last: After an unexpected nine-month stay in space, a pair of NASA astronauts finally returned to Earth on Tuesday, concluding a mission that gripped global attention and became a political flashpoint.

A SpaceX Crew Dragon spaceship carrying Butch Wilmore and Suni Williams, alongside fellow American Nick Hague and Russian cosmonaut Aleksandr Gorbunov streaked through the atmosphere before deploying parachutes for a gentle splashdown off the Florida coast at 5:57 pm.

Ground teams erupted in cheers as the gumdrop-shaped spacecraft named Freedom, charred from withstanding scorching temperatures of 3,500 degrees Fahrenheit during re-entry, bobbed steadily on the waves beneath a clear, sunny sky.

Fast boats raced to the capsule for initial safety checks, soon to be followed by a recovery vessel that will retrieve the crew before they are flown to Houston to begin a 45-day rehabilitation program.

"What a ride, I see a capsule full of friends here," Hague said.

The quartet left the International Space Station roughly 17 hours earlier after exchanging final farewells and hugs with remaining crew members.

Wilmore and Williams, both ex-Navy pilots and veterans of two prior space missions, flew to the orbital lab in June last year, on what was supposed to be a days-long roundtrip to test out Boeing's Starliner on its first crewed flight.

But the spaceship developed propulsion problems and was deemed unfit to fly them back, instead returning empty.

They were subsequently reassigned to NASA's SpaceX Crew-9 mission, which arrived at the ISS last September with a reduced crew of two, rather than the usual four, to accommodate the pair, who had become widely referred to as the "stranded" astronauts.

Early Sunday, a relief team called Crew-10 docked with the station, paving the way for the Crew-9 team to depart.

 'Unbelievable resilience'

Wilmore and Williams' 286-day stay exceeds the usual six-month ISS rotation but ranks only sixth among US records for single-mission duration.

Frank Rubio holds the top spot at 371 days in 2023, while the world record remains with Russian cosmonaut Valeri Polyakov, who spent 437 consecutive days aboard the Mir station.

That makes it "par for the course" in terms of health risks, according to Rihana Bokhari of the Center for Space Medicine at Baylor College of Medicine.

Challenges such as muscle and bone loss, fluid shifts that can lead to kidney stones and vision issues, and the readjustment of balance upon returning to a gravity environment are well understood and effectively managed.

"Folks like Suni Williams are actually known for their interest in exercise, and so I believe she exercises beyond what is even her normal prescription," Bokhari told AFP.

Still, the unexpected nature of their extended stay, away from their families and initially without enough packed supplies, has drawn public interest and sympathy.

"If you found out you went to work today and were going to be stuck in your office for the next nine months, you might have a panic attack," Joseph Keebler, a psychologist at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, told AFP.

"These individuals have shown unbelievable resilience."

 Trump weighs in

Their unexpected stint also became a political lightning rod, with President Donald Trump and his close advisor, Elon Musk, who leads SpaceX ,  repeatedly suggesting former president Joe Biden abandoned the astronauts and refused an earlier rescue plan.

Such accusations have prompted an outcry in the space community, especially as Musk offered no specifics and NASA's plan for the astronauts' return has remained largely unchanged since their Crew-9 reassignment.

Trump has also drawn attention for his bizarre remarks, referring to Williams, a former Navy captain who holds the US record for the second-longest cumulative time in space, as "the woman with the wild hair" and speculating about the personal dynamic between the two.

"They've been left up there,  I hope they like each other, maybe they love each other, I don't know," he said during a recent White House press conference.

WASHINGTON — Donald Trump and Vladimir Putin agreed Tuesday on a halt in Russian attacks against Ukrainian energy targets -- but fell far short of securing a full ceasefire in a highly anticipated phone call.

The US and Russian leaders spoke for more than an hour and a half and both expressed hopes for repairing relations between the countries.

However, there was no agreement from the Russian president for Washington's proposed full 30-day ceasefire in Russia's invasion of its pro-Western neighbor.

The Kremlin said Putin agreed to pause strikes on Ukraine energy targets for 30 days and that Putin had already given the order to his military. The White House said separately that the "leaders agreed that the movement to peace will begin with an energy and infrastructure ceasefire."

Russia has launched a series of devastating attacks on Ukraine's energy infrastructure throughout the three-year-old war. According to the Kremlin statement, Ukraine -- which has bombed multiple Russian oil installations -- had also agreed to the truce on energy targets, although Kyiv had yet to comment.

The two leaders agreed that broader truce talks would "begin immediately in the Middle East," the White House said in its statement, also citing a "huge upside" if Russia and the United States improve their relations.

But the Kremlin statement said a "key condition" for peace would be ending Western military and intelligence support to Ukraine's embattled military -- a position that will alarm Kyiv and European capitals that have already accused Putin of stalling.

 'Wants peace' 

Trump had already made clear before the call that he was ready to discuss "dividing up certain assets" -- what parts of occupied Ukraine that Russia would be allowed to keep.

The US president had said on his Truth Social network on the eve of the call that "many elements of a final agreement have been agreed to, but much remains" to be settled.

US allies, alarmed by Trump's recent pivot towards Russia, fear the Republican will give too much ground to the Russian president, a leader for whom he has repeatedly expressed admiration.

Kyiv had already agreed to the US proposal to halt fighting for 30 days. It said on Tuesday before the call that it expected Moscow to "unconditionally" accept to the ceasefire.

"It is time for Russia to show whether it really wants peace," Ukraine's Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiga said.

But Putin has repeatedly said that there were further issues that needed discussion, which Tuesday's call apparently failed to fully resolve.

Putin gave a hardline anti-Western speech Tuesday before the call, saying the West would still try to undermine Russia even if it lifted sanctions imposed over its invasion of Ukraine.

He mocked the G7 group of rich democracies -- from which Russia was expelled in 2018 -- to wild applause from the audience, saying it was too small to "see on a map."

 'End NOW' 

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned Putin does not want peace and is trying to achieve a better position militarily ahead of any halt in fighting. 

Russia has attacked Ukraine with near daily barrages of drones and missiles for more than three years, occupying some 20 percent southern and eastern Ukraine and pressing a grinding advance in recent months.

The Kremlin has also hailed Moscow's quick offensive in the Kursk region, parts of which Ukraine seized last year and was hoping to use as a bargaining chip.

The push towards a ceasefire began in February when Trump announced that he had spoken to Putin -- a surprise call that broke Western efforts to isolate the Russian leader while his invasion continues.

As Trump upended years of US policy he then had a televised shouting match with Zelensky in the Oval Office on February 28, which led to the United States temporarily suspending its billions of dollars in military aid to Kyiv.

On Sunday Trump said he would discuss issues of "land" and "power plants" with Putin -- a likely reference to the Moscow-occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant. 

Trump is however intent on delivering on an election pledge to end fighting in Ukraine, blaming his predecessor Joe Biden's policy on Russia for fueling the war.

"It must end NOW," he said on Truth Social.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis called Tuesday for an end to war and urged reflection in a letter published by Italy's newspaper of record, as the 88-year-old pontiff recovers from pneumonia in hospital.

Emphasising the need for responsible journalism, he called in his letter dated March 14 for calm minds, noting that the media had a duty to "feel the full importance of words".

"They are never just words: they are facts that build human environments. They can connect or divide, serve the truth or use it," he wrote in the letter published on the front page of the newspaper. 

"We must disarm words, to disarm minds and disarm the Earth. There is a great need for reflection, for calmness, for a sense of complexity."

"While war only devastates communities and the environment, without offering solutions to conflicts, diplomacy and international organisations need new life and credibility," he wrote.

Thanking Corriere's director Luciano Fontana, to whom the letter was addressed, Francis noted that "in this moment of illness... war appears even more absurd".

"Human fragility, in fact, has the power to make us more clear about what lasts and what passes, what makes us live and what kills," he wrote.

Peace, he said, "requires commitment, work, silence, words".

Pope Francis, in hospital for over a month with pneumonia, did not need to use an oxygen mask overnight, the Vatican said Tuesday, as the 88-year-old's condition gradually improves.

Doctors at Rome's Gemelli hospital have said Francis is now stable, after a critical period marked by breathing crises that raised fears for his life -- though they have yet to say when he might leave hospital.

"There have been some slight improvements" in the pope's condition and he "did not need to use" an oxygen mask overnight, the Vatican said in an evening briefing.

Instead, Francis used a cannula -- a plastic tube tucked into his nostrils that delivers high-flow oxygen.

But the Vatican cautioned that this did not mean the pope will no longer need the mask, which he has worn overnight for most of his stay.

Francis, who had part of one lung removed as a young man and is prone to respiratory illnesses, is "stable" but his "clinical picture remains complex", it said.

The next medical bulletin is expected on Wednesday afternoon.

RUSSIA — Russian pensioner Olga Shkuratova trembled, clutching a scrap of paper bearing a handwritten phone number for her son.

She had not spoken to him in the seven months that she was trapped by Ukraine's incursion into Russia's Kursk region -- more than half a year cut off from the outside world.

Shkuratova was on a Russian evacuation bus after Moscow's forces took back her village of Goncharovka and much of the land Ukrainian forces had seized in a riposte against Russia's three-year military campaign in Ukraine.

Just last week, the 62-year-old had to bury her husband in the couple's garden. 

He was killed in a strike during fierce fighting that ensued when Russian troops begun ousting Ukrainian troops from the border area.

"I'm alive! I love you!", she shouted down the phone to her son, who lives more than 1,000 kilometres away in a region north of Moscow.

A volunteer came to calm her down. 

since last week, Russia has moved several hundred civilians from zones it has recaptured from Ukraine in the Kursk region to safer areas east of the main town, Sudzha.

Shkuratova's husband, a vet called Nikolai, was killed in a strike on Wednesday. 

"A shell hit. Everything was blown apart in a second. No house, no garage, no barn. 

"Grandpa [her husband] was crushed by the garage," she told AFP, clutching her purple coat and shaking. 

She buried him in their garden with the help of a neighbour, who now sat behind her on the evacuation bus.

"We washed him, covered him in a blanket, men dug out a hole and we put him there," Shkuratova said.

"During that time there was shooting."

 'They pumped water for us' 

Her neighbour, retired medic Tatiana Shapovalova, said the villagers were treated well by Ukrainian troops.

"We did not meet any scoundrels" the white-haired 71-year-old told AFP. "Quite the opposite."

"They were fixing things, cooking... We had a well but we could not pump water and they pumped water for us with their generator," she said. 

The women were taken with around 10 other evacuees from the side of a road near the black-earth fields for which the region is renowned.

They were not allowed to disclose the exact location for safety reasons, said a representative of Russia's emergency ministry.

Russian military police armed with Kalashnikovs kept a watchful eye on proceedings.

Military trucks zoomed past, decorated with the "Z" or "V" symbols of Moscow's forces in Ukraine.

Soldiers filled a nearby petrol station, smoking cigarettes and eating hot dogs.

 'It is just trashed' 

Viktor Vodyannikov, who was being evacuated from Sudzha, was visibly devastated. 

The bespectacled architect had designed buildings in Sudzha, which had a population of around 6,000 before fighting erupted and it was bombarded. 

His life's work now lies in ruins. 

"It was a good little town... All my projects there are destroyed," he said, slapping his knee and shaking his black bereted head.

"It is just trashed. There is rubbish everywhere."

Images of Sudzha released by Russia after battles to retake it show rows of houses destroyed and a town centre badly damaged, with rubble littering the streets. 

The fact that no civilian corridor was created in the Kursk region sparked anger towards the authorities, mostly from relatives of those trapped.

As she stepped off an evacuation bus, a woman called Tatiana fell into her sister-in-law's arms, both of them sobbing.

After three years of conflict -- which the Kremlin had said would not affect life back home -- many in the Kursk region are placing their hopes in moves by US President Donald Trump, who has said he can end the fighting.

"Peace agreements and peace negotiations," said Yelena Sukhareva, a volunteer from the city of Kursk helping the civilian evacuate. 

"This is the only solution."

GOMA — Rwanda-backed armed group M23 on Sunday accused the Democratic Republic of Congo's government, which it has been fighting in the country's east, of trying to "torpedo" direct talks scheduled in Angola.

The spokesman for the M23 and the Congo River Alliance [AFC], a political-military alliance of which the M23 is a member,  accused the DRC government of using fighter jets and drones to bomb densely populated areas in recent days.

"This deadly escalation... demonstrates the Kinshasa regime's intent to sabotage the long-awaited dialogue," Lawrence Kanyuka said in a post on X.

AFP could not verify the allegations made by the M23, and the DRC government did not immediately respond to requests for comment.

Kanyuka in his statement "acknowledges receipt" of Angola's invitation to "direct dialogue" scheduled for Tuesday in Luanda with the DRC government.

Angolan President Joao Lourenco called on Saturday for a ceasefire starting Sunday at midnight, an appeal to which no party has responded.

Congolese President Felix Tshisekedi has so far refused to attend talks with the M23 group, which has made rapid inroads into eastern DRC since the beginning of the year with the backing of Rwandan troops.

But following a visit by Tshisekedi to Luanda this week, "direct peace negotiations" were announced, starting Tuesday.

Tina Salama, a spokeswoman for Tshisekedi, told AFP late Sunday: "A delegation from the DRC will travel to Luanda on Tuesday at the invitation of the mediator to hear what they have to say."

She gave no details of its composition, nor whether it would engage in direct talks.

Since January, the major cities in eastern Democratic Republic of Congo, Goma and Bukavu, a region rich in natural resources and close to the Rwandan border, have fallen under M23's control.

UN experts say the M23 is supported by approximately 4,000 Rwandan soldiers.

Meanwhile Rwanda said Monday it had severed diplomatic ties with Belgium, saying the European nation had "consistently undermined" Kigali "during the ongoing conflict in the Democratic Republic of Congo".

The Rwanda-backed M23 armed group launched a massive offensive in the mineral-rich east of the DRC earlier this year, taking two major cities.

A United Nations report has said that Kigali effectively controls the group and has around 4,000 troops in the country.

Kigali has denied involvement in the conflict and says it faces a threat from ethnic Hutu fighters in the DRC.

"The Government of Rwanda today notified the Government of Belgium of its decision to sever diplomatic relations, effective immediately," the foreign affairs ministry said in a statement.

"Belgium has clearly taken sides in a regional conflict and continues to systematically mobilize against Rwanda in different forums, using lies and manipulation to secure an unjustified hostile opinion of Rwanda, in an attempt to destabilize both Rwanda and the region," it said.

It said that the decision reflected "Rwanda's commitment to safeguarding our national interests and the dignity of Rwandans".

All Belgian diplomats within the country will be required to leave within 48 hours, the statement added.

WASHINGTON — At least 40 people were killed and dozens more injured by tornadoes and violent storms that ravaged the central and southern United States at the weekend, local authorities said.

Local news channels across the affected region showed video of roofs torn off homes, trees felled, and trucks overturned by high winds.

Eight people died in Kansas in a crash involving more than 50 vehicles, caused by low visibility during a "severe dust storm", local police said.

In Oklahoma, four people were killed as wildfires and strong winds swept across the state, the local emergency management department said.

"We are actively monitoring the severe tornadoes and storms that have impacted many States across the South and Midwest," President Donald Trump posted Sunday on Truth Social.

He said National Guard troops were deployed in Arkansas, where officials said three people had died and 32 had been injured in the storm.

"The damage is overwhelming," Missouri governor Mike Kehoe said in a statement after visiting some of the hardest-hit areas in that state.

"Homes and businesses have been destroyed, entire communities are without power, and the road to recovery will not be easy."

Earlier, the Missouri State Highway Patrol confirmed 12 storm-related fatalities and shared images of boats piled on top of one another at a marina destroyed by the weather.

In Texas, local authorities said four people had died in vehicle accidents linked to dust storms and fires that reduced visibility on the roads.

The United States saw the second-highest number of tornadoes on record last year with nearly 1,800, according to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration [NOAA], trailing only 2004.

MOSCOW — Russian President Vladimir Putin and US counterpart Donald Trump will speak by phone on Tuesday, as one US official expressed hope the two could agree a Ukraine ceasefire within "weeks".

Trump said earlier "a lot of work" had been done between the US and Russia on settling the three-year Ukraine conflict, and that there was a "very good chance" hostilities would end.

Putin said last week he agreed with the idea of a ceasefire, but warned he had "serious questions" about how it would be implemented that he wanted to discuss with Trump.

Kyiv has agreed to the ceasefire, while its European allies have criticised Putin for not committing to an unconditional and immediate halt in fighting, with the UK accusing the Russian leader of "dragging his feet".

"There is such a conversation being prepared for Tuesday," Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters including AFP ahead of the Trump-Putin call, without commenting on what the two leaders would discuss.

The US leader last spoke to Putin last month, in a call that broke Western efforts to isolate Putin as long as his forces keep up their Ukraine offensive.

Trump's special envoy Steve Witkoff met with Putin last Thursday in Moscow to present the details of the joint ceasefire plan, which envisages a 30-day pause in hostilities.

Witkoff told CNN he expected some sort of deal in the "coming weeks".

Ukraine's Volodymyr Zelensky has reacted with anger to Putin's statements, accusing him of wanting to prolong the fighting.

On Saturday, Zelensky warned that Moscow wanted to first "improve their situation on the battlefield" before agreeing to any ceasefire.

- Russia grinding ahead -

Moscow has been pressing ahead in several areas of the front for over a year.

On Monday, Russia claimed its forces had captured Stepove -- a village in Ukraine's southern Zaporizhzhia region -- although open-source battlefield maps showed it outside Moscow's control.

Russia has also in the past two weeks mounted a major counter offensive against Ukrainian troops in its Kursk region.

Moscow last week retook the main town that Ukraine seized in its summer 2024 incursion, Sudzha, and swathes of areas around it. Russia has said it has moved several hundred civilians that were previously trapped in Kyiv-held areas.

Andrey Klimenko was one of them. He spoke to AFP after leaving his home in the village of Zamostye, outside Sudzha, on Friday as Russian forces pushed to recapture land, and is now staying in a displacement centre.

"Planes were dropping bombs near my vegetable patch. I nearly died because of bombs, mortar fire and drones," the 52-year-old told AFP.

Ukraine has conceded it is in a difficult position in the region, but denies its troops are surrounded.

Zelensky replaced his army's chief of general staff last week as Kyiv's front line troops continued to struggle.

Exchange of fire

After a brief lull in drone fire last week, both sides appeared to have stepped up attacks on Monday.

Ukrainian forces launched a drone attack on southern Russia, sparking a blaze at an oil refinery, while Moscow launched a barrage of nearly 200 drones against Ukraine.

Around 500 people in the southern Ukrainian region of Odesa lost power because of the attacks, and one person was wounded there, governor Oleg Kiper said, adding several buildings were damaged, including a pre-school.

Putin last week said he would back a ceasefire but only if it led to "long-term peace and addresses the root causes of the crisis".

Among Putin's demands are that Ukraine never join the NATO military alliance, that European peacekeepers not be deployed on Ukrainian territory, and that Moscow be allowed to keep all the land it currently occupies.

Since Russia seized Crimea in 2014 and launched its full-scale offensive against Ukraine in February 2022, Moscow now controls around a fifth of Ukraine.

Zelensky has pushed back at Putin's demands, saying the Russian leader does not really want peace.

In the Kursk region, 35-year-old displaced resident Yekaterina Panova said she was hopeful Trump could mediate.

"We really want America to somehow influence Russia's friendship with Ukraine," she told AFP.

"Both Russians and Ukrainians are Slavs. It's just some kind of fratricide going on."