Modi Says India Has Only Paused Military Action after It and Pakistan Stop Firing at Each Other

 A man assesses the damage of a house after it was hit in an Indian strike, following the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan, in Jura village in Neelum Valley, Pakistani Kashmir, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A man assesses the damage of a house after it was hit in an Indian strike, following the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan, in Jura village in Neelum Valley, Pakistani Kashmir, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
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Modi Says India Has Only Paused Military Action after It and Pakistan Stop Firing at Each Other

 A man assesses the damage of a house after it was hit in an Indian strike, following the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan, in Jura village in Neelum Valley, Pakistani Kashmir, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)
A man assesses the damage of a house after it was hit in an Indian strike, following the ceasefire announcement between India and Pakistan, in Jura village in Neelum Valley, Pakistani Kashmir, May 12, 2025. (Reuters)

India has only "paused" its military action and will "retaliate on its own terms" if there is any future terror attack on the country, Prime Minister Narendra Modi said Monday in his first public comments since a US-brokered ceasefire over the weekend.

Modi spoke after Indian and Pakistani authorities said there was no firing reported overnight along the heavily militarized region between their countries — the first time in recent days the nations were not shooting at each other.

The escalating hostilities between the nuclear-armed rivals after a deadly attack on tourists in Kashmir had threatened regional peace. India accused Pakistan of backing the militants who carried out the massacre, a charge Islamabad denied.

"We will be monitoring every step of Pakistan," Modi said in an address to the nation. He added, in response to international calls for dialogue, that if India talks to Pakistan, it will be only about terrorism and Pakistan-controlled Kashmir. Both nations administer parts of Kashmir but claim it in its entirety.

"Terror and talks can’t go together. Nor can terror and trade," Modi said.

He did not acknowledge US President Donald Trump's offer to mediate. India and Pakistan reached an understanding to stop all military actions on land, in the air and at the sea on Saturday.

Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, for his part, said his country agreed to the ceasefire "in the spirit of peace" but will never tolerate violations of its sovereignty and territorial integrity. He spoke during a meeting with the Turkish ambassador, according to a government statement.

Senior military officials from India and Pakistan spoke via a hotline on Monday to assess if the ceasefire was holding and how to ensure implementation.

The Indian army in a statement said the officials discussed the commitment of not "firing a single shot" or initiating aggressive action. The two sides agreed to consider taking immediate measures to reduce the number of troops in border and forward areas, it said.

"The night remained largely peaceful across Jammu and Kashmir, and other areas along the international border," the Indian army said, adding that no incidents had been reported.

Local government officials in Pakistan-administered Kashmir reported no incidents of cross-border firing along the Line of Control — the de facto border that divides the disputed Kashmir region between India and Pakistan — and said civilians displaced by recent skirmishes were returning to their homes.

Pakistan’s military spokesperson, Lt. Gen. Ahmad Sharif, said late Sunday that Pakistan remains committed to upholding the ceasefire and will not be the first to violate it.

Soon after the ceasefire announcement, Pakistan reopened all airports and restored flight operations. India on Monday reopened the 32 airports that were shut temporarily across its northern and western regions.

The countries' militaries had been engaged in one of their most serious confrontations in decades since Wednesday, when India struck targets inside Pakistan it said were affiliated with militants responsible for the massacre of 26 tourists last month in Indian-controlled Kashmir. The tourists, mostly Indian Hindu men, were killed in front of their families.

The incident first led to tit-for-tat diplomatic measures. The countries expelled each other’s diplomats, shut their airspace and land borders and suspended a crucial water treaty.

After Wednesday's strikes in Pakistan, both sides exchanged heavy fire in Kashmir followed by missile and drone strikes into each other’s territories, mainly targeting military installations and airbases. Dozens of civilians were killed on both sides, the two countries said.

The Indian military on Sunday for the first time claimed its strikes into Pakistan-controlled Kashmir and Pakistan last week killed more than 100 militants, including prominent leaders.

Lt. Gen. Rajiv Ghai, the director general of India’s military operations, said India’s armed forces struck nine militant infrastructure and training facilities, including sites of the Lashkar-e-Taiba group that India blames for carrying out major militant strikes in India.

Ghai also said at least 35 to 40 Pakistani soldiers were killed in clashes along the Line of Control. Five Indian soldiers were also killed, he said.

Pakistan’s Information Minister Attaullah Tarar on Thursday said his country’s armed forces had killed 40 to 50 Indian soldiers along the Line of Control. Pakistani military also claimed to have shot down five Indian fighter jets and inflected heavy losses on Indian military installations by targeting 26 locations in India.

The Associated Press couldn’t independently verify the claims made by India and Pakistan.

Air Chief Marshal AK Bharti, the director general India’s air operations, told a news conference on Monday that despite "minor damage (s) incurred, all our military bases and air defense systems continue to remain fully operational, and ready to undertake any further missions, should the need so arise."

Bharti reiterated that New Delhi’s fight was "with terrorists, and not with Pakistan military or its civilians."



Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
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Trump Offers to Join Potential Russia-Ukraine Talks in Türkiye

This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)
This combination of pictures created on May 12, 2025 shows Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy (L) during a press conference with the German Chancellor during the Ukraine Recovery Conference in Berlin on June 11, 2024, and Russian President Vladimir Putin during the Congress of the Russian Union of Industrialists and Entrepreneurs in Moscow on March 18, 2025. (AFP)

US President Donald Trump offered on Monday to join prospective Ukraine-Russia talks in Türkiye later this week as European countries pushed to get the Kremlin to accept their demand for a 30-day ceasefire in the war in Ukraine.

Trump spoke a day after Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskiy, in a fresh twist to the stop-start peace talks process, said he would travel to Istanbul where, he said, he would be waiting to meet Russian counterpart Vladimir Putin.

Trump told reporters at the White House that talks in Istanbul could be helpful and he might join them on Thursday while in the region. His current schedule has him visiting Saudi Arabia, the United Arab Emirates and Qatar this week.

"I've got so many meetings, but I was thinking about actually flying over there. There's a possibility of it, I guess, if I think things can happen, but we've got to get it done," he said before departing for his second foreign trip since his second term in the White House began in January.

"Don't underestimate Thursday in Türkiye," he said.

In response to Trump's remarks, Zelenskiy said in a post on X: "I hope that the Russians will not evade the meeting. And of course, all of us in Ukraine would appreciate it if President Trump could be there with us at this meeting in Türkiye." He added that such participation was "the right idea".

Earlier on Monday, the German government said Europe will start preparing new sanctions against Russia unless the Kremlin by the end of the day starts abiding by a 30-day ceasefire in its war with Ukraine.

Ukraine's military said Russia had conducted dozens of attacks along the front in eastern Ukraine on Monday as well as an overnight assault using more than 100 drones, despite the ceasefire proposal by Europe and Kyiv.

"The clock is ticking," a German government spokesperson said at a news conference in Berlin.

It is not clear though how much impact fresh European sanctions would have on Russia, especially if the United States does not join in as well.

The leaders of four major European powers travelled to Kyiv on Saturday and demanded an unconditional 30-day ceasefire from Monday. Putin, implicitly rejecting the offer, instead proposed direct Russia-Ukraine talks in Istanbul that he said could potentially lead to a ceasefire.

The Kremlin has not responded to that latest proposal. Putin and Zelenskiy have not met since December 2019 - over two years before Russia launched its full-scale invasion of Ukraine - and make no secret of their contempt for each other.

Responding to the proposal of a ceasefire, Russia said at the weekend it is committed to ending the war but that European powers were using the language of confrontation.

Ukrainian Foreign Minister Andrii Sybiha said Russia was "completely ignoring" the ceasefire initiative, citing what he said were continued attacks on Ukrainian forces.

He said he shared information about the continued fighting with European partners and with US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on a joint phone call. The allies had agreed sanctions would be needed to pressure Russia if it snubbed the truce move.

Russia and Ukraine are both trying to show Trump that they are working towards his objective of reaching a rapid peace in Ukraine, while trying to make the other look like the spoiler to his efforts.

FIGHTING CONTINUES

The Ukrainian military's general staff said that as of 4 p.m. (1300 GMT) on Monday there had been 69 clashes with Russian forces along the front line since midnight, when the ceasefire was to have come into effect.

The intensity of the fighting was at the same level it would be if there were no ceasefire, said Viktor Trehubov, a spokesperson for the military on Ukraine's eastern front.

The Ukrainian air force said Ukraine came under attack overnight from 108 long-range combat drones starting from 11 p.m. (2000 GMT), an hour before the proposed ceasefire was due to kick in. Attacks of this kind unfold over the course of hours as drones fly much slower than missiles.

Russia also launched guided bombs at targets in the northeastern Kharkiv region and the northern Sumy region, the air force said, while the Ukrainian state railway company said a Russian drone hit a civilian freight train in the east.

Kyiv is desperate to unlock more of the US military backing it received from Trump's predecessor, Joe Biden. Moscow senses an opportunity to get relief from a barrage of economic sanctions and engage with the world's biggest economy.

Europe meanwhile is doing its best to preserve good relations with Trump despite his imposition of tariffs, hoping it can persuade him to swing more forcefully behind Ukraine's cause, which they see as central to the continent's security.

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