Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky with troops on the frontline in Kupyansk in the northeast of the country, December 12, 2025

EA VideoCasts with Times Radio and War and Politics 24: Why The Defense of Ukraine Matters

Friday’s Coverage: Zelensky Confers With “Coalition of Willing” and Meets US Officials

UPDATE 1653 GMT:

The US has lifted sanctions on Belarusian potash in exchange for Minsk’s release of 123 political prisoners.

Five of the detainees were Ukrainian, and many of those freed were transferred to Ukraine.

Among the human rights activists freed were Nobel Peace Prize winner Ales Bialiatski and Viktar Babaryka, arrested in 2020 while trying to run the Presidential election.

Freed Belarusian opposition activist Maria Kolesnikova said:

It’s an overwhelming feeling of happiness — to realise that we are now all free people.

It’s a true joy to watch the first free sunset — incredibly beautiful. At the same time, I think about those who are still not free. I’m really looking forward to the moment when we can all finally meet, hug each other, and see one another again.

The Trump Administration removed sanctions on Belarus’s flag carrier, Belavia, in November.

Potash is one of Belarus’s key exports and its most significant mineral resource. The State-owned producer Belaruskali is among the world’s largest suppliers.

UPDATE 1641 GMT:

Having struck three Turkish-flagged vessels in two Ukrainian ports on Friday, Russia has attacked a fourth today.

UPDATE 1339 GMT:

Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky reports on Russia’s overnight attack with more than 450 drones and 30 missiles:

It is important that everyone now sees what Russia is doing – every step they take in terror against our people, all their attacks, for this is clearly not about ending the war. They still aim to destroy our state and inflict maximum pain on our people.

UPDATE 1144 GMT:

At least three civilians have been murdered and 35 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.

The attacks caused power outages in the Odesa, Chernihiv, Kherson, Dnipropetrovsk, Kirovohrad, and Mykolaiv regions.Three Turkish-owned vessels, including a ship carrying food supplies, were damaged in strikes on two ports.

The fatalities and six of the wounded were in the Donetsk region in eastern Ukraine.

Casualties were also reported in the Kharkiv, Kherson, Mykolaiv, Odesa, Sumy, and Dnipropetrovsk regions.

UPDATE 1134 GMT:

The Moscow City Court has declared prison terms in absentia on International Criminal Court judges and chief prosecutor Karim Khan.

The court pronounced that “ICC prosecutor Karim Khan unlawfully prosecuted Russian citizens in The Hague”, sentencing him to 15 years. The ICC “instructed the judges of the chamber to issue patently unlawful arrest warrants”, with eight staff given terms from 3 1/2 to 15 years.

In March 2023, the ICC issued arrest warrants for Vladimir Putin and Russia’s “Children’s Rights” Commissioner Maria Lvova-Belova over the abductions of Ukrainian children.

UPDATE 0833 GMT:

The European Union has approved a permanent freeze on the €210 billion of Russian assets held in Europe.

The measure removes the need for six-month extensions of authority, and this the possibility of a veto by countries with pro-Kremlin leaders such as Hungary and Slovakia.

Belgium, which holds 2/3rds of the assets, has objected to use of the assets for a “reparations loan” to help meet Ukraine’s financial needs through 2027.

EU leaders are negotiating with Brussels for a compromise which meets the Belgian concerns over legal liability and Russian retaliation against Belgian companies.

Maintaining pressure, Russia’s Central Bamk said it us filing a lawsuit against Euroclear, the Brussels central securities depository that holds the assets.

UPDATE 0722 GMT:

North Korea’s leader Kim Jong-un has acknowledged that he sent troops to clear mines in western Russia.

Kim despatched around 12,000 soldiers from August 2024 to help Russia push back a surprise Ukrainian cross-border incursion into the Kursk region. At least 600 were killed and thousands wounded, according to South Korean intelligence services.

At the end of a three-day Central Committee meeting, Kim said the soldiers “demonstrated to the world the prestige of our army and state as the ever-victorious army and genuine protector of international justice”.

Hailing the return of an engineering regiment at a ceremony on Friday, Kim said they wrote “letters to their hometowns and villages at breaks of the mine-clearing hours”. Nine members of the regiment died during the 120-day deployment.

“All of you, both officers and soldiers, displayed mass heroism overcoming unimaginable mental and physical burdens almost every day,” he declared.

ORIGINAL ENTRY: Kyiv and its European partners are asking the US to provide security guarantees before any negotiations over territory in eastern Ukraine.

The French President said of discussions over an end to Russia’s 46 1/2-month full-scale invasion: “We need full visibility on the security guarantees that Europeans and Americans can give to Ukrainians before any settlement on contentious territorial issues.”

The 28-point ultimatum to Ukraine, developed by the Kremlin with Donald Trump’s envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner in late October, demands that Kyiv hand over the 22% of the strategic Donetsk region which it controls. References to security guarantees — for which the US would receive compensation — are vague, and are undermined by limits on Ukraine’s military and restrictions on Western assistance.

The European counter-proposal begins with a ceasefire on the current frontlines and no surrender of territory. Security guarantees are backed by ongoing aid from Ukraine’s partners. Kyiv’s candidacy for NATO membership is not banned, although it is not envisaged in the near-future.

Witkoff, a real estate developer, will reportedly meet with President Volodymyr Zelensky and European leaders in Brussels on Sunday and Monday.

French President Emmanuel Macron, UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and German Chancellor Friedrich Merz will be in attendance.

The latest US proposal reportedly calls for Ukrainian withdrawal from its part of Donetsk, with a 30-km (19-mile) demilitarized zone. There is no provision for Russian withdrawal from occupied areas.

Zelensky responded:

Who will govern this territory, which they are calling a ‘free economic zone’ or a ‘demilitarised zone’, they don’t know.

If one side’s troops have to retreat and the other side stays where they are, then what will hold back these other troops, the Russians?

The President visited commanders and troops on the frontline in Kupyansk in northeast Ukraine. He then posted about the talks:

Across all areas, our goal is the same – to bring the war to a real conclusion and to define the steps that will make peace dignified for Ukraine, with security and reconstruction guaranteed….

I am especially grateful to all our warriors on the front line, to every effective unit, and to everyone working for our defense, and for the Ukrainian state.