Ukraine firefighters battle a blaze set by Russian strikes, May 26, 2025

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Is Putin Losing His Gamble on Trump and Ukraine…or Will Trumpists Tear Apart UK and Europe?

EA on Times Radio: Donald Trump’s Chaos, Nigel Farage’s Political Grift, and Their “Free Speech” Deception to Take Power in UK

Monday’s Coverage: Trump — Putin “Has Gone Absolutely CRAZY!”

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1808 GMT:

Donald Trump says that he has protected Vladimir Putin’s invasion of Ukraine, with its mass killing of civilians, since January.

Trump chided Putin in a social media post:

What Vladimir Putin doesn’t realize is that if it weren’t for me, lots of really bad things would have already happened to Russia, and I mean REALLY BAD. He’s playing with fire!

UPDATE 1553 GMT:

Russia is constructing power lines in occupied southern Ukraine, trying to link the Zaporizhzhia Nuclear Power Plant to the Russian energy grid, says Greenpeace.

Satellite imagery indicates that Russian forces have laid more than 80 kilometers (49 miles) of high-voltage lines between occupied Mariupol and Berdyansk, following the coastline of the Sea of Azov. since early February 2025.

Greenpeace analysts say the construction aims to connect the new lines to a large substation near Mariupol. That in turn will be linked to the Zaporizhzhia complex, around 225 km (140 miles) away.

Russia overran Zaporizhzhia, Europe’s largest nuclear facility with six reactors, in the first days of the full-scale invasion in March 2022.

UPDATE 1454 GMT:

The Trump Administration has blocked an effort by the other G7 countries — France, Germany, Italy, Canada, Japan, and the UK — to lower the $60-per-barrel price cap on Russian oil exports.

Trump officials lodged the objection during last week’s meeting of G7 Finance Ministers, said three officials “familiar with the talks”. The Canadian President, hosting the session, had proposed language toughening the cap.

The European Union, France, Germany, Italy, and the UK all expressed support. But proposal was dropped after US Treasury Secretary Scott Bessent declined to join.

Ahead of the meeting, the European Commission had planned to propose the reduction of the threshold to $50 per barrel.

Some EU countries are considering whether to drop the cap to $45, as part of the bloc’s 18th sanctions package over Russia’s invasion of Ukraine.

UPDATE 1334 GMT:

Ukraine and the UK have agreed the use of $3 billion in profits from frozen Russian assets, under the Extraordinary Revenue Acceleration initiative, to cover the needs of the Ukrainian army and defense industry.

The G7’s ERA mechanism, totaling $50 billion, provides loans to Ukraine to be repaid with future profits from the assets.

The UK has pledged to lend Ukraine £2.26 billion ($3.06 billion) in three equal installments as part of the ERA. Ukraine received the first installment of £752 million ($1.02 billion) on March 7.

UPDATE 1123 GMT:

The European Union has formally adopted a €150 billion ($170 billion) common defense fund.

The Security Action For Europe offers $170 billion in loans without counting towards EU fiscal spending limits. It follows European Commission Ursula von der Leyen’s call for $800 billion investment over five years in defenese production.

The EU’s member states, European Free Trade Association (EFTA) members, and Ukraine are eligible to borrow funds.

The EU’s defense head Andrius Kubilius said earlier this month that the initiative “would effectively double the volume of weapons Ukraine receives”.

UPDATE 0859 GMT:

Sweden has allocated another 4.8 billion Swedish krona ($501.7 million) for Ukraine’s defense.

The funds are part of Sweden’s 19th aid package for Ukraine, which was unveiled earlier this year.

Sweden will donate 100 million krona ($10.5 million) to the demiming coalition for the purchase of equipment, 300 million krona ($31.5 million) to the drone coalition, 50 million krona ($5.2 million) to the maritime security coalition for training of Ukrainian Navy personnel, and 30 million krona ($3.1 million) to the security and IT management coalition for the creation of the Ukrainian Delta system.

The Swedish government will also provide an additional 1 billion krona ($105 million) through the Danish model of arms procurement for direct purchases from the Ukrainian defense industry.

Other funds are devoted to procurement of armored vehicles, ammunition, air defense systems, and long-range drones.

UPDATE 0851 GMT:

At least two civilians have been killed and at least 19 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 43 of 60 drones launched by Russia overnight. Another eight were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The fatalities were in the Donetsk and Sumy regions. Casualties were also recorded in the Kherson, Kharkiv, Mykolaiv, Dnipropetrosk, and Zaporizhzhia regions.

UPDATE 0819 GMT:

Talks between the European Union and the Trump Administration to coordinate a crackdown on Russia’s sanctions evasion ended in failure last week.

The German newspaper Süddeutsche Zeitung cited an internal document from Germany’s Foreign Ministry, summarizing a meeting of the EU Foreign Affairs Council in Brussels on May 20. The EU’s special envoy for sanctions, David O’Sullivan, spoke of a “complete cessation of transatlantic coordination on sanctions evasion.” Joint work on the issue had stopped, and cooperation among G7 countries had “lost momentum”.

The Council meeting was held a day after Donald Trump’s phone call with Vladimir Putin.

However, Russia’s subsequent record-setting drone and missile strikes on Ukraine may have reopened the issue. “People familiar with Trump’s thinking” are telling the Wall Street Journal, after Trump’s weekend outburst at Putin, that he is now considering sanctions.

One sourc said new sanctions will likely not target the banking sector, but other ways to pressure Putin are under discussion.

UPDATE 0733 GMT:

At least 206 Ukrainian prisoners of war have perished in detention during Russia’s full-scale invasion, with systematic abuse likely contributing to many of the deaths, according to officials from human rights groups, the UN, and the Ukrainian government.

The bodies of the victims were among 5,000 Ukrainians repatriated from Russian captivity. A Ukrainian medical examiner who performed dozens of POW autopsies confirmed the causes of death.

More than 50 of the POWs were killed by an explosion in the Olenivka detention center in the occupied Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine in July 2022.

See also Ukraine War, Day 157: Kyiv — Russia Killed 40 Ukrainian POWs in Shelling of Prison

A 2024 UN report found that 95% of released Ukrainian POWs had endured “systematic” torture and ill-treatment. Prisoners described beatings, electric shocks, suffocation, sexual violence, prolonged stress positions, mock executions, and sleep deprivation.

Earlier this year, Amnesty International documented widespread torture of Ukrainian POWs. It noted that Russian officials refused to grant rights groups or health workers access to prisons, and left families uninformed for months or years about the detainees.

The Associated Press interviewed relatives of 21 Ukrainian POWs who died in captivity. Autopsies performed in Ukraine found that five of these POWs died of heart failure, including soldiers who were 22, 39, and 43. Four others died from tuberculosis or pneumonia, and three others perished from an infection, asphyxia, and a blunt force head wound.

The medical examiner, Inna Padei, said the cases and others she has seen are red flags that physical abuse, untreated injuries, and illness likely contributed to the deaths.

Another 245 Ukrainian POWs were slain on the battlefield, many of them in executions by Russian forces.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:

Local officials acknowledge that Russia has occupied four villages along the border in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine.

As Vladimir Putin declares that Moscow must establish a “buffer zone” along the border, Russia has been threatening an offensive into the region, much of which was liberated by Ukraine in 2022.

At the Istanbul talks on May 16, the Russian delegation issued an ultimatum: if Ukraine did not give four regions — Donetsk and Luhansk in the east and Kherson and Zaporizhzhia in the south — then the Kremlin would also demand the Sumy and Kharkiv regions.

The local officials said of the Russian occupation in the “gray zone” with contested or unclear military control., “Residents of these villages were evacuated long ago, and there is no threat to civilians.”

ORIGINAL ENT|RY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called for toughened sanctions on Russia after Moscow’s record missile and drone strikes on civilian areas.

Early Monday the Russians set their third record within four days for drone attacks, firing 355 UAVs as well as nine cruise missiles. Ukraine’s Air Force said 233 drones were “neutralized”, 55 lost to electronic counter-measures, and all missiles shot down.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky noted that after direct talks with Moscow in Istanbul on May 16, “there are constant Russian strikes, constant killings, relentless assaults, and even preparations for new offensives”.

New and strong sanctions against Russia — from the United States, from Europe, and from all those around the world who seek peace — will serve as a guaranteed means of forcing Russia not only to cease fire, but also to show respect.

The President emphasized, “Putin must start respecting those he talks to. For now, he is simply playing games with diplomacy and with diplomats. That must change.”

Amid its record aerial assault, the Kremlin continued to belittle discussions to end its 39-month full-scale invasion.

Asked about Donald Putin’s outburst against Vladimir Putin — “He has gone absolutely CRAZY!” — Kremlin spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “This is a very crucial moment, which is associated, of course, with the emotional overload of everyone absolutely and with emotional reactions.”