Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky and Donald Trump in the Vatican basilica, April 26, 2025

EA on Times Radio: Will Trump Break Up With Putin Over Ukraine?

Saturday’s Coverage: Kyiv-Europe Response to Trump-Kremlin Ultimatum

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1554 GMT:

Three civilians have been killed and four injured by Russian airstrikes on Kostiantynivka in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

The Russians dropped FAB-250 laser-guided bombs on a residential area around 11 a.m., damaging 21 homes.

A 78-year-old man and a married couple, aged 47 and 48, were slain. Two elderly women and two elderly men sustained injuries.

Kostiantynivka is around 10 km (6 miles) southwest of the frontline city of Chasiv Yar.

UPDATE 0737 GMT:

Ukraine’s air defenses downed 57 of 149 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another 67 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The UAVs were reported over six regions in the north, east, and south of the country.

At least six civilians were slain and 29 injured by Russian attacks in the past 24 hours.

One person was killed and a 14-year-old girl injured by a drone strike on the city of Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

Four residents were killed and 17 injured in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. In the Kherson region in the south, one civilian was slain and five injured in Russian attacks on 25 settlements.

Casualties were also reported in the Zhytomyr, Kharkiv, Sumy, and Odesa regions.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Only days after his Admninistration presented an ultimatum to Ukraine with many of the Kremlin’s demand — including the cession of around 25% of territory to Russia — Donald Trump has lashed out at Vladimir Putin.

Trump snapped on his Truth Social platform on Saturday:

There was no reason for Putin to be shooting missiles into civilian areas, cities and towns, over the last few days.

It makes me think that maybe he doesn’t want to stop the war, he’s just tapping me along, and has to be dealt with differently, through “Banking” or “Secondary Sanctions”? Too many people are dying!!!

Trump had just completed a 15-minute meeting with Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky in the Vatican basilica on the sidelines of Pope Francis’s funeral.

No details were given but the White House hailed a “very productive discussion”. Zelensky posted:

The President reiterated, “Our position is unchanged. The Constitution of Ukraine says that all the temporarily occupied territories…belong to Ukraine.”

Has Putin Thrown Away His Advantage?

On Wednesday, the Kremlin appeared to have Trump on its side in the quest to conquer Ukraine. Kyiv and its European partners had rejected the US ultimatum, prompting Secretary of State Marco Rubio to withdraw from a meeting in London.

With Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff — a big fan of Putin — meeting the Russian leader in Moscow on Friday, Russia could present itself as the reasonable side over its 38-month invasion and reinforce its demands.

But the Russians launched 70 missiles and 145 drones across Ukraine early Thursday, murdering 12 civilians and injuring 90. Witkoff’s encounter with Putin in the Kremlin came and went with no notable developments.

Zelensky appealed to Trump without naming him:

We would like…to have this common understanding that Russia is the aggressor….

You shouldn’t be saying that Ukraine and Russia started this war, I believe that it’s painful for our people to hear.

Saturday’s meeting was the first between the two men since Vice President J.D. Vance verbally ambushed Zelensky, prompting Trump to follow, in a White House meeting on February 28.

The dramatic photograph of Trump and Zelensky, sitting on simple chairs in front of a mosaic of Jesus being baptized in the river Jordan, rapidly grabbed global attention. With the Ukrainian leader presenting his country’s situation to an attentive Trump, it offered a constructive contrast to both Vance’s assault and Trump’s denunciations of Zelensky as a “dictator” who had started Russia’s invasion.

Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, posted:

Meanwhile, Zelensky’s Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak met his counterpart Susie Wiles and US National Security Advisor Mike Waltz.

A US official and “participant in the peace talks” told the New York Times that the Administration was not supporting the Kremlin’s demand for Ukraine to withdraw from the four regions — Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — partially occupied by Russian forces.

The source said officials consider the demand “unreasonable and unachievable”.

Putin illegally “annexed” the four regions in September 2022. Ukraine regains parts of them weeks later in a counter-offensive.

A Zelensky spokesman said aides were working on arrangements for a follow-up meeting between Trump and Zelensky later on Saturday, but Trump departed Rome last evening with no further word about a discussion.