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

EA on RTE: Ukraine Strikes Russian Military in Heart of Moscow

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Ukraine and Europe Push Back Putin’s “Nazi Piglets” Invasion

Tuesday’s Coverage: Russia’s Missile and Drone Assault on West of Country

UPDATE 0904 GMT:

Russia’s shutdown of the Internet and blocking of messaging applications is hindering regional administration and causing public discontent.

The Kremlin is trying to push residents onto the State-built Max messenger and has hinted that a full block of Telegram may be imminent.

In late November, amid the initial shutdown of mobile Internet service in the Belgorod region in western Russia, Governor Vyacheslav Gladkov posted, “This is disrupting part of the communications infrastructure we rely on here in the Belgorod region, above all for alerts and other safety functions.”

Outages have affected St. Petersburg, Smolensk, Arkhangelsk, and other cities and regions across Russia since May.

At the end of November, Russia’s communications regulator Roskomnadzor announced a full block on WhatsApp and continuing cutoff of Armenia’s Zangi app and Apple’s FaceTime.

Regional officials note that many residents in their area rely exclusively on mobile Internet, and some communities — especially remote villages cut off from large cities by rivers or tundra — have no wired Internet at all.

One official summarized:

It’s wrecked people’s daily routines. Some people might shrug it off and stop using WhatsApp — even though plenty of people are unhappy about it being blocked — and switch to other ways of staying in touch. But when you can’t pay by card in a store or café, can’t call a taxi, can’t place an online order because the payment won’t go through, there’s no way to just ignore that.

UPDATE 0837 GMT:

The suspicious death of a militia leader has highlighted the in-fighting within the Russian establishment.

Pjotr Sauer of The Guardian reports on the demise of Stanislav Orlov, the founder of the far-right Española formation of football hooligans and neo-Nazi volunteers fighting as volunteers in the invasion of Ukraine.

Orlov perished more than two weeks ago. Despite an elaborate funeral in Moscow’s Cathedral of Christ the Saviour, the cause has not been officially reported.

Kremlin-linked Russian sites and independent outlets say the militia leader was ambushed and shot at his home in Russian-occupied Crimea by the Kremlin’s security services.

“Orlov’s death is yet another demonstrative elimination of radicals who have slipped out of control, following the same logic as the removal of Prigozhin,” says Andrei Kolesnikov, a Moscow-based political analyst. The apparent killing was intended to serve as “a warning meant to discourage others from pursuing an independent path”.

Española, which abruptly announced in October that it is disbanding with its units absorbed into the Russian army, said cautiously, “We cannot fail to note that many people are interested in the reasons for Spaniard’s [Orlov’s] death – and we are no less so.”

UPDATE 0645 GMT:

At least one civilian has been murdered and three injured by Russian strikes on 27 settlements on the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.

Governor Ivan Fedorov said Russian forces carried out 17 major attacks on the city of Zaporizhzhia and other areas such as Huliaipole.

In the neighboring Kherson region,one person was killed and five others were injured over the past day. An apartment building, two private houses, a trolleybus network, and a private vehicle were damaged.

UPDATE 0636 GMT:

A Russian strike could collapse the internal radiation shelter at the defunct Chornobyl nuclear power station in northern Ukraine, the plant’s director has warned.

Sergiy Tarakanov said full restoration of the shelter, damaged by Russian attacks, could take three to four years. He said the next assault could bring down the inner shell.

If a missile or drone hits it directly, or even falls somewhere nearby – for example, an Iskander [short-range ballistic missile], God forbid – it will cause a mini-earthquake in the area.

No one can guarantee that the shelter facility will remain standing after that. That is the main threat.

After an inspection in late November, the The International Atomic Energy Agency warned that the steel confinement structure, built at a cost of €1.5 billion ($1.75 billion) next to the destroyed reactor, “had lost its primary safety functions”.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has called on the Trump Administration to help end Russia’s invasion, declaring, “We sense that America wants to reach a final agreement.”

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky assured, “Ukraine has never been, and will never be, an obstacle to peace.”

He promoted the European-Ukrainian proposal for a ceasefire along current frontlines, security guarantees, and Ukraine’s reconstruction: “We are working actively and doing everything necessary to ensure that the documents come to fruition and that they are realistic.”

He continued:

The key is that Russia must not sabotage this diplomacy and must take ending the war 100% seriously. If it doesn’t, then additional pressure on Russia must follow. The world has all the instruments needed to make that pressure effective and ensure that peace is achieved.

The Kremlin has rejected any ceasefire. Instead, it has demanded more Ukrainian territory and a permanent state of military and political weakness for the rest of the country.

Trying to break Kyiv’s resistance, the Russians have escalated missile and drone strikes on civilian areas, particularly on energy infrastructure.

Early Tuesday, Russia fired more than 650 drones and 30 missiles. At least three civilians were murdered, including a toddler.

Zelensky commented:

The Russians are trying to ruin this holiday, this sacred day. No surprise there.

That’s the way their country is. That’s the kind of neighbor they are. It is vital that the world sees this and that it cannot be left unaddressed.

Pope Leo XIV told reporters at his residence near Rome, “Among the things that cause me great sadness is the fact that Russia has apparently rejected a request for a truce.”

He said, “I am renewing my request to all people of goodwill to respect a day of peace – at least on the feast of the birth of our saviour….I hope they will listen and there will be 24 hours of peace in the whole world.”