This week, fighting continued to rage all along the front lines. Russia continued to pummel Ukrainian cities and towns deep in the rear with missiles and drones. Ukrainian troops have pushed Russian forces back near four villages in Donetsk region, Ukrainian OSINT project DeepState said late last week. Russian forces are reverting back to conducting mechanized assaults in areas where Russian infantry are struggling to advance, ISW said.
Russia began to target Ukraine’s railways in a strategic shift, also striking the areas that are distant from the front lines. Russia conducted three major attacks against Ukraine’s gas infrastructure in the past week. It launched 320 drones and 37 missiles at Ukraine overnight on Thursday, targeting the country’s critical infrastructure. Russia’s war on Ukraine’s energy system has entered a new phase with Russia determined to knock down the country’s power grid.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi is set to meet U.S. President Trump at the White House on Friday. The two will discuss what weapons should be supplied to Ukraine, specifically if the U.S. should provide game-changing long-range Tomahawk missiles to the country, Axios said Monday. A Ukrainian government delegation during a U.S. visit has met with representatives of Raytheon company that produces the Tomahawks.
Moscow rushing to resume dialogue as soon as it heard of Tomahawks, Zelenskyi says.
U.S. President Donald Trump announced following a call with Vladimir Putin on Thursday that he and the Russian leader had agreed to meet in Hungary in the coming weeks to discuss the war in Ukraine.
The two-hour call took place a day before Trump will host Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyi at the White House. “I actually believe that the Success in the Middle East will help in our negotiation in attaining an end to the War with Russia/Ukraine,” Trump wrote on Truth Social after the phone call.
“We also spent a great deal of time talking about Trade between Russia and the United States when the War with Ukraine is over,” Trump said. He added that he discussed with Putin the efforts of first lady Melania Trump to bring Ukrainian children back home. Trump described the phone call as “very productive.”
Trump also noted that U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio will lead a delegation of high-level advisors to meet with Russian officials next week. “They’re going to set up a time and a place, very shortly, maybe it’s already set up. They’ve already spoken,” Trump said.
“President Putin and I will then meet in an agreed upon location, Budapest, Hungary, to see if we can bring this ‘inglorious’ War, between Russia and Ukraine, to an end. President Zelenskyy and I will be meeting tomorrow, in the Oval Office, where we will discuss my conversation with President Putin, and much more,” Trump said on Truth Social.
In his nightly address on Thursday, Zelenskyi said Moscow “is rushing to resume the dialogue as soon as it hears about the Tomahawks.”