ОХУ-ын Рязань хот дахь агуулахуудад дроны цохилт өгсний улмаас үйл ажиллагаа доголдов

Russian online retailer Wildberries has evacuated its logistics hub in the central Russian city of Ryazan in accordance with safety requirements, the company said in a Telegram post.

It did not ‌provide other details. ‌A number of ⁠industrial facilities in Ryazan caught fire after a drone attack, regional governor Pavel Malkov ‌said ​on Telegram ‌earlier ⁠on Wednesday, without ⁠providing details.

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said that Wildberries had acted in an unprecedented way by announcing its decision to provide assistance to sellers whose goods were stored in damaged warehouses, despite having no legal obligation to do so.

“This, of course, deserves the highest praise,” Peskov said.

Wildberries declined to comment on talks with the government. Marina ‌Gorshkova, a Wildberries seller with an Instagram audience of 1.3 million people, recorded a video appeal to “the country’s leadership,” saying that there were 1 million registered users on Wildberries who needed help.

“If we close down, the treasury will stop receiving our taxes, and new entrepreneurs will not spring up like mushrooms. We are pleading with you: pay attention to us,” she said, stressing that tax breaks were more important than compensation.

Inna Marchenko, from St Petersburg, who sells pet food on Wildberries, told Reuters that she had lost 1.5 million roubles ($19,000) worth of goods in the fires but had received only 8,000 roubles in compensation, which she could use only for advertising.

“When I learned that all my goods had burned down, I just sat on the floor and started crying. I don’t know what to do next,” she said.

The government has been selective in recent years in providing support to vulnerable industries. It supported coal producers but denied assistance to some construction companies.

The Russian government is exploring ways to support Wildberries, the country’s biggest online retailer, and related businesses after Ukrainian drone attacks, with state-controlled bank VTB expected to play a central role, two sources said on Tuesday.

The Kremlin acknowledged that discussions had taken place within the government about possible support, but said no decision had been made.

Wildberries and its rival Ozon are central to the government’s plans to spur economic growth as Moscow faces mounting budget pressures from increased military spending and a broader economic slowdown.

Drones damaged at least seven Wildberries warehouses, destroying around 10 per cent of the company’s storage capacity, disrupting operations and inflicting losses on tens of thousands of small businesses that sell goods and services on the platform.

Wildberries said it would need at least 30 days to assess the damage before it could begin making payments to sellers whose goods were stored in the affected warehouses. ⁠The company also announced discounts on storage fees to support businesses.

A senior industry source told Reuters that Wildberries was in a difficult situation and might have to seek government support, most likely through state-controlled banks, in order to maintain operations.

A source close to the company with knowledge of the ongoing discussions told Reuters that Wildberries founder and CEO Tatyana Kim, Russia’s richest woman, was ⁠in contact with authorities about possible steps to help business owners, including tax breaks, which could ease pressure on the company to pay compensation.

Sources said the support could come in the form of loans from state-owned banks to the company or its sellers, as well as tax breaks or subsidies.

Volodymyr Zelensky had a busy itinerary during his latest visit to the Washington, DC.

During his meeting at the Capitol, the Ukrainian leader argued that they have a window to bring Russian president Vladimir Putin to the negotiating table, according to one of the people with direct knowledge of the meeting.

The meeting was held just before a key vote on the Russia sanctions bill and after Lindsey Graham’s funeral.

In a bipartisan 86-12 vote, the Senate took the first steps toward passage of legislation to penalise countries that continue to buy Russian oil, gas and other exports after more than a year of negotiations.

The bill has dozens of backers from both major political parties and is seen as the main policy tribute to Graham, who died unexpectedly this month from a tear in his aorta. It imposes tariffs on goods from the world’s top five purchasers of Russia oil or natural gas, including China and India.

The legislation also includes sanctions against Putin; senior Russian political and military leaders; and Russian financial institutions and energy projects.

Ahead of his meeting with Donald Trump, Volodymyr Zelensky warned that Russia has been aiding Iran as the war persists by capturing satellite imagery of US bases in the Gulf region that later appear in Iran.

The Ukrainian president also asserted that there was a “clear correlation” between Russia’s images and subsequent Iranian strikes.

Iran is a key ally of Russia in its war against Ukraine and has helped Moscow build up its drone expertise.

But on Monday, the US president downplayed any impact of potential Russian assistance for Iran.

“I don’t think they’ve been doing it, certainly not at a high level,” Trump told reporters on Air Force One as he travelled to Michigan.

“And if they have, it has been very un-impactful.

”On the Caspian Sea attack, the foreign ministers of Iran and Ukraine spoke about the matter, according to statements posted on social media Tuesday.

Ukrainian foreign minister Andrii Sybiha called the conversation “frank” and said Ukraine’s focus is “solely at defending our country from Russian aggression” and not on targeting civilians.

Iran has said at least one sailor was killed in the attack. For his part, Iranian foreign minister Abbas Araghchi said Iran is also not seeking escalation but “made clear any attack on our citizens or interests is unacceptable.”

Donald Trump on Tuesday night weighed in on his meeting with Volodymyr Zelensky, calling it a “great honour” to meet with him. “Many things were discussed.

The meeting went very well!” he wrote on Truth Social.

The sit-down between Trump and the Ukrainian president in the Oval Office, which was closed to the media, followed a consequential meeting at the Nato summit earlier this month in Ankara, Turkey, where the US president announced that they will give Ukraine a license to make Patriot defence systems – a long-running request from Kyiv to counter Russian missile attacks.

Posting about it on social media, Zelensky said: “The President and I discussed licenses for Patriot interceptor production and several other ideas that could help.”

US president Donald Trump and Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky met on Tuesday ahead of senator Lindsey Graham’s funeral, with the two leaders discussing ways for Ukraine to produce its own powerful weapons and “other ideas that could help” in its ongoing war against Russia.

Taken together, those meetings underscore how much the US president, once a major skeptic of continued assistance to Kyiv, has warmed to Zelensky as Ukraine continues to withstand the Russian barrage more than four years after Moscow’s invasion in 2022.

In a post on social media after the meeting, Zelensky thanked Trump for the “good meeting” and the Republican administration’s efforts to aid Kyiv in the long-running war.

Officials also agreed that Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner, the president’s main envoys, would make a trip to Kyiv sometime in the future, according to a person familiar with the talks who was granted anonymity to discuss the closed-door meeting.

A number of industrial facilities in ⁠the central Russian city of Ryazan caught fire ⁠after ​a ⁠drone attack, regional governor Pavel ⁠Malkov said ​on ⁠Telegram on ‌Wednesday, and six people were seeking ‌medical help.

He ‌did not provide details about ⁠the facilities in the region, home to a number of large industrial complexes, ‌including an ​oil refinery and ‌a ⁠logistics hub.

The US Senate is set to vote on sweeping Russian energy sanctions in what is seen as a tribute to the late Senator Lindsey Graham, who authored the bill.

It comes as Volodymyr Zelensky visits the Capitol to meet with Donald Trump and attend Graham’s funeral service.

Graham was among Kyiv’s most influential and outspoken allies in Congress in its four-year-old war against Russia, and the bill aims to increase economic pressure on Moscow over its invasion of Ukraine.

Senate leaders scheduled a procedural vote on the bill, which seeks to impose sanctions on Russian officials and place stiff tariffs on China, India and other countries to reduce their dependence on Russian oil and gas.

Republican President Donald Trump has said he would support the measure, after asking that sanctions on Iran be added, which they have been as the US war against Iran enters its sixth month.

Though Democrats are broadly supportive of the sanctions, the tariff authority for Trump has raised concerns about potentially higher import costs. Those concerns threaten the legislation’s prospects for passing the Senate, ⁠as well as the House of Representatives when it resumes in September.

If it becomes law, the bill would allow Trump to impose tariffs of up to 100 per cent on countries that are major consumers of Russian energy, including India, Japan and some countries in the European Union, and leave it to his discretion to lift them.