Donald Trump and J.D. Vance dismiss Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky during a meeting in the White House, Washington D.C., February 28, 2025 (CNN)

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: “When the Going Gets Tough, Trump’s Not Such a Tough Guy”

EA on International Media: Ukraine Rejects a US-Russia Ultimatum

Thursday’s Coverage: Russia Murders 12, Injures 90 in Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1601 GMT:

The Kremlin says a three-hour meeting between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, was constructive and narrowed differences over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

Putin’s aide Yuri Ushakov said the two men discussed the possibility of resuming direct talks between Moscow and Kyiv.

UPDATE 1337 GMT:

Donald Trump has doubled down on his ultimatum that Ukraine must give up the Crimea peninsula to Russia.

Crimea will stay with Russia. And [Ukraine President Volodymyr] Zelensky understands that, and everybody understands that it’s been with them for a long time. It’s been with them long before Trump came along.

Only six countries — Bashar al-Assad’s Syria, Afghanistan, North Korea, Cuba, Nicaragua, and Venezuela — recognize Crimea as part of Russia, after Moscow’s seizure of the peninsula in 2014.

UPDATE 1112 GMT:

The deputy head of operations for Russia’s General Staff, Gen. Yaroslav Moskalik, has been assassinated by a car bomb in the Moscow region.

The Russian Investigative Committee said the explosion was caused by the detonation of an improvised explosive device packed with shrapnel in the town of Balashikha, 20 miles east of Moscow.

Baza, a Telegram channel with sources in Russia’s law enforcement agencies, said a bomb in a parked car was detonated remotely when the officer, who lived locally, walked past.

Video captured the moment of the explosion, and images of the aftermath showed the vehicle completely burnt out.

Mikhail Zvinchuk, a Russian military blogger with ties to security forces, said, “According to chatter behind the scenes, one scenario for personnel reshuffling at the general staff had Moskalik being considered as a potential head of the National Defense Management Center – primarily due to his methodical approach and thoughtfulness.”

UPDATE 0946 GMT:

Reuters has published both the Trump Administration ultimatum to Ukraine and the counter-proposal of Ukrainian and European officials.

The US documents confirms reports of provisions embodying many Russian demands, including the legal or de facto recognition of Moscow’s seizure of almost 25% of Ukraine. In addition, all sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014, when it occupied Crimea and tried to split Ukraine, will be removed.

The Ukraine-Europe counter-proposal begins with a full and unconditional ceasefire and negotiations for implementation in parallel with talks on a complete deal to end the Russian invasion.

Monitoring of the ceasefire will be led by the US and supported by other countries.

Russia must unconditionally return all deported and illegally displaced Ukrainian children and release civilian detainees. All prisoners of war will be exchanged.

Ukraine will have robust security guarantees, including from the US, with European countries and non-European partners as guarantors. There will be no restrictions on the Ukrainian Defense Forces or on the presence, weapons, and operations of friendly foreign forces on Ukrainian territory.

Ukraine will pursue accession to the European Union as it implements and economic cooperation and rare earth minerals agreement with the US.

Kyiv will be fully reconstructed and compensated financially, including through Russian sovereign assets that will remain frozen until Moscow completes the compensation.

US sanctions imposed on Russia since 2014 “may be subject to gradual easing after a sustainable peace is achieved and subject to resumption in the event of a breach of the peace agreement”.

UPDATE 0834 GMT:

Eight civilians have been killed and at least 22 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine in the past 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 41 of 103 Shahed-type drones launched by Russia overnight, and 40 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Three people, including a child and a 76-year-old woman, were slain and 14 injured by a Russian drone attack on Pavlohrad in the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine.

A five-story apartment building was struck and several fires set. A search and rescue mission is ongoing.

In the Kharkiv region in the northeast, a 36-year-old man was killed by a drone and two women, aged 78 and 83, injured by shelling.

In the neighboring Donetsk region, a father and son were killed by a guided bomb and three other civilians wounded. In the Kherson region in the south, two people were murdered and three injured by attacks on 37 settlements.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called out Donald Trump’s false equivalence over the Kremlin’s 38-month full-scale invasion: “We would like…to have this common understanding that Russia is the aggressor.”

Without naming Trump, Zelensky said in an interview broadcast on Thursday, “You shouldn’t be saying that Ukraine and Russia started this war, I believe that it’s painful for our people to hear.”

The remarks were aired 24 hours after Kyiv rejected a US ultimatum to give up territory to Russia, prompting a withdrawal from multilateral talks by Trump’s Secretary of State Marco Rubio, and the Kremlin’s response — the mass murder of 12 civilians and injuring of 90 in drone and missile strikes on Kyiv.

Trump lashed out at Zelensky, blaming him of refusing a “great deal”. Having demanded that the President accept legal recognition of occupied Crimea as Russian, he falsely declared that Kyiv had not fought to prevent the Kremlin’s seizure of the peninsula in 2014.

But later on Thursday, Trump’s frustration at not getting his photo opportunity as peacemaker fed a rare rebuke of Vladimir Putin:

I am not happy with the Russian strikes on KYIV. Not necessary, and very bad timing. Vladimir, STOP! 5000 soldiers a week are dying. Lets get the Peace Deal DONE!

Asked by reporters about when he could deliver a deal, Trump — who proclaimed he would halt the Russian invasion on his first day in the White House in January — said, “I have my own deadline.”

Responding to a follow-up on whether Putin will listen to him, Trump maintained, “Yes.”

The reality TV star was then asked, “What concessions has Russia offered up thus far to get to the point where you’re closer to peace?”

He replied, “Stopping the war, stopping taking the whole country. Pretty big concessions.”