A firefighter at an oil refinery struck by Russia in Kremenchuk in central Ukraine, June 15, 2025

EA on TVP World: Trump, Putin, and Ukraine

Sunday’s Coverage: Putin’s Birthday Call to Trump

Map: Institute for the Study of War

UPDATE 1243 GMT:

At least six civilians have been killed and 18 wounded by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past 24 hours.

Air defenses downed 84 of 138 drones launched by Russian overnight, and 41 were lost to electronic counter-measures.

The fatalities and four of the injuries were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

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

UPDATE 1218 GMT:

In the context of Russia’s strike on the Kyiv office of the US aerospace manufacturer Boeing, American Chamber of Commerce President Andy Hunder says 32% of nearly 700 member firms have had employees killed in Russian attacks since 2022.

Nearly half of the members reported damage or destruction to their facilities.

A Coca-Cola facility in the Kyiv region was occupied by Russian forces and destroyed in the early days of the February 2022 invasion. But a stash of Jack Daniel’s whiskey stored there assisted Ukraine’s resistance: when Russian soldiers discovered it, they drank it all and settled into the facility, slowing the advance towards Kyiv.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Citing a Russian attack on an oil refinery in central Ukraine, President Volodymyr Zelensky says the Kremlin’s “level of cynicism is staggering” as it refuses calls for a ceasefire.

The Russians struck the refinery in the Poltava region with missiles and drones on Sunday. Zelensky noted, in his nightly address to the nation:

The Russians launched a stone-cold, combined attack on our energy infrastructure. This is a spit in the face of everything the international community is trying to do to stop this war.

It happened right after Putin’s conversation with Trump. After the Americans asked us not to strike Russian energy facilities. At the same time as Putin tries to portray himself as a mediator for the Middle East and attempts to somehow assist his accomplices in Tehran. The level of cynicism is staggering.

He repeated, “[Putin] doesn’t personally need peace, he himself is the war. Only a real cash shortage can convince Russia to be less dangerous to its neighbors.”