MOSCOW, March 30. /TASS/. Washington looks set to launch a land invasion of Iran amid stalled talks, and crowds join No Kings protests in the United States. Meanwhile, Ukraine again fires Flamingo long-range missiles at Russia. These stories topped Monday’s newspaper headlines across Russia.

 

Izvestia: Washington getting closer to land invasion of Iran

The United States may launch a land invasion of Iran amid a deadlock in talks. Tehran suspects that, by calling for dialogue, Washington has been distracting attention from further escalation plans amid a military buildup in the region. Experts warn that the United States is getting ready to take control of the Strait of Hormuz against the backdrop of rising energy prices.

The escalation comes amid a 10-day energy ceasefire until April 6 announced by President Donald Trump, who said the US will focus on targeting military infrastructure. This is the second such ceasefire in the past few days, as the US leader has previously authorized a five-day halt in strikes, citing what he called a "successful negotiation process" between Iran and the United States, a process that he alleged Washington is not seeking to disrupt.

Tehran has not officially confirmed holding talks with the United States, while Iranian media said it has even rejected the ceasefire proposal. "Iran will end the war when it decides to do so and when its own conditions are met," Press TV quoted an official as saying.

However, American studies expert Malek Dudakov believes that while indirect talks between the United States and Iran are "somewhat ongoing," any direct dialogue between the two countries that Pakistan, Egypt, and Turkey have been pushing for has been hampered by the two sides’ maximalist demands. While the Trump administration has expressed its willingness to negotiate, Washington is deploying ground forces to the Middle East, Dudakov noted. And the US has not yet confirmed plans for a ground operation.

"The US administration must understand that a ground invasion of Iran may usher in a new military-political era globally," Grigory Karasin, the head of the Russian Federation Council Committee on International Affairs, told Izvestia. Launching a ground operation in violation of the existing rules of international law would be a major crime, he warned.

 

Vedomosti: Crowds join No Kings protests in US to rally against Trump’s policies

Thousands joined No Kings protests against the Trump administration across the United States. The organizers are planning to hold demonstrations in more than 3,000 locations nationwide. While most protests will take place in the United States, rallies are also expected in Mexico, Ecuador, Australia, Kenya, Iceland, Britain, Ireland, Portugal, Italy, France, Austria, Greece, the Netherlands, Sweden, and Spain, according to the official No Kings website.

Organizers told CNN reporters in an interview that more than half of all protests are taking place in Texas, Ohio, Florida, Idaho, Wyoming, Utah, and other deeply Republican states. Demonstrators have been venting their frustration with Trump and his endless and costly wars. In addition, protesters march against the Trump administration’s restrictive immigration policies and actions by US Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE).

Democrats could as well transform these mass protests into protest votes in the 2026 midterm and 2028 elections, like they did in 2020, said Pavel Koshkin, a senior researcher at the US and Canadian Studies Institute of the Russian Academy of Sciences. However, he noted, Trump has immunity to protests primarily because they have always been the norm for the US political system. "Besides, the US leader still has the capacity to keep his core electorate," Koshkin noted. The political activism may remain just a manifestation of polarization within the United States and it will hardly affect Trump’s domestic or foreign policies, the expert said. "The outcome of the midterm elections in November 2026 will serve as a more convincing indication of dissatisfaction with Trump," he added.

Even as the latest No Kings protests reveal the organizational potential of Trump’s opponents, their scale is not equal to their impact, Polina Shabrova, a junior researcher at the Center for North American Studies of the Institute of World Economy and International Relations (IMEMO RAS), explained to Vedomosti. According to her, the Trump administration has enough resources to ignore the pressure from protests, especially when it can rely on Trump’s core electorate. She added that the success of the November midterms will depend on whether the coalition can put forward a convincing and positive agenda that would go beyond opposition to the Trump administration rather than on how many people will actually take to city streets, she specified.

 

Nezavisimaya Gazeta: Ukraine fires Flamingo cruise missiles against Russia again

Russia and Ukraine have exchanged long-range fire. According to Ukrainian sources, the Russian Army used more than 440 drones for its attacks over the past day, while, over the past week, it launched at least 3,000 drones, or almost twice the usual number, to target sites in Ukraine. Meanwhile, Kiev has been trying to pound central Russian and Volga regions as well as Russian facilities in the Gulf of Finland, where the Ust-Luga seaport, which is vital for hydrocarbon exports, came under attack again on Saturday night.

On March 28, Ukraine fired four Flamingo FP-5 long-range missiles with warheads of great destructive power weighing around 1,000 kg each to strike Russia. On March 29, the Russian Defense Ministry reported wiping out storage sites for these missiles in Ukraine.

German Chancellor Friedrich Merz confirmed that the Ukrainian armed forces have such missiles at a meeting in the Bundestag on March 25 as he explained why Germany has refused to provide Kiev with Taurus missiles. And Merz’ rhetoric shows that Ukraine has quite a lot of new missiles in its arsenal. Denis Shtilerman, chief designer and co-owner of Fire Point, which manufactures Flamingo missiles, said each missile costs around $500,000 as he admitted that foreign weapons firms in a European country take part in its production.

Lieutenant General (Ret.) Yury Netkachev, a military expert, told Nezavisimaya Gazeta that Flamingo missiles and other weapons are designed with support from NATO, including the United States. He doubts that Washington will reduce weapons supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces amid its conflict with Iran. "The United States continues to provide intelligence for targeting of drones and Flamingos to Ukrainian troops. Nor has there been an indication that weapons supplies to Ukrainian troops from abroad have been halted. US Vice President JD Vance, too, confirmed that weapons supplies to Ukrainian troops are ongoing," Netkachev said.

The media quoted Ukraine’s top diplomat, Andrey Sibiga, as saying at the G7 Foreign Ministers’ meeting on March 26 and 27 that Kiev had received assurances of continued weapons supplies for the Ukrainian army. "Washington is not planning to transfer weapons meant for Ukraine anywhere else," he noted.

 

Kommersant: Russia may increase metallurgical coal exports to India

In the 2026 assessment year commencing on April 1, India will increase its metallurgical coal purchases from Russia by 8% year-on-year to 23.8 million metric tons, analysts at BigMint predict. Russia will then become its second-largest supplier after Australia, which, estimates from BigMint show, will raise shipments by 10% to 39.6 million metric tons.

A coal market official told Kommersant that he, too, expects that demand for metallurgical coal in India and Southeast Asia will continue to grow. However, this, he argued, will not compensate for the decline in consumption in China and developed economies. "For China’s steel industry is too large," the official said.

Given a longer logistics distance to India, it would be possible to increase Russian metallurgical coal exports to the Southeast Asian nation only if supply from other exporters, primarily Australia, the United States, and Canada, falls. According to BigMint, in February, India increased its imports from Russia, the United States, and Mozambique amid a rise in Australian coal prices to $247 per metric ton due to supply disruptions.

Oleg Yemelchenkov, junior corporate rating director at Expert RA, argues that Vietnam, Malaysia, Pakistan, Taiwan, and also Turkey look like the most promising markets for increased Russian metallurgical coal supplies apart from India. According to him, even as the discount for Russian coal may narrow from time to time amid strong demand in Asia, it will linger because of the sanctions, high shipping costs and the buyers’ strong negotiation position.

 

Izvestia: Kazakhstan interested in pumping oil to EU via Russia

Kazakhstan is seeking to extend oil supplies to Europe via the Druzhba pipeline on Russian soil, Russian Ambassador to Astana Alexey Borodavkin told Izvestia. However, Ukraine blocking the southern branch of the oil pipeline creates additional risks and prevents exports from expanding. In addition, Kiev has attacked terminals in the Leningrad Region and Novorossiysk, through which Kazakh crude passes. Experts warn that it is the Europeans who bear the largest costs from dwindling oil supplies from Kazakhstan. The situation is exacerbated by rising commodity prices and the energy crisis triggered by the hostilities in the Middle East.

Ukraine has hampered oil shipments not only from Russia, but also from Kazakhstan. The bulk of fuel (80%) is pumped through the Caspian Pipeline Consortium (CPC), which connects oil fields in Western Kazakhstan with the Russian Black Sea port of Novorossiysk, from where tankers carry oil to European refineries. However, CPC infrastructure and tankers have been repeatedly targeted with Ukrainian drones over the past year.

"Kazkhastan has suffered from recent Ukrainian attacks on [oil] export terminals in the Leningrad Region because Kazakhstan pumped even more oil through Russia to the Baltic ports of Ust-Luga and Primorsk <...>. There, it loaded oil onto tankers for sale to North Europe. Therefore it will really suffer here," Igor Yushkov, an expert at the Financial University under the Russian Government and the National Energy Security Fund, told Izvestia.

Kazakhstan currently covers up to 12% of the EU’s demand for oil. And it is the Europeans who are hit hardest by lower supplies, Alexander Frolov, deputy director general of the National Energy Institute and InfoTEK editor-in-chief, pointed out. "The loss of another 1 million barrels per day primarily affects European importers, for a significant portion of this oil, for example, goes to Italy," he explains.

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