German Chancellor Friedrich Merz and Donald Trump in the White House, Washington, D.C., March 3, 2026 (Sky)

EA-War and Politics 24 VideoCast: With No Imminent Ceasefire in Ukraine, How Do You Pressure Russia?

Tuesday’s Coverage: Slowest Russia Advance in Almost 2 Years

UPDATE 1744 GMT:

State security service SBU claims Ukrainian forces struck three ships in an attack on the port of Novorossiysk in southwest Russia.

The attack hit the minesweeper Valentin Pikul and “severely” damaged two anti-submarine ships, an SBU official said.

Three Russian sailors were killed and 14 injured during the all-night fire in the port.

Six of the seven loading berths of the Sheskharis oil terminal, port infrastructure, a guidance radar, and an air defense missile system were damaged.

“There are no ‘protected areas’ for Russian military facilities. As long as Russia wages war against Ukraine, it will have no peace anywhere — neither at sea, nor on land, nor in the rear,” the SBU official said.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Visiting Washington, German Chancellor Friedrich Merz has told Donald Trump that Ukraine must not be forced to surrender more territory to Russian invaders.

We all want to see this war coming to an end as soon as possible. But Ukraine has to preserve its territory and their security interests.

Merz emphasized the need for continued support for Ukraine, “Russia is playing for time here, and in doing so is also acting against the will of the American President. In today’s talks, I called for increasing the pressure on Moscow.”

Commenting on Ukraine-Russia-US talks, the Chancellor said only an agreement supported by Europe can be lasting, “We are not prepared to accept an agreement that is negotiated over our heads.”

He told reporters that he thought Trump understood the point after Merz showed him a map of Ukraine.

Trump insisted that negotiaton of an end to Russia’s invasion is still “very high” on his priority list despite the Israel-US war Iran. He said he believed the US has enough munitions both to attack Tehran and to sell them to Europe for use in Ukraine.