Reuters World News - Drone warfare in Moscow and the Taliban’s secret talks

Episode Date: May 31, 2023

The first attack on civilian areas of Moscow since the start of the Ukraine war marks a new and dangerous shift. Hear how Ukraine’s allies are responding to the drone warfare. Does the Taliban want to come in from the cold? We have an exclusive on secret talks held in Qatar. Plus, we’re on the ground in northern Kosovo as NATO sends in more troops to help curb ethnic violence. Visit the Thomson Reuters Privacy Statement for information on our privacy and data protection practices. You may also visit megaphone.fm/adchoices to opt-out of targeted advertising. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

Today, how a drone strike in the heart of Russia is triggering alarm among Ukraine's allies. As NATO sends in more troops, we're on the ground in northern Kosovo, where ethnic tensions are flaring. Could the Taliban be trying to come in from the cold? We have an exclusive on secret talks held in Qatar. Plus, Navidia, the market's new trillion-dollar baby. It's Wednesday, May 31st. is Reuters World News, bringing you everything you need to know from the front lines in 10 minutes. I'm Kim Vennel in London.

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have to see how it goes. An audacious drone attack on Moscow and a warning. from Vladimir Putin. He called it a terrorist attack and an attempt to provoke Russia. The eight Ukrainian drones were shot down or diverted, but reverberations are still being felt around the world. Ukraine's allies and watchdogs like the International Atomic Energy Agency now contemplate a dangerous shift in the territory of the war. Guy Falkenbridge is our Russia bureau chief.

Guy, isn't a drone attack on Moscow a serious escalation? So for Russia, which is the world's biggest nuclear power, attacking its capital city, is seen from Moscow as a significant escalation, although the Kremlin did today try to sort of not play down, but to react calmly to what is in essence an attack on the heart of Russia. And Russia is adamant that Ukraine is behind the attack? Ukraine denied it, but they said that they were enjoying watching it and that there would be more attacks to come. What seems to be happening is that Ukraine is trying to essentially distract attention,

force Russia to focus on different areas, for example, it's capital city, Moscow, rather than focusing on the fighting in Ukraine itself. And there could be several reasons for that. One is that there's an imminent counter-offensive planned by Ukraine. At the same time, they are trying to, essentially, if this is Ukraine, they're trying to bring the war to Moscow itself. How worried is the rest of the world? The West is concerned about Western weaponry being used inside Russia proper, so inside what is recognized by the world to be Russia, whether that be in regions bordering Ukraine or an attack on Moscow. So there's no evidence yet that the drone attack on Moscow was carried out with Western weaponry.

But at the same time, the West does not want a direct confrontation with Russia. And the reason for that is, frankly, that Russia has a lot of nuclear weapons. So I think there are two different perceptions. One perception is the Western perception, which is that Russia's warnings about escalating the conflict or an attempt to essentially scare the West away from supporting Ukraine. And then there's a perception from Moscow, which I think is slightly different, which is that certainly Putin presents this entire conflict, it's an existential threat to Russia

and as an existential battle with the West. And if you walk down his alley in a way, then if this isn't an existential battle with the West, then the West should probably be quite worried about an escalation. We have too much violence in Europe already today. We cannot afford another conflict. EU foreign policy chief Joseph Burrell referencing the war in Ukraine, but addressing serious concerns about violence

a thousand kilometers southwest in northern Kosovo. NATO is sending 700 extra troops and putting another battalion on high alert after fierce clashes with Serb protesters. The unrest has been sparked by the election of Albanian mayors and raised fears of a wider conflict in the Balkans nation. Fatos Petushi is in northern Kosovo. I'm here now in this small town called Naposavich, which is close to the border with Serbia.

So in front of me, there is municipality building, and inside it's an Albanian mayor, but they want him out. And the whole building is surrounded by NATO troops, and NATO has different nations. Here it happens to be Italians and American troops. In the past 24 hours for 10,000, It was quite difficult.

There were a lot of tension in three municipalities in the north of Kosovo. The worst ones was in the municipality of Zvechan, which is around 30, 35 kilometers from where I'm standing. As you can see from my voice, I've faced a lot of tear gas yesterday and a little bit changed my voice. That tear gas, lucky there was no tear gas today. situation looks, as NATO puts, like it's calm, but remains very, very tense. Fatos Bituci reporting for Reuters from northern Kosovo. Could the Taliban be trying to end its isolation from the world? A source has told Reuters that the Taliban's supreme leader held secret talks with

Qatar's prime minister on how to resolve tensions with the international community. National Security reporter Jonathan Landay is in. Washington, D.C. Jonathan, the White House is declining to comment on these talks. How much do they know about them? Well, my source tells me that in addition to being briefed by Qatar on the talks, the Biden administration is coordinating on all of the issues discussed by Qatar Prime Minister Mohammed bin Abdul-Raman Altani and Hypatula Akunzada, the Paramount Taliban.

leader, and those issues include furthering a dialogue between the international community and the Taliban. What could these talks mean for the recognition of the Taliban by the U.S. and other countries? That's yet to be seen. It could be quite some time before any country recognizes the Taliban because of their bans on women's employment and girls going to public secondary schools, their overall poor human rights record and their refusal, at least at this point, to bring into their government any Afghan from outside their movement. So what do we know about the Taliban chief and what he wants from the world? We don't know much at all about Habatula Akunzada.

He has been a recluse since he took over as the Taliban's paramount political, military and religious leader in 2013. He rarely meets with members of his own government and has been seen to be uncompromising, at least up to this point, on his edicts, including those bans on women's employment and on girls going to secondary public schools. That's it for this edition of Reuters World News. We'll be back tomorrow. To get all our shows in your podcast feed, make sure to follow us on your favorite platform or download the Reuters app.