Ukraine May 2025-

11-14 July
President Tells Russia It Has 50 Days to Make Peace With Ukraine
(NYT) Speaking from the Oval Office, where he met with NATO’s secretary general, Mark Rutte​, Mr. Trump said the weapons would be “quickly distributed to the battlefield.” He also threatened to impose secondary sanctions, which are penalties imposed on other countries or parties that trade with nations under sanctions.
Trump says he will help Europe speed weapons to Ukraine.
(GZER0) Trump to unveil major new arms support for Ukraine
Apparently fed up with Russian President Vladimir Putin’s unwillingness to pause an intensified air and ground offensive against Ukraine, US President Donald Trump says Washington will provide Kyiv with Patriot missile systems and other powerful weapons. To skirt the need for approval from Congress, where support for Ukraine is contentious, Trump says the US will sell the weapons to NATO allies, who will then dispatch them to Ukraine. The package may also include long-range missiles. This is all bad news for Russia, which seems to be hoping that its relentless airstrikes will break the military stalemate and force concessions from Kyiv in eventual ceasefire talks.
US is selling weapons to NATO allies to give to Ukraine, Trump says
(AP) — The United States is selling weapons to its NATO allies in Europe so they can provide them to Ukraine as it struggles to fend off a recent escalation in Russia’s drone and missile attacks, President Donald Trump and his chief diplomat said.
“We’re sending weapons to NATO, and NATO is paying for those weapons, 100%,” Trump said in an interview with NBC News late Thursday. “So what we’re doing is, the weapons that are going out are going to NATO, and then NATO is going to be giving those weapons (to Ukraine), and NATO is paying for those weapons.”
Secretary of State Marco Rubio said Friday that some of the U.S.-made weapons that Ukraine is seeking are deployed with NATO allies in Europe. Those weapons could be transferred to Ukraine, with European countries buying replacements from the U.S., he said.

4 July
Trump has ‘good conversation’ with Zelenskyy after heavy bombardment of Ukraine by Russia
US munitions slated for Ukraine held up over shortage as Trump ‘disappointed’ by Putin’s refusal to make concessions
(The Guardian) The call with Zelenskyy comes as Washington has halted its latest shipment of military aid to Ukraine including Patriot air defense missiles and other crucial munitions meant to support the country’s defenses, and hours after Russia launched a devastating air attack on Kyiv using a record number of drones and ballistic missiles.
Zelenskyy called the conversation “important and useful” and said in a post said that he and Trump had discussed Ukraine’s air defense capabilities, joint defense production and “mutual purchases and investments”, all potentially avenues for Ukraine to restart aid from the United States by providing incentives for the Trump administration to rush crucial munitions to Kyiv.
Dutch intelligence services say Russia has stepped up use of banned chemical weapons in Ukraine
(AP) — Two Dutch intelligence agencies said on Friday that Russia is increasing its use of prohibited chemical weapons in Ukraine, including the World War I-era poison gas chloropicrin.
The Netherlands’ military intelligence and the security service, together with the German intelligence service, found that the use of prohibited chemical weapons by the Russian military had become “standardized and commonplace” in Ukraine.
According to the findings, the Russian military uses chloropicrin and riot control agent CS against sheltering Ukrainian soldiers, who are then forced out into the open and shot.

2 July
Trump’s Betrayal of Ukraine
Bridget Brink, the former ambassador to Ukraine, on that country’s war with Russia, America’s betrayal of Ukraine, and why she resigned
By David Frum
… The Ukrainian cause is a great cause. It’s one that deserves respect and support from Americans, as it has gained and deserves support from America’s allies. Ukraine has done so much by itself. It has fought and struggled and defended itself, but it probably cannot win by itself. To win, it needs help. That help was forthcoming—inadequately, but forthcoming—from the Biden administration, and it’s been dialed back by the Trump administration. It needs to be a top-of-mind issue in our national discussion today.
What can be done to help Ukraine? Why won’t Donald Trump do it? How can it be pressured to do it? In that debate, Ambassador Brink has been and will be one of the most important voices, first as a successful and effective ambassador, then as a powerful critic of the administration she served, and now as a candidate for Congress. …

17 June
Ukraine left in lurch as Trump rushes out of G7 without meeting Zelenskyy
US president said he had to leave to focus on Israel-Iran conflict, without addressing Russia-Ukraine ceasefire
(The Guardian) In a further blow for Kyiv the US vetoed a joint statement on Ukraine from the summit, on the grounds that the wording was too anti-Russian and could compromise negotiations with Vladimir Putin.

6 June
‘He’s a bulldog’: the man behind the success of Ukraine’s Operation Spiderweb
(The Guardian) The number of Russian aircraft permanently put out of action by the attack on four bases on Sunday is disputed, with Ukraine claiming to have destroyed 41. US intelligence officials suggest that 10 combat aircraft were destroyed and up to 20 damaged.
Whatever the physical cost, the footage of the 117 drones flying out from the top of lorries to strike deep into Russia, and without the aid of western weaponry, has struck a psychological blow.
Ukraine’s foreign affairs minister, Sergiy Kyslytsya, claimed it had “changed the paradigm and dynamics” of the faltering peace talks with Russia in Istanbul on Tuesday. It was followed by a massive underwater blast targeting the key road and rail bridge connecting the Russian-occupied Crimean peninsula to Russia, damaging its supports.
2 June
How Ukraine’s Operation “Spider’s Web” Redefines Asymmetric Warfare
(Center for Strategic and International Studies/CSIS) On June 1, Russia’s Military Transport Aviation Day, a significant holiday for the Russian armed forces, the Security Service of Ukraine (SSU) carried out a bold and unprecedented coordinated drone strike deep inside Russian territory. The operation targeted four strategic air bases and delivered a major blow to Moscow’s long-range bomber fleet. Codenamed “Spider’s Web”—or simply “Web”—the operation was named for its wide geographic coverage across remote Russian locations previously thought to be beyond the reach of Ukraine’s long-range drone capabilities.