European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen at a press conference after a European Union summit in Brussels, Belgium, March 20, 2025 (Geert Vanden Wijngaert/AP)

Thursday’s Coverage: Zelensky Reclaims Diplomatic Initiative in Call with Trump

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1821 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has responded to Germany’s announcement of more military aid over the next four years.

Zelensky also reported on his meeting today with Czech President Petr Pavel:

Pavel responded:

UPDATE 1813 GMT:

Ukraine has said its delegation will not interact directly with Russian counterparts during talks with the US in Saudi Arabia on Monday.

Donald Trump’s envoy for Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, announced on Thursday (see 0637 GMT) that the US plans to hold indirect talks between Moscow and Kyiv, with Russian and Ukrainian representatives present in separate rooms.

Ukraine Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said, “This is their choice. But we are preparing for the talks in Saudi Arabia as bilateral Ukrainian-American ones.”

UPDATE 1504 GMT:

At least two civilians have been killed and 21 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses intercepted 114 of 214 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 81 drones were lost to electronic counter-measures.

A 73-year-old man was slain in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, and one person was killed in the Kherson region in the south.

Casualties were also reported in the Donetsk, Zaporizhzhia, and Odesa regions (see 0624 GMT).

UPDATE 1454 GMT:

Long-time dissident Alexander Skobov, 67, has been sentenced to 16 years in a Russian prison over his opposition to Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Skobov was condemned by a military court in St Petersburg over a social media post supporting Ukraine’s 2022 strike on the Kerch Bridge linking occupied Crimea with southeast Russia, and his alleged involvement with the foreign-based opposition group the Free Russia Forum.

Detained in April 2024, Skobov suffers from diabetes, hepatitis C, bronchial asthma, and glaucoma.

In his final statement before sentencing, the dissident said:

Today I will be asked whether I plead guilty. Well, I am the one making the accusation here! I accuse the stinking corpse of a regime and the ruling Putin clique of preparing, unleashing, and waging an aggressive war, of committing war crimes in Ukraine, of political terror in Russia, and of the moral corruption of my people.

I ask the regime’s henchmen present here: do you admit your guilt in being complicit in Putin’s crimes?”

As the judge read out the sentence, Skobov shouted, “Glory to Ukraine!”

UPDATE 1108 GMT:

Germany has confiscated a tanker linked to Russia’s “shadow fleet” in the Baltic Sea, say security sources.

Russia uses aging and largely uninsured oil tankers to evade a $60 per barrel cap imposed by the EU, the US, and G7 countries in December 2022.

On March 14, German customs authorities seized the Panamanian-flagged tanker Eventin. It was sailing from the Russian port of Ust-Luga through the Baltic Sea to Egypt, and had been anchored off the coast of Ruegen since mid-January.

With the risk of an oil spill, the tanker was towed to waters off Sassnitz, where it is being monitored by Germany’s Coast Guard and federal police.

After a confiscation order from the General Customs Directorate, Germany has acquired ownership of the vessel and its cargo of around 100,000 tons of crude oil worth more than €40 million ($43 million).

UPDATE 0849 GMT:

The Sudzha gas metering station in the Kursk region, through which Russia supplied gas to Europe, is on fire.

Pro-Kremlin channels on Telegrams are blaming a Ukrainian attack.

The General Staff of Ukraine’s military said the accusations are “baseless”, claiming that Moscow’s forces fired artillery at the station in western Russia.

“The Russians continue to produce numerous fakes and seek to mislead the international community. We ask you to trust only official sources, verify information and not succumb to manipulation,” the General Staff said.

Russian forces reclaimed Sudzha earlier this month, after Ukraine captured the area in a cross-border incursion last August.

UPDATE 0700 GMT:

The Trump Administration is considering use of the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to mine rare earth metals and other minerals in Ukraine, according to “two senior Ukrainian officials”.

One official said, “Mining requires a lot of electricity. This station is the largest in Europe. Therefore, the American side came up with the idea that we can work together to regain control over the station.”

The source said Kyiv intends to regain control over the nearby city of Energodar, where plant staff live, as well as the nuclear facility.

Russian forces have occupied the Zaporizhzhia plant, with its six reactors, since the first days of Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022. The complex had generated around 20% of Ukraine’s electricity.

On Wednesday, Donald Trump used a call to Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky to raise the prospect of US ownership of Zaporizhzhia, according to the White House.

Zelensky said that, while the plant was discussed, it was only about “how to find the solution from the situation and…take the station from the Russians”.

There are options for the US to be involved in modernizing or developing the plant, but “the issue of property, we did not discuss”, he added.

The Ukrainian officials said the Trump Administration also wants to revise the terms of the draft deal on rare earth minerals, including over owns and controls a joint investment fund.

The officials expressed concern about being press into unfavourable terms in a broader deal, especially after Washington temporarily suspended weapons deliveries and intelligence sharing with Ukraine earlier this month.

UPDATE 0644 GMT:

Vladimir Putin signed a decree on Thursday requiring Ukrainian civilians living in Russia and Russian-occupied territory to “regulate their legal status” or leave by September 10.

The Kremlin has tried to coerce Ukrainians living under occupation into obtaining Russian citizenship, legitimizing Moscow’s territorial claims and tightening control over residents.

Putin’s decree also requires “foreigners”, presumably including Ukrainian citizens, and stateless persons, entering occupied Ukraine to take Russian medical exams and blood tests. Moscow’s officials have used these tests to obtain personal data to exert pressure on Ukrainians to comply with authorities, to serve in the Russian military, and to forcibly deport Ukrainian children to Russia.

In a meeting with Russian proxy leader Denis Pushilin on Thursday, Russia’s “Children’s Rights” Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova claimed that 1,346 Ukrainian children participated in the “Day After Tomorrow” social adaptation project for youths. Another 127 children were sent to medical treatment in unspecified locations, likely including in Russia.

UPDATE 0637 GMT:

The US plans to hold indirect talks between Russia and Ukraine in Saudi Arabia next Monday.

Donald Trump’s envoy to Kyiv, Keith Kellogg, said in a TV interview:

You basically say, “Okay. What are your terms?” And you go to the other side, “What are your terms?”

It’s basically shuttle diplomacy between rooms in Riyadh….We’ll see where we can get to a comprehensive ceasefire, and that would be the first step to ending this war.

UPDATE 0624 GMT:

Three civilians, including a minor, have been injured by overnight Russian drone attacks on Odesa in southern Ukraine.

The strike set a series of large fires and triggered emergency blackouts in three districts. A residential high-rise building, a shopping center, and several shops were damaged.

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Six civilians were wounded by a Russian guided bomb attack on the outskirts of Zaporizhzhia city in southern Ukraine.

The victims of the strike, which occurred around 6:30 p.m., include three women and a 4-year-old boy.

Two homes were destroyed and three damaged, and cars and residential buildings were set afire.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: European Union leaders have announced their intention to put more pressure on Russia, including sanctions, over Moscow’s 37-month invasion of Ukraine.

However, divisions remain over how to rearm Kyiv in the face of the Russian threat.

At a Thursday summit in Brussels, the EU agreed on the strengthening of economic restrictions on the Russians after talks with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, who joined by video link from Norway. He appealed:

Please do not ease pressure on Russia over the war. Sanctions must remain in place until Russia starts withdrawing from our land and fully compensates for the damage caused by its aggression.

“The European Council calls on Russia to show real political will to end the war,” the leaders said in a joint statement.

Only Hungary, led by Vladimir Putin’s ally Viktor Orbán, refused to join the EU declaration of support for Kyiv.

Zelensky responded, “It is simply anti-European when one person blocks decisions that are important for the entire continent or that have already been agreed upon.”

Failure to Agree Military Aid

While the leaders cited the need to “urgently step up efforts” to aid Ukraine’s defense, a €40bn ($43.3bn) plan for military aid did not gain support from states such as France, Spain, and Italy.

The plan, put forward by EU foreign policy head Kaja Kallas, envisaged each member contributing military aid based on the size of its economy.

She said after the failure to obtain agreement, “For every country it is the domestic politics, also the understanding of the public of what needs to be done and that is different in every member state.”

Kallas is now calling for the provision to Kyiv of 2 million shells worth €5 billion ($5.41 billion): “If we cannot make a decision for the whole year, let’s at least approve it for the short term.”

But Italy and France are reportedly holding up the allocation.

The EU’s executive has also approved a €150 billion ($163.5 billion) loans program to buy more weapons in the bloc and from allied countries, rather than from the US.

The plan stipulates that 65% of the costs of equipment funded must come from suppliers in the EU, Norway, or Ukraine. The rest can be spent in non-EU countries, such as the UK, US, and Turkey, provided there is an agreement for a security and defense partnership.

Kallas told reporters, “We don’t have a cold war, but we have a hot war on European soil, and the threat is existential. It’s as real as it can get.”

French President Emmanuel Macron said the “Buy European” policy will make the continent more independent. He will host a meeting of European leaders with Zelensky in Paris next Thursday to discuss immediate military aid, provisions for any ceasefire, and possibly the deployment of troops inside Ukraine.