L to R: Vladimir Putin, Volodymyr Zelensky, and Donald Trump (CNN/Getty)

EA-Times Radio VideoCast: Trump Rattles Putin Over Ukraine

Friday’s Coverage: Kyiv Hits Another Oil Refinery in Russia

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 2305 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says US military support has not been halted, despite an order by new Secretary of State Marco Rubio to suspend almost all American foreign aid.

During a joint press conference in Kyiv with Moldovan President Maia Sandu, Zelensky said, “I can only say what Ukraine may not receive and what I am doing – I am focused on military aid. It has not been stopped, thank God.”

He said he was not ready to comment on other aspects of US assistance.

UPDATE 2254 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has met Italian journalist Cecilia Sala, recently freed after three months in prison in Iran’s capital Tehran.

Sala was seized in October as she worked on articles and podcasts in Iran. She was freed earlier this month in what was effectively an exchange for Iranian national Mohammad Abedini Najafabadi, seized in Italy on a US warrant.

Najafabadi was accused of providing materials for an Iran-linked drone attack that killed three US troops in Jordan.

See also Iran’s Regime Releases Foreign Journalist, Italy’s Cecilia Sala

UPDATE 2246 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has emphasized that Kyiv must be involved in any discussions pursued by Donald Trump to end Russia’s 35-month invasion.

“Otherwise it will not work. Because Russia does not want to end the war, while Ukraine wants to end it,” Zelensky said. “As for what the set-up of the talks will be: Ukraine, I really hope Ukraine will be there, America, Europe and Russia.”

He noted:

I believe President Trump himself does not know all the details [of a deal. Because I would say so much depends on what sort of just peace we can achieve. And whether Putin wants, in principle, to stop the war. I believe he doesn’t want to.

The President continued his flattery of Trump, saying the American is genuinely interested in a resolution: “He is simply saying this has to end or it will get worse.”

UPDATE 1307 GMT:

Ten civilians were injured by Russian strikes across Ukraine over the past day.

Air defenses downed 46 of 61 drones launched by the Russians overnight. The other 15 drones were lost to electronic counter-measures.

Two Kh-59/69 cruise missiles fired from the Black Sea were shot down.

The casualties were in the Kherson region in the south, the Sumy region in the north, and the Donetsk region in the east.

UPDATE 1011 GMT:

Anti-corruption activists and lawmakers are warning that Ukraine’s efforts to clean up its weapons procurement are in danger of being undermined.

The critics say the Defense Ministry is neutering the Defense Procurement Agency, with Defense Minister Rustem Umerov announcing on Friday that he will not renew the contract of DPA head Maryna Bezrukova.

Umerov cited unsatisfactory results, only days after the DPA’s supervisory board voted to extend the contract with Bezrukova.

Legally, it is the supervisory board which has the authority to hire and fire heads of state enterprises such as Bezrukova, who has been in the post for a year.

However, recent amendments to the agency’s charter empowered the Defense Ministry to reverse any decision by the supervisory board.

“It seems like a violation of legislation, violation of the reform process, and violation of the independence of the agency that was promised personally by the defense minister and his deputies to our society, to our partners,” Bezrukova said after Umerov’s announcement. “Umerov is trying to attack the reform.”

She said she will not leave her position. Citing more than 25 years in procurement, she said, “I’m not going to surrender. I will stand in my position until the end. I have a vision for the institutional development of the agency.”

Umerov also removed the supervisory board’s two state representatives, Taras Chmut and Yuriy Dzhygyr, claiming that they ignored the ministry’s recommendation to not extend the contract with Bezrukova. He said the board will be “relaunched”.

Sources say Umerov wants to replace Bezrukova with Arsen Zhumadilov, the director of the State Rear Operator (DOT) which buys food and clothes for the military. Umerov has tried to merge the DPA with DOT into one unified body under Zhumadilov’s leadership.

UPDATE 0701 GMT:

The new US Secretary of State, Marco Rubio, has again raised the threat of a suspension of military aid to Ukraine.

State Department officials were “shocked” on Friday when Rubio ordered a halt to disbursment of all foreign aid grants — except for Israel and Egypt — for 90 days.

Rubio’s guidance, issued to all diplomatic and consular posts, requires department staffers to issue “stop-work orders” on “existing foreign assistance awards”. It is effective immediately.

The Pentagon had said on Thursday of Donald Trump’s executive order for the 90-day suspension: “Security assistance to Ukraine is not subject to the restrictions of the recent foreign assistance order, as it only applies to development programs, not military support.”

UPDATE 0656 GMT:

In his nightly address, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky chided Western countries for supply of components in the Iran-type attack drones launched by Russia every night.

Zelensky noted, “Thirty-one “Shahed” drones in a single night —that’s approximately 2,635 components from other countries: microchips, switches, transceivers.”

It is necessary to consciously and decisively deprive regimes like Russia’s of such terrorist capabilities. And absolutely everyone who helps Russia build its terrorist potential, circumvent sanctions, and establish weapons production facilities must be held accountable.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has warned that Vladimir Putin will try to manipulate Donald Trump, bringing him back onside with the Kremlin’s 35-month invasion.

Trying to regain lost ground, Putin told Russian State TV on Friday, “I cannot but agree with him that if he had been president – if his victory hadn’t been stolen in 2020 – then maybe there would not have been the crisis in Ukraine that emerged in 2022.”

He maintained, despite the Kremlin’s rejection of any substantial negotiations with Kyiv, “We have always said — and I want to emphasize this again — that we are ready for talks on the Ukrainian issue.”

In his nightly address to the nation, Zelensky cautioned, “[Putin] wants to manipulate the desire of the president of the United States of America to achieve peace. I am confident that no Russian manipulations will succeed anymore.”

Trump’s Shift

Trump had been a long-time supporter of Putin’s propaganda lines, insulting Zelensky and threatening to cut aid for Ukraine’s resistance.

But on Monday, just after returning to the White House, Trump suddenly declared that Russia might be failing in its invasion, suffering economic damage and military losses. He said of Putin, “He can’t be thrilled, he’s not doing so well. Russia is bigger, they have more soldiers to lose, but that’s no way to run a country.”

He followed up on Tuesday that the US might impose fresh sanctions on Russia if Putin does not come to the negotiatating table: “We’re talking to Zelensky. We’re going to be talking with President Putin very soon. We’re going to look at it.”

On Wednesday on social media, he repeated the threat of “Taxes, Tariffs, and Sanctions”: “Let’s get this war…over with! We can do it the easy way, or the hard way.”

On Thursday, he told the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland, that he wanted to meet Putin soon and “stop this ridiculous war”.

And in an interview with Fox TV on the previous evening, he gave the Kremlin an opening with a swipe at Zelensky: “[He] shouldn’t have allowed this to happen either. He’s no angel. First of all, he’s fighting a much bigger entity.”

Lavrov Rules Out Talks

Putin’s flattery of Trump balanced Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov’s rejection of the American’s demand for a deal.

Lavrov asserted that there are “no practical actions indicating that Kyiv and the West are really ready” for negotiations:

On the contrary, western military supplies to the Ukrainian armed forces are continuing, ultimatums to Russia are being worked out, there is a legal ban on negotiations, and the issue of the legitimacy of the Ukrainian authorities is not being resolved.

Putin also gave himself the pretext to avoid talks: “How can negotiations be resumed if they are officially banned?”

The Russian leader was responding to Zelensky’s directive after Putin proclaimed the annexation of four Ukrainian regions — Luhansk and Donetsk in the east and Zaporizhzhia and Kherson in the south — in September 2022. Zelensky said there can be no talks with Moscow until Putin was out of power.

Ukraine Presidential Chief of Staff Andrii Yermak warned on Friday that Putin “is trying to promote the idea of ​​negotiations with the US” so he can “negotiate the fate of Europe without Europe” and “talk about Ukraine without Ukraine”.

Yermak said, “This is not going to happen. Putin needs to come back to reality, or he will be brought back. This is not how it works in the modern world.”