World

KYIV, Ukraine — Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky has dismissed a three-day truce ordered by Russian leader Vladimir Putin as theatrics but said Kyiv was ready for a full ceasefire.

Moscow said the truce, set to coincide with its World War II commemorations on May 9, was aimed at testing Kyiv's "readiness" for long-term peace and accused Zelensky of making a "direct threat" to events on the holiday.

The Kremlin rejected an unconditional 30-day ceasefire proposed by Kyiv and Washington in March, and has since made only slim contributions to US President Donald Trump's efforts to broker an end to the three-year Russian invasion.

"This is more of a theatrical performance on his part. Because in two or three days, it is impossible to develop a plan for the next steps to end the war," Zelensky said.

The Ukrainian leader was speaking on Friday to a small group of journalists including AFP, in remarks embargoed until Saturday.

Some in Ukraine have criticised the truce as an attempt to prevent Kyiv from disrupting the World War II anniversary celebrations, with foreign leaders due in Moscow to watch a grand military parade on Red Square and an address by Russian President Vladimir Putin.

Zelensky said Ukraine would not be "playing games to create a pleasant atmosphere to allow for Putin's exit from isolation on 9 May".

Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters the ceasefire was aimed at testing "Kyiv's readiness to seek ways to achieve long-term sustainable peace".

'Cannot take responsibility' 

Leaders of around 20 countries, including China's Xi Jinping, have accepted invitations to join this year's celebration, according to the Kremlin.

Zelensky said some countries had approached Kyiv, warning they were travelling to Russia and had requested safety.

"Our position is very simple towards all countries that have travelled or are travelling to Russia on May 9 -- we cannot take responsibility for what is happening on the territory of the Russian Federation," he answered.

"They are ensuring your safety," Zelensky said, adding Russia "may take various steps on its part, such as arson, explosions, and so on and then blame us".

Zelensky did not say what Ukraine would do during the truce, but Russia jumped on the comments, accusing Kyiv of making a "direct threat" to its May 9 commemorations.

"He is threatening the physical safety of veterans who will come to parades and celebrations on the holy day," foreign ministry spokeswoman Maria Zakharova said on Telegram. "His statement ... is, of course, a direct threat."

Russian officials have promised grand celebrations for the occasion, during which Putin will seek to rally support for his troops fighting in Ukraine.

Russian troops have been making gruelling gains on several parts of the front, and Moscow and Kyiv have stepped up their aerial attacks.

The United States has warned it could abandon efforts to broker a ceasefire if it does not see progress.

Washington is seeking "a complete, durable ceasefire and an end to the conflict", rather than a "three-day moment so you can celebrate something else", US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said this week.

Bruce said it would ultimately be up to Trump to decide whether to move ahead with diplomatic efforts.

'See things differently' 

Trump has overhauled US policy towards Russia since taking office, initiating a rapprochement with the Kremlin.

This culminated in an on-camera clash between Trump and Zelensky at the White House on February 28, where both leaders had been set to sign a mineral deal granting US access to Ukrainian resources in exchange for some protection.

Ukraine has since renegotiated the deal, which would see Washington and Kyiv jointly develop and invest in Ukraine's critical mineral resources.

Zelensky on Friday said the deal was beneficial to both sides and protected Ukraine's interests -- even though the accord offers no concrete security guarantees for Kyiv.

That followed a meeting between Trump and Zelensky at the end of April before Pope Francis's funeral at the Vatican, the first encounter since their public clash.

"We had the best conversation out of all those that preceded it," Zelensky said on Friday.

"I am confident that after our meeting in the Vatican, President Trump began to look at things a little differently."

Moscow kept up strikes on Ukraine overnight.

A Russian drone attack on the northeastern Ukrainian city of Kharkiv late Friday wounded 51 people, including two children, regional prosecutors said.

Russian authorities meanwhile accused Ukraine of an overnight attack on the southern port city of Novorossiysk, damaging apartment buildings and injuring five people.

PARIS — Media rights group RSF warned Friday about "an alarming deterioration in press freedom" in the United States under President Donald Trump as well as "unprecedented" difficulties for independent journalists around the world.

Paris-based Reporters Without Borders, which has been tracking press freedom for the last 23 years, said its main index had fallen to its lowest-ever level.

"For the first time in the history of the index, the conditions for practising journalism are poor in half of the world's countries and satisfactory in fewer than one in four," an annual review of media freedom globally by the charity concluded.

RSF editorial director Anne Bocande highlighted the role of economic pressures in undermining fact-based reporting, with many independent outlets having to close because of funding difficulties.

Although spending on online advertising was still rising -- hitting $247.3 billion in 2024, according to RSF -- a growing share is captured by online giants Facebook, Google or Amazon rather than media companies.

"When journalists are impoverished, they no longer have the means to resist the enemies of the press -- those who champion disinformation and propaganda," Bocande said in a statement.

'Authoritarian shift' 

RSF highlighted how Trump had made difficult conditions worse by axing US financial support for state-backed broadcasters such as Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty (RFE/RL), as well as US foreign development aid that assisted media outlets overseas.

After a fall of 11 places in 2024, the United States declined another two to 57th place on the 2025 World Press Freedom Index, one behind formerly war-torn Sierra Leone in westAfrica.

The index, calculated according to the number of violent incidents involving journalists and other data compiled by experts, was topped by oil-rich Norway for the ninth year in a row. Estonia and the Netherlands were second and third.

"In the United States, Donald Trump's second term as president has led to an alarming deterioration in press freedom, indicative of an authoritarian shift in government," RSF said.

"His administration has weaponised institutions, cut support for independent media, and sidelined reporters."

Large parts of the United States were now "news deserts," RSF said.

Trump announced Wednesday that he was considering legal action against The New York Times, in his latest attack on a media outlet.

He is also suing media group Paramount over a pre-election interview last year of his Democratic rival Kamala Harris on its CBS channel.

Trump alleges it was edited to remove an embarrassing response, although many legal analysts view the case as baseless and likely to be dismissed or fail due to constitutional protections for freedom of the press.

The Committee to Protect Journalists (CPJ), a media watchdog, also warned Wednesday that press freedom in the United States was declining and it urged newsrooms to form a united front against the "rising tide of threats" facing them.

Other countries that have suffered major declines in press freedom over the last year include Argentina (down 21 places to 87th) under right-wing Trump ally Javier Milei, and Tunisia (down 11 places to 129th).

RSF also again highlighted the plight of Palestinian journalists seeking to report on Israel's devastating bombardment of Gaza.

"In Gaza, the Israeli army has destroyed newsrooms, killed nearly 200 journalists and imposed a total blockade on the strip for over 18 months," it said.

Israel meanwhile had dropped a further 11 places to 112th and "continues to repress its own news media".

GENEVA — More than 72,000 deaths and disappearances have been documented along migration routes around the world in the past decade, most of them in crisis-affected countries, the United Nations said on Tuesday.

Last year saw the highest migrant death toll on record, with at least 8,938 people dying on migration routes, according to the International Organisation for Migration (IOM).

"These numbers are a tragic reminder that people risk their lives when insecurity, lack of opportunity, and other pressures leave them with no safe or viable options at home," IOM chief Amy Pope said in a statement.

The report by her UN agency found that nearly three-quarters of all migrant deaths and disappearances recorded globally since 2014 occurred as people fled insecurity, conflict, disaster and other humanitarian crises.

One in four were "from countries affected by humanitarian crises, with the deaths of thousands of Afghans, Rohingya, and Syrians documented on migration routes worldwide", said the IOM's Missing Migrants Report.

The report said that more than 52,000 people died while trying to escape from one of the 40 countries in the world where the UN has a crisis response plan or humanitarian response plan in place.

Pope urged international investment "to create stability and opportunity within communities, so that migration is a choice, not a necessity".

"And when staying is no longer possible, we must work together to enable safe, legal, and orderly pathways that protect lives."

The Central Mediterranean remains the deadliest migration route in the world, with nearly 25,000 people lost at sea in the past decade, IOM said.

More than 12,000 of those had been lost at sea after departing from war-torn Libya, with countless others disappearing while transiting the Sahara Desert, the report said.

More than 5,000 people died while trying to leave crisis-ravaged Afghanistan in the past decade, many of them since the Taliban retook power in 2021.

And more than 3,100 members of Myanmar's persecuted Rohingya minority had died during the period, many in shipwrecks or while crossing into Bangladesh.

"Too often, migrants fall through the cracks," warned Julia Black, coordinator of IOM's Missing Migrants Project and author of the report.

"And due to data gaps - especially in war zones and disaster areas - the true death toll is likely far higher than what we've recorded," she said in the statement.

WASHINGTON — The United States has lost seven multi-million-dollar MQ-9 Reaper drones in the Yemen area since March 15, a US official said Monday, as the Navy announced a costly warplane fell off an aircraft carrier into the Red Sea.

Washington launched the latest round of its air campaign against Yemen's Houthis in mid-March, and MQ-9s can be used for both reconnaissance, a key aspect of US efforts to identify and target weaponry the rebels are using to attack shipping in the region, as well as strikes.

"There have been seven MQ-9s that have gone down since March 15," the US official said on condition of anonymity, without specifying what caused the loss of the drones, which cost around $30 million apiece.

The US Navy meanwhile announced the loss of another piece of expensive military equipment: an F/A-18E warplane that fell off the USS Harry S. Truman aircraft carrier in an accident that injured one sailor.

A tractor that was towing the F/A-18E, a type of aircraft that cost more than $67 million in 2021, also slipped off the ship into the sea.

"The F/A-18E was actively under tow in the hangar bay when the move crew lost control of the aircraft. The aircraft and tow tractor were lost overboard," the Navy said in a statement.

The carrier and its other planes remain in action and the incident is under investigation, the Navy added. No details of recovery work were released.

Weeks of heavy strikes
 
It is the second F/A-18 operating off the Truman to be lost in less than six months, after another was mistakenly shot down by the USS Gettysburg guided missile cruiser late last year in incident that both pilots survived.

The Truman is one of two US aircraft carriers operating in the Middle East, where US forces have been striking the Houthis on a near-daily basis since March 15.

The military's Central Command said Sunday that US forces have struck more than 800 targets and killed hundreds of Houthi fighters, including members of the group's leadership, as part of the operation.

The Iran-backed Houthis began targeting shipping in late 2023, claiming solidarity with Palestinians in the Gaza Strip, which has been devastated by a military campaign launched by Israel after a shock Hamas surprise attack in October of that year.

Houthi attacks have prevented ships from passing through the Suez Canal, a vital route that normally carries about 12 per cent of the world's shipping traffic, forcing many companies into a costly detour around the tip of southern Africa.

The United States first began conducting strikes against the Houthis under the Biden administration, and President Donald Trump has vowed that military action against the rebels will continue until they are no longer a threat to shipping.