Eldridge Colby, the Pentagon official who recommended cutting off military aid to Ukraine (PBS)

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Can Putin Sustain His Invasion to Conquer Ukraine?

Wednesday’s Coverage: Trump Administration Again Halts Arms to Kyiv

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1834 GMT:

A former Russian proxy mayor in eastern Ukraine has been killed in a possible assassination.

Manolis Pilavov died in an explosion around noon in the center of Russian-occupied Luhansk city.

Pilavov headed the occupation administration of Luhansk from December 2014 until November 2023. He has been wanted in Ukraine since 2015 on charges including attempting to overthrow the constitutional order violently and violating Ukraine’s territorial integrity.

Three people were reportedly injured, one of them in serious condition.

Ukraine has not commented on Pilavov’s death.

UPDATE 1824 GMT:

In an hour-long phone call with Donald Trump, Vladimir Putin has indicated that he will not halt his 40-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Kremlin aide Yury Ushakov said, “Trump once again emphasized the need to end military hostilities as soon as possible.”

While Putin paid lip service that “Russia continues to seek a political negotiated solution to the conflict”, he emphasized, “Russia will pursue its goals, specifically addressing the root causes that led to the current situation, and will not back down from these objectives.”

UPDATE 1352 GMT:

European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen and Danish Prime Minister Mette Frederiksen have said that Europe must escalate its backing of Ukraine’s resistance of Russia’s invasion, in light of withdrawal by the Trump Administration.

Von der Leyen said the Administration’s suspension of military aid is “a clear signal or clear message to step up our own support”, emphasizing the need to ramp up EU arms production.

With Denmark having assumed the six-month Presidency of the EU on Tuesday, Frederiksen said she wants European finance of production within Ukraine and further sanctions against Russia.

If the US decides not to provide Ukraine with what is needed, it would be a serious setback for Ukraine and for Europe and for Nato.

As…both of us have said already, the war in Ukraine has never only been about Ukraine. This is a war about the future of Europe.

She said Denmark is “totally in favor of Ukraine being a member of NATO” even if “not all allies are supporting it”.

“It’s even more important to ensure that they will be, as they should be, a member of the European Union,” she emphasizes.

Welcoming Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, Frederiksen said:

Our European family would not be complete without his presence….

Ukraine is fighting for all of us. I see no sign that Putin wants peace, and I do not trust for a second that Putin intends to stop with Ukraine.

UPDATE 1319 GMT:

Russian military bloggers say 22 people were slain by the Ukrainian strike that killed the deputy commander of the Russian Navy (see 1056 GMT).

The bloggers said Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov and 10 other officers died when a US-made HIMARS rocket hit the command post in the Kursk region in western Russia.

Ukrainian officials have not commented on the attack.

UPDATE 1105 GMT:

Donald Trump and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky are expected to discuss the abrupt US halt of arms to Kyiv in a call on Friday.

“People familiar with the planning” said Zelensky will also raise the potential of future arms sales by Washington.

The timing of the meeting could change, said the sources.

UPDATE 1056 GMT:

The Deputy Commander-in-Chief of the Russian Navy, Maj. Gen. Mikhail Gudkov, and other officers have died in the Kursk region in western Russia, possibly after a Ukrainian missile strike.

The governor of Primorsky Krai in far eastern Russia, Oleg Kozhemyako said Gudkov died “while performing his duty as an officer together with his fellow soldiers”.

Pro-Ukraine channels on Telegram said Gudkov was “liquidated”. Russian channels said Gudkov and 10 other officers, including at least one colonel, were killed by four missiles that hit a command post in the Korenevo area near the Ukraine border.

Gudkov was selected by Vladimir Putin in March to oversee the Russian Navy’s infantry, missile, and artillery forces.

UPDATE 0924 GMT:

Two people have been killed and 11 injured in a Russian strike on Poltava in central Ukraine.

The attack around 9 a.m. (0600 GMT) sparked fires, including at a conscription office, and damaged civilian infrastructure.

The Russians also struck the port city of Odesa in southern Ukraine.

UPDATE 0915 GMT:

At least three civilians have been killed and 34 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 22 of 52 drones launched overnight, and 18 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The fatalities and nine of the wounded were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Residential buildings, cars, and utility infrastructure were damaged.

Nine civilians were injured in shelling of more than 30 towns and villages in the Kherson region in southern Ukraine. Another person was wounded in Kherson city by a drone.

Casualties were also reported in the Dnipropetrovsk, Odesa, Zaporizhzhia, and Kharkiv regions.

UPDATE 0816 GMT:

Ukrainian drones have struck a factory in western Russia that produces batteries for drones and glide bombs and parts for ballistic and cruise missiles.

The governor of the Lipetsk region, Igor Artamonov, confirmed the overnight attack on the Energia factory, causing a fire, in the city of Yelets. Residents reported multiple explosions, and employees in nearby workshops were evacuated.

Artamonov claimed an elderly woman was killed and other people wounded by falling debris.

The factory, about 250 km (150 miles) north of the Ukraine border, was targeted multiple times in May.

Andrii Kovalenko of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council said Energia is “one of the most critical targets” inside Russia.

Explosions were also reported around 10 p.m. in the Russian-occupied city of Khartsyzk in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine. Eyewitnesses claimed a missile may have struck a Russian ammunition depot.

Ukraine’s State security service SBU subsequently claimed responsibility.

The SBU said the position was “of important strategic importance, as it is used by the Russians as a rear base”: “The enemy has placed command posts, logistics centers, and ammunition depots there. All of them are legitimate military targets.”

UPDATE 0744 GMT:

“Six people familiar with the situation” say those usually briefed on US national security, including top officials and senior legislators, were kept in the dark about the Pentagon’s cutoff of weapons to Ukraine.

Republican Rep. Michael McCaul, the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, noted the role of the Pentagon’s director of policy planning, Eldridge Colby:

I think it’s all made by…this Colby guy. We essentially don’t have a National Security Advisor. I’m not even sure [Secretary of State Marco] Rubio was consulted on this one….

There’s internal division in the White House.

A US official said the Pentagon’s decision was uncoordinated and caught the State Department by surprise. Two others confirmed that the Department of Defense’s leaders did not seek any input from the State Department, the US Embassy in Kyiv, or the team of Donald Trump’s Ukraine envoy Keith Kellogg.

During last Friday;s briefing on Ukraine for Congress, officials from the State Department and the Pentagon made no mention of the cutoff. They are not answering official inquiries about it, said a Congressional aide.

The order was issued so abruptly that it withdrew an important shipment of arms on the ground in Poland.

A former Pentagon official noted that Colby is one of the few staff with prior government experience and “understands how paper moves in the building in a way most other people who are there now just don’t”.

The source added, “The front office at the Pentagon has been hollowed out and most people there don’t have any experience in government, which is also true at the National Security Council.”

A “White House official” insisted, “This is false. The President and top officials expect the DOD to regularly review aid allocations to ensure they are in line with the America First agenda.”

UPDATE 0646 GMT:

NATO Secretary Mark Rutte has commented on the Trump Administration’s cutoff of weapons to Ukraine: “I totally understand that the US always has to make sure its interests are covered. When it comes to Ukraine, in the short term, Ukraine cannot do without all the support it can get.”

He added, in the interview with Fox TV:

I understand the U.S. has to take care of its stockpiles, and at the same time, we have to allow for some flexibility here. Europeans, in the meantime, are really stepping up.

UPDATE 0638 GMT:

Germany’s Foreign Ministry says Russia used the online media outlet Red to sow discontent in German society as part of a disinformation campaign over Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine.

Red presents itself as a revolutionary platform for independent journalists. However, it has close links with the Russian state media outlet RT.

Today we can confirm that Red is being used by Russia specifically to manipulate information.

Red’s Turkish parent company AFA Medya and its founder Huseyin Dogru have been sanctioned by the European Union over the Russian invasion and “undermining the democratic political process” in Germany.

The site announced on May 16 that it was closing.

UPDATE 0630 GMT:

An Estonian court has ruled the arson of a restaurant and supermarket last year were ordered by Russian intelligence.

The attack was one of a series across Europe linked to Russia by western officials, seeking to sow division and undermine support for Ukraine.

The Harju county court in Estonia said the perpetrators were two Moldovan nationals who are cousins, both named Ivan Chihaial.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine and US legislators criticized the Trump Administration’s sudden cutoff of weapons to Kyiv, as Russia continues its 40-month invasion and carries out deadly, record-setting drone and missile strikes on Ukrainian civilians.

The Administration abruptly announced on Tuesday that it was suspending the arms deliveries, authorized during the Biden Administration. The supplies include dozens of Patriot air defense missiles, thousands of 155-mm high-explosive Howitzer munitions, more than 100 Hellfire missiles, more than 250 GMLRS rockets, and dozens each of Stinger surface-to-air missiles, AIM air-to-air missiles, and grenade launchers.

Trump officials declared that a review found stocks of the pledged weapons were low. But the decision appears to be more a question of priorities: the author of the review, the Pentagon’s director of policy planning Eldridge Colby, is a long-time sceptic of assistance for Ukraine: his preference is to focus on possible confrontation with China and Iran.

Ukraine Foreign Minister Andriy Sybiha​ summoned the US Deputy Chief of Mission in Kyiv, John Ginkel, and told him, “Any delay or hesitation in supporting Ukraine’s defence capabilities only encourages the aggressor to continue the war and acts of terror, rather than seek peace.”

A Ukrainian official explained, “We counted on many of those systems as they were promised.” He noted the exposure of Ukraine’s civilian infrastructure to attack, “That significantly affects our planning.”

Meanwhile, the Kremlin celebrated. Spokesperson Dmitry Peskov said, “The less weaponry is supplied to Ukraine, the sooner the [invasion] will end.”

“Time to Show Putin We Mean Business”

A bipartisan group of US legislators assailed the cutoff. Republican Rep. Michael McCaul of Texas, the former chair of the House Foreign Affairs Committee, wrote:

Now is the time to show Putin we mean business. And that starts with ensuring Ukraine has the weapons Congress authorized to pressure Putin to the negotiating table.

Democrat Rep. Marcy Kaptur of Ohio, the co-chair of the Congressional Ukrainian Caucus, decried “action that will surely result in the imminent death of many Ukrainian military and civilians”. Her fellow co-chair, Republican Rep. Brian Fitzpatrick of Pennsylvania, posted:

Writing Donald Trump, Fitzpartick requested an emergency briefing from the White House and Department of Defense: “Ukrainian forces are not only safeguarding their homeland—they are holding the front line of freedom itself.”

Democratic Sen. Richard Blumenthal of Connecticut, a member of the Senate Armed Services Committee, emphasized that the “fallacious and maybe even disingenuous” decision meant more civilians are “going to lose more lives, more people will be maimed and injured — more homes, hospitals, schools will be destroyed”.

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky did not respond directly to the Administration. However, he made his point through a meeting with American entrepreneurs and company representatives: “Our defense is a shared one, and American systems in Ukraine protect not only lives, but also businesses.”

US State Department spokesperson Tammy Bruce insisted, “This is not a cessation of us assisting Ukraine or of providing weapons. This is one event, and one situation, and we’ll discuss what else comes up in the future.”