Russian President Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump at the G20 summit, Osaka, Japan, June 28, 2019

Sunday’s Coverage: Zelensky — “Strong Pressure” Needed on Russia to Get Peace

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1043 GMT:

Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov has confirmed that Vladimir Putin will speak to Donald Trump on Tuesday.

UPDATE 1039 GMT:

Lithuania Prosecutor General says Russian military intelligence was behind the arson attack on an Ikea store in Vilnius in 2024.

Authorities say the main suspect was in contact with Russian military and security services, accepting payment for plans to attack shopping centres in Lithuania and Latvia to “intimidate the societies of both countries” and stop their support for Ukraine.

The suspect, an underage foreign citizen, repeatedly visited Poland and Lithuania to gather information and plan the attack.

Investigators say the suspect left the scene for Warsaw to collect a premium car as payment. They were detained a week later, en route to commit another arson in Riga, Latvia.

UPDATE 0812 GMT:

At least three civilians have been killed and at least 12 by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

One civilian was killed in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine, one in the Kherson region in the south, and one in the Sumy region in the north.

Casualties were also reported in the Kharkiv and Odesa regions.

Air defenses shot down 90 of 174 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 70 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

UPDATE 0800 GMT:

In its latest appeasement of the Kremlin, the Trump Administration is withdrawing from an international organization investigating Russian leaders for crimes of aggression against Ukraine.

The withdrawal from the Hague-based International Center for the Prosecution of the Crime of Aggression against Ukraine is expected to be announced on Monday, in an e-mail to the European Union Agency for Criminal Justice Cooperation.

The Center is composed of specialists from Ukraine, Poland, Romania, and the Baltic countries and a special prosecutor appointed by the Biden Administration in 2023.

The Trump administration will also cut back the work of the US Justice Department’s War Crimes Accountability Team, which was launched in 2022 to investigate Russia over atrocities in its full-scale invasion.

Ukraine is investigating more than 150,000 possible war crimes committed by Russia, including summary executions of prisoners and targeted aerial strikes against civilians.

UPDATE 0658 GMT: Russia’s State propagandists are celebrating the Trump Administration’s shutdown of US Government broadcasting, including the Voice of America and Radio Free Europe/Radio Liberty.

Stanislav Aseyev, a Ukrainian journalist and writer imprisoned for 2 1/2 years by Russian-backed separatists in eastern Ukraine and tortured for 10 months, reflected:

I once received an electric shock during torture only for writing for Radio Liberty: I was told that it was “a CIA structure and an enemy of Russia”, and for that reason alone I was already guilty.

Now, the “enemy of Russia” is being destroyed by America itself, and my torture seems doubly in vain.

UPDATE 0635 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has replaced the Chief of the General Staff of the armed forces.

Andriy Gnatov was named to succeed Anatoliy Bargylevych, who becomes Chief Inspector of the Defense Ministry.

Zelensky said:

[Gnatov] is a combat guy. His task is to bring more combat experience….Everything that our brigades have learned from the war should be implemented 100% at the planning level.”

Defense Minister Rustem Umerov posted, “We are systematically transforming the armed forces of Ukraine to enhance their combat effectiveness. This involves restructuring the command system and implementing clear standards.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Donald Trump has indicated that he will support Vladimir Putin over Russia’s seizure of part of Ukraine in its 37-month invasion.

Trump declared to reporters on Sunday that he will finally get his prize of a phone call with Putin on Tuesday.

We will be talking about land. We will be talking about power plants. I think we have a lot of it already discussed very much by both sides, Ukraine and Russia. We are already talking about that, dividing up certain assets.

Trump did not give any detail about the “assets”.

His envoy to Russia, Steve Witkoff, earlier said that — despite Putin’s effective rejection of a Ukraine-US proposal for a 30-day interim ceasefire — the Russian “accepts the philosophy” of Trump’s terms.

He proclaimed that his meeting in Moscow with Putin on Thursday evening — after he was reportedly kept waiting for eight hours —had been “positive” and “solution-based”.

However, he said nothing when asked if Putin’s demands included international recognition of Ukrainian territory seized by Putin as Russian; limits on Ukraine’s military and security; a halt to western military aid; and a ban on foreign troops in Ukraine.

National Security Advisor Mike Waltz said Ukraine will receive security guarantees in exchange for territorial concessions, but offered little substance beyond the general declaration.

However, Waltz indicated that the Trump Administration will support Russia’s long-term occupation of the areas of Ukraine which it has overrun.

Asked if “Russia could hang onto the Donbass [the Donetsk and Luhansk regions in eastern Ukraine] as well as Crimea, even though they invaded Ukraine”, Waltz replied:

We have to ask ourselves, “Is it in our national interest? Is it realistic? Are we going to drive every Russia off every inch of Ukrainian soil?

Russian Deputy Foreign Minister Alexander Grushko said, “We will demand that ironclad security guarantees become part of this agreement. Part of these guarantees should be the neutral status of Ukraine, the refusal of NATO countries to accept it into the alliance.”

French President Emmanuel Macron made clear, “If Ukraine requests allied forces to be on its territory, it is not up to Russia to accept or reject them.”

Macron said Russia “does not give the impression it sincerely wants peace”. Instead, Putin is “escalating the fighting” and “wants to get everything, then negotiate”.

Zelensky: “Russia Stole Another Week”

In his nightly address to the nation, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky called out Putin’s tactics to avoid a ceasefire and any retreat from Russia’s demands: “Russia stole almost another week – a week of war that only Russia wants….Every day now is about defending our independence, our state, and our people.”