The body of Iryna Filkina, who was training to be a makeup artist, lies in Bucha, Ukraine after mass killings by Russian soldiers (Reuters)

Monday’s Coverage: Would Trump Impose Tariffs on Russia Over Putin’s Demands?

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1640 GMT:

The Kremlin says US proposals for a halt to Russia’s 37-month invasion of Ukraine are unacceptable.

Sergey Ryabkov, a foreign policy adviser to Vladimir Putin, said:

We take the models and solutions proposed by the Americans very seriously, but we can’t accept it all in its current form….

All we have today is an attempt to find some kind of framework that would first allow for a ceasefire – at least as envisioned by the Americans.

Ryabkov declared, “There is no place in them today for our main demand, namely to solve the problems related to the root causes of this conflict”: the Kremlin’s euphemism for ultimata such as recognition of its seizure of around 25% of Ukraine; a weak, “neutral”, and “demilitarized” Ukraine with no security guarantees from Western partners; lifting of sanctions on Moscow; and removal of the Zelensky Government.

Russia has rejected US-Ukraine proposals for a ceasefire apart from a provision for a halt on attacks against energy infrastructure — and even that has been violated by Moscow’s drone and missile strikes.

UPDATE 1544 GMT:

The European Commission has sent €3.5 billion ($3.77 billion) to Ukraine.

The funds, which support macroeconomic stability, bring total financial assistance under the Ukraine Facility Program €19.6 billion ($21.1 billion).

“Ukraine stays firmly on the path to sustainable peace, recovery, and a European future. Grateful to the EU for strategic trust and partnership,” Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal posted.

UPDATE 1030 GMT:

Breaking a ceasefire on attacks on energy infrastructure, Russia has struck a power facility in Kherson city in southern Ukraine.

Some 45,000 residents in the Central and Korabelnyi districts were without electricity this morning. Electric transport is partially out of service.

UPDATE 0752 GMT:

Moldova has expelled three Russian diplomats, accusing Russia’s embassy of arranging the escape of a pro-Kremlin lawmaker facing prison over illegal political funding.

Moldova’s security service released a video showing the legislator, Alexander Nesterovschii, entering the Russian embassy in Moldovan capital Chisinau on March 18.

A day later, the politician was sentenced in absentia to 12 years in prison. Meanwhile, he was being driven in a white car with diplomatic plates to the Russian-occupied Transnistria region.

Nesterovschii was found guilty of illegally channelling money to a pro-Russian party during local elections in 2023, the 2024 Presidential vote, and a national referendum on Moldova’s intention to join the European Union.

The party is led by businessman Ilan Shor, who has fled to Moscow.

“Interference by the Russian Federation with the judicial system of the Republic of Moldova is unacceptable. Imagine that the Republic of Moldova interfered with justice in the Russian Federation,” said President Maia Sandu.

“This type of activity is part of the mechanism of hybrid aggression directed against the Republic of Moldova,” added Alexandru Musteata, the director of the Security and Intelligence Service.

Russia’s Foreign Ministry said Moscow will retaliate.

UPDATE 0753 GMT:

For the first time in 2025, Russia did not launch an overnight drone attack on Ukraine.

The Russians shelled Nikopol in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, damaging homes, infrastructure, and an administrative building.

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

Despite the risk of alienating Donald Trump, the Kremlin is intent on toppling the Zelensky Government in Ukraine, say “five sources familiar with its thinking”.

A “source close to the Kremlin” emphasized, “Zelensky will not agree to any territorial concessions. We need to address the root of the issue: Remove him.”

On Sunday, Trump told NBC News he was “very angry” and “pissed off” at Vladimir Putin’s demand that the UN install a temporary administration in Kyiv.

“Two Russian diplomats and a source close to the Kremlin” said Moscow is focused on discrediting Zelensky in the eyes of Trump so that Washington will press for Presidential elections. They cited progress with the February 28 ambush of Zelensky in the White House by Vice President J.D. Vance.

See also EA on Pat Kenny Show and Al Jazeera’s Inside Story: Trump-Vance-Russia Assault on Zelensky and Ukraine

“We’re toughening our rhetoric now so that our demands to Kyiv are heard and accepted,” a Russian diplomat said.

On Monday, Trump again threatened secondary tariffs on Russian oil exports if Putin does not “make a deal” to end Moscow’s 37-month full-scale invasion.

I want to make sure that he follows through, and I think he will. I don’t want to go secondary tariffs on his oil. But I think, you know, it’s something I would do if I thought he wasn’t doing the job.

State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce said, “There was an idea from Russia about a temporary administration that was not appreciated by the President. Ukraine is…a constitutional democracy. Governance in Ukraine is determined by its constitution and the Ukrainian people.”

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukrainians have marked the third anniversary of liberation of Bucha, near Kyiv, where Russia’s forces reportedly murdered more than 1,700 people.

The Russians seized Bucha in the opening days of Vladimir Putin’s full-scale invasion of February 2022.

They were forced out of northern Ukraine at the end of March, as Kyiv survived Putin’s attempt to conquer his neighbor and topple the Zelensky Government. The entering Ukrainian troops found the bodies of the civilians in homes and in the streets.

Witness accounts and satellite images confirmed that the Russian occupiers had carried out the mass murders.

See also Identifying Russia’s Mass Killers In Bucha

Ukraine Prime Minister Denys Shmyhal told a summit of European legislators in Bucha on Monday:

Here, the Russians committed an act of genocide unprecedented in the twenty-first century Europe. Cars with people were shot up, bodies of civilians on the streets of towns and villages, children and women were killed, and civilians were abducted on a massive scale.

In Bucha district alone, the enemy killed more than 1,700 people during the short occupation. The number of victims throughout Kyiv region is many times higher.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky visited Bucha and met European legislators. In his nightly video address to the nation, he said:

Russian war criminals must absolutely be held accountable for all of this — and today, the summit participants were unequivocal on that: Europe will not forget the moral conclusions drawn from this war. It cannot be allowed for Putin, other Russian criminals, and the Russian state itself to be absolved of responsibility.

It is simply impossible to normalize what they did in Bucha, in Mariupol, and in so many other cities and villages. We will continue working to ensure that Russia is held accountable for this war — and that this accountability is tangible.