Vladimir Putin greets Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, in the Kremlin, Moscow, Russia, April 25, 2025 (Kristina Kormilitsyna/AFP/Getty)

EA on France 24 and TVP World: Putin’s “Window” to Conquer Ukraine

Tuesday’s Coverage: France’s 100 Fighter Jets for Kyiv

UPDATE 1941 GMT:

The Financial Times has details of the US-Russia 28-point plan for Ukraine’s capitulation.

The plan has been crafted amid discussions between Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin’s senior economic advisor Kiril Dmitriev.

“People with knowledge” said Ukraine would give up the 22% of the Donetsk region which it holds — a Kremlin demand favored by Witkoff but rejected by Trump last month.

Kyiv would cut the size of its armed forces by half and abandon key categories of weaponry. US military assistance would be rolled back, and Ukraine would not get any long-range weapons. No foreign troops would be allowed on Ukrainian soil.

Russian would be recognized as an official state language in Ukraine. The local branch of the Russian Orthodox Church would be given formal status.

One official said the plan was “heavily tilted towards Russia”. Another called it “very comfortable for Putin”.

A source summarized that the proposal amounted to Ukraine giving up its sovereignty. The initiative was a Russian attempt to “play” the Trump Administration, eager to “show progress” on a deal.

A “Russian person familiar with the matter” said, “It’s not a plan but a mix of real, practical proposals with good intentions. They acknowledged, “Part of it is absolutely unacceptable for the Ukrainians.”

Witkoff presented the plan this week to Ukraine’s Secretary of the National Security and Defense Council, Rustem Umerov, in Miami. Witkoff made clear he wanted President Volodymyr Zelensky to accept the terms.

Officials in Kyiv said the plan, closely aligned with the Kremlin’s maximalist demands, is a non-starter without significant changes.

UPDATE 1556 GMT:

The Trump Administration is sending Army Secretary Dan Driscoll and two four-star generals to Kyiv to meet Volodymyr Zelensky and other Ukrainian officials.

The mission follows secret talks between Donald Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin’s senior economic advisor Kirill Dmitriev about a 28-point plan over Russia’s 46-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

Senior US officials said the Pentagon delegation will meet with Russian officials at a later date. They did not explain why Trump’s envoy to Ukraine, Keith Kellogg, is not included.

UPDATE 1545 GMT:

UK Defence Minister John Healey says the Russian spy ship Yantar is on the edge of British waters and has been mapping undersea cables and shining lasers at RAF pilots in “very dangerous” operations.

My message to Russia and to Putin is this: We see you. We know what you’re doing. And if the Yantar travels south this week, we are ready.

The Yantar hovered over critical cables in the middle of the Irish Sea last November. It has been positively identified over cables between Norway and its Svalbard archipelago high in the Arctic. And it is one of several Russian naval vessels that congregated in UK waters for 13 months of sustained surveillance around nodes of critical infrastructure starting in autumn 2023.

A “senior NATO commander” said of the vessel, “It is the tool Russia is using to somehow…keep us awake. She’s following cable lines and pipelines, making stops.”

But Healey said the Yantar has gone further in its latest operations. He said he has changed the terms of engagement so the ship can be followed more closely in British waters. The UK Government has “military options ready”.

UPDATE 1534 GMT:

Rescuers continue to find bodies of victims in Ternopil in western Ukraine after Russia’s missile and drone strikes:

The toll has risen to 25 murdered and 73 injured. Another 42 people were wounded elsewhere in Ukraine.

UPDATE 1254 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s overnight missile and drone strikes has risen to at least 20 civilians killed, including two children, and 115 injured.

All the fatalities are in Ternopil in western Ukraine. Another 66 people, including 16 children, were injured.

UPDATE 0921 GMT:

The toll from Russia’s overnight missile and drone strikes has risen to at least 10 civilians murdered and 86 injured.

Air defenses intercepted 442 of 476 drones and 41 of 48 missiles. The other drones and missiles struck 14 locations.

The 10 fatalities were in Ternopil in western Ukraine. Another 37 civilians, including 12 children, were injured as residential blocks were destroyed or damaged.

At least 46 people, including girls aged 9 and 13, were injured in Kharkiv in northeast Ukraine. A high-rise residential building, a hospital, and a school were damaged.

UPDATE 0909 GMT:

Poland’s Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski says sabotage of Polish railways last weekend were “an act of state-sponsored terror” from Russia, with “the clear intention to cause human casualties”.

An explosion damaged the railway from Warsaw to Lublin, and Polish officials said there was a second attempt on another line.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said two Ukrainian men, believed to be working with Russian intelligence services, are the main suspects. They allegedly used a military-type C-4 explosive with an attached 300-meter cable.

Sikorski says Poland will close the last remaining Russian consulate in the country, located in Gdańsk.

The other two consulates, in Poznań and Kraków, have already been shut because of previous incidents of sabotage.

UPDATE 0852 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says Russia launched 476 drones and 48 missiles across Ukraine overnight.

He said nine civilians were murdered and dozens wounded in Ternopil in western Ukraine, as residential high-rise buildings were hit and set on fire. More victims may be buried under rubble.

be people trapped under the rubble.

Dozens were also wounded in Kharkiv on Tuesday evening.

Zelensky noted the concentration of strikes on energy infrastructure in the west, including the Ivano-Frankivsk and Lviv regions.

Every brazen attack against ordinary life proves that the pressure on Russia is still insufficient. Effective sanctions and assistance for Ukraine can change this. The top priority is air defense missiles, additional systems, expanded capabilities for our combat aviation, and drone production to protect lives.

Russia must be held accountable for its actions.

UPDATE 0738 GMT:

Pjotr Sauer of The Guardian evaluates a series of new Russian laws and decrees, including mass mobilization and restrictions on the population, as Moscow struggles to defend the country against Ukraine’s strikes and sabotage of key facilities.

Vladimir Putin has authorized the deployment of reservists to guard sites such as oil refineries. The Kremlin can call up a pool of around 2 million people without officially declaring a new mobilization.

Since 10 November, the connections of mobile users returning from abroad have been automatically blocked for 24 hours. The restriction has caused confusion and chaos. Residents of the Pskov region, on the border with Latvia and Estonia, complain that their connections have been frozen.

Last week Putin signed legislation imposing a life sentence on anyone who involves minors in acts of sabotage, and lowering the age of criminal responsibility from 18 to 14.

Andrei Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst assesses, “Russia is acclimating its population to a prolonged semi-military existence and urging people to brace for greater sacrifices as the war drags on.”

UPDATE 0728 GMT:

There are emergency power outages across Ukraine after Russia’s mass missile and drone attack on energy infrastructure overnight.

The Russians targeted the west of the country. A large fire was reported in Lviv, with intense smoke from a strike on a warehouse storing tires.

z

In the city of Ternopil, authorities reported “hits on residential buildings”. Pictures posted to social media showed multiple floors of one high-rise building were destroyed.

Three civilians, including two children, have been injured in the Ivano-Frankivsk region.

UPDATE 0720 GMT:

Spain is providing Ukraine with a €615 million ($710 million) aid package.

Spanish Prime Minister Pedro Sánchez announced the assistance on Tuesday at a press conference alongside the visiting Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky.

“Your fight is ours,” Sanchez said, explaining that Vladimir Putin’s “neo-imperialism” seeks to “weaken the European project and everything it stands for”.

The package includes €200 million in economic aid, including support for energy, and €300 million for new defense equipment.

UPDATE 0703 GMT:

Ukraine has used the US-made ATACMS missile against military targets in Russia, after the Trump Administration lifted a months-long ban on deployment.

A Pentagon review process in late spring gave Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth authority to block strikes inside Russia. The review was led by Undersecretary of Defense Elbridge Colby, an opponent of aid to Ukraine.

The ATACMS has a maximum range of 300 km (186 miles). It was first used inside Russia on November 19, 2024, hitting an arsenal in the west of the country.

Ukraine’s General Staff has not given details of Tuesday’s attack.

The US State Department said on Tuesday that Washington has approves a $105 million sale to Ukraine to upgrade and sustain Patriot missile defenses.

The package includes parts, training and services.

UPDATE 0657 GMT:

At least 32 civilians, including two children and an 18-year-old girl, have been wounded by an overnight Russian missile strike on the Kharkiv region in northeast Ukraine.

The region was attacked, with murdered and injured, for the third consecutive night.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: The Trump Administration and the Kremlin are in secret talks over a proposal about Russia’s 46-month full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

US and Russian officials confirmed the discussion of a 28-point plan between Trump’s envoy, real estate developer Steve Witkoff, and Vladimir Putin’s senior economic advisor Kirill Dmitriev.

Dmitriev met Witkoff and other senior members of the White House Administration in Miami from Oct. 24-26.

At the time, Dmitriev’s trip was framed as a failed PR effort. His interviews were portrayed as ineffective amid Donald Trump’s anger over the Kremlin’s refusal to give up its maximalist demands for the seizure of Ukrainian territory and its aerial assault on civilians.

However, “sources with knowledge of the visit” said Dmitriev was expected to meet Witkoff in Miami. The Russian official was photographed with Republican Rep. Anna Paulina Luna, a fervent supporter of the Kremlin.

Dmitriev says now that, unlike in the past, “the Russian position is really being heard”. He blustered, “It’s happening with the background of Russia definitely having additional successes on the battlefield.”

Details of the plans were not given beyond vague references to security in Europe, security guarantees, and US relations with Russia and Ukraine in the future.

Dmitriev said, “It’s actually a much broader framework, basically saying, ‘How do we really bring, finally, lasting security to Europe, not just Ukraine?’.”

He declared that the two sides hope to produce a written document before the next summit between Trump and Putin.

A White House official said, “The President has been clear that it is time to stop the killing and make a deal to end the war. President Trump believes that there is a chance to end this senseless war if flexibility is shown.”

Witkoff discussed the plan with Rustem Umerov, the head of Ukraine’s National Security and Defense Council, earlier this week in Miami, said a Ukrainian official.

However, a meeting between the real estate developer and Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky, scheduled for Turkey on Wednesday, has been postponed.

The White House official said the US has begun briefing European officials about the new plan: “We think the timing is good for this plan now. But both parties need to be practical and realistic.”