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 TVP World: Putin’s “Window” to Conquer Ukraine
Tuesday’s Coverage: France’s 100 Fighter Jets for Kyiv
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.
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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.”
