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

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Ukraine — Frustrated Trump “Talks the Talk”…But Will He “Walk the Walk” Over Russia’s Invasion?

Tuesday’s Coverage: Netherlands Buys $500 Million of US Arms in New Supply Line for Kyiv

UPDATE 1946 GMT:

Donald Trump plans to meet in person with Vladimir Putin as early as next week, say “two people familiar with the plan”.

Trump then plans to meet with Putin and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky. The schedule was disclosed in Trump’s call with Zelensky and other European leaders, said the sources.

UPDATE 1923 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says he and other European leaders spoke with Donald Trump about real estate developer Steve Witkoff’s meeting with Vladimir Putin.

Our joint position with our partners is absolutely clear – the war must end. And it must be done honestly. European leaders were on the call, and I am grateful to each of them for their support. We discussed what was spelled out in Moscow.

Ukraine will definitely defend its independence. We all need a lasting and reliable peace. Russia must end the war that it itself started.

UPDATE 1803 GMT:

Donald Trump has posted about the meeting between his envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin.

Trump hailed “great progress” without giving any details: “Afterwards, I updated some of our European Allies. Everyone agrees this War must come to a close, and we will work towards that in the days and weeks to come.”

A White House official said that, although the meeting went well, the Administration intends to proceed with secondary sanctions on Russia’s trading partners on Friday.

Trump earlier ordered a hike in the tariff on India from 25% to 50% because of its purchases of Russian oil.

UPDATE 1534 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has visited troops near the frontline in the Sumy region in northeast Ukraine.

Hailing the liberation of two villages and repulsion of Russian counter-attacks, Zelensky said he and commanders “talked in detail about the needs, the level of support in general, the training of recruits and instructors”.

The President also awarded state medals to soldiers.

UPDATE 1412 GMT:

The Trump Administration has announced an additional 25% tariff on India, taking the total to 51%, for “directly or indirectly importing Russian…oil”.

The tariff was imposed through an executive order signed by Donald Trump.

UPDATE 1405 GMT:

The Kremlin says the meeting of almost three hours between Vladimir Putin and Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, was “useful and constructive”.

Putin’s senior foreign policy advisor Yuri Ushakov said Russia “received some signals from Trump” and “sent some signals” in response, as Putin and Witkoff discussed the prospects for the development of the “strategic partnership” between the Trump Administration and the Kremlin.

UPDATE 1210 GMT:

A Russian soldier shot and killed a civilian attempting to evacuate from the village of Udachne in the Donetsk region, says the office of Ukraine’s Prosecutor General.

A war crimes investigation has been opened into third recorded case this year of Russian forces killing civilians in the region in eastern Ukraine.

Video on a Telegram channel showed the civilian walking along the roadside with a suitcase of personal belongings when he was gunned down.

“A Russian Armed Forces serviceman cynically opened fire from an ambush set up in a ruined building and killed the passerby with an automatic weapon,” the office said.

UPDATE 1203 GMT:

At least seven civilians have been killed and at least 37 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 36 of 45 drones. The other nine hit three locations.

In the Zaporizhzhia region, two civilians were murdered and at least 12 injured, including at least four children, in an attack on a resort. Nine people, including two children, have been hospitalized.

Two men were killed when a Russian first-person-view drone hit a house in the Stepnohirsk community.

In the Donetsk region in the east, one person was killed and seven injured.

In the Sumy region in the north, two people were killed and five injured.

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

UPDATE 1154 GMT:

The Zelensky Government has appointed a new head of economic security after weeks of delay, fulfilling a condition for Kyiv to continue receiving support from Western lenders.

Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko announced the confirmation of Oleksandr Tsyvinsky, an anti-corruption investigator, to lead the Economic Security Bureau after “proper checks” including a polygraph test.

The Government was criticized last month for failing to appoint Tsyvinsky after he was unanimously backed by an international selection committee. It cited security concerns, including the Russian citizenship of his father.

Amid protests over a bill curbing Ukraine’s anti-corruption agencies, later rescinded by President Volodymyr Zelensky, the European Commission urged Kyiv to speed up the appointment.

UPDATE 1150 GMT:

The toll has risen to 32 murdered by Russia’s missile and drone strikes on Kyiv on July 31.

A man who was injured in the neck died in hospital on Wednesday.

The attack was the deadliest Russian strike on the Ukrainian capital since 33 civilians were slain in December 2023. Another 179 people were injured, including three police officers and 12 children.

UPDATE 1036 GMT:

As Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff meets Vladimir Putin in the Kremlin, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has posted about a Russian strike on a gas facility in the Odesa region in southern Ukraine.

“This was a deliberate blow to our preparations for the heating season, absolutely cynical, like every Russian blow to the energy sector,” Zelensky summarized.

Ukraine’s Energy Ministry said the attacked station is part of a route connecting Greek liquified natural gas terminals with Ukrainian storage facilities via the Transbalkan pipeline. It has delivered LNG from the US and test volumes of Azerbaijani gas.

“This is a Russian strike purely against civilian infrastructure, deliberately targeting the energy sector and, at the same time, relations with Azerbaijan, the United States and partners in Europe, as well as the normal lives of Ukrainians and all Europeans,” the Ministry said.

UPDATE 0701 GMT:

Donald Trump’s envoy Steve Witkoff strolling with Vladimir Putin’s senior financial advisor Kirill Dmitriev in Zaryadye Park near the Kremlin this morning:

UPDATE 0632 GMT:

Two civilians have been killed and ten injured, including four children, by a Russian airstrike on the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine on Wednesday morning.

At least nine buildings were damaged.

UPDATE 0611 GMT:

The US State Department has approved a potential $104 million sale to Ukraine of equipment, repair services, and long-term support for M777 howitzers.

The UK’s BAE Systems is the principal contractor for the support.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky posted on Tuesday about a “productive conversation” with Donald Trump over defense against Russia’s 41-month full-scale invasion.

The call was made a day before the Kremlin hosts Trump’s envoy, Steve Witkoff, in an attempt to push away demands for a ceasefire and Trump’s vague threat of a “deadline” for toughened US sanctions.

Topics included the increasingly “brutality” of Russian attacks, sanctions on Moscow, “joint European decisions that can help our defense”, and “bilateral defense cooperation with America”.

The European decisions include commitments by Netherlands, Norway, Sweden, and Denmark on Monday and Tuesday to purchase more than $1 billion of US weapons and transfer them to Ukraine.

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky added:

The root cause of this war is simply Russia’s desire to control the lives of its neighbors, to subjugate them, to kill them. If not for that, there would be no war.

It is extremely important that Moscow is beginning to feel the pressure of the world, the pressure from the United States, the threat of tougher sanctions for continuing the war.

Trump said on Tuesday that, after Witkoff’s meeting with Vladimir Putin and other Kremlin officials, he will make a decision on whether to sanction countries that purchase Russian oil.

Three sources told the Financial Times that the Trump Administration is considering additional sanctions on Russia’s “shadow fleet” of tankers evading international restrictions on Moscow’s oil exports.