(Image by NEIVANMADE)
Russia has been hammering Ukraine with drone swarms again all evening and into the small hours.
While Kremlin lies, manipulates, and demands sanctions to be dropped for a sea ceasefire, swarms of Russian drones fill Ukrainian skies. Living next to Russia taught me: never trust their words
— Maria Avdeeva (@mariainkharkiv.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 3:49 PM
Right now at 10:05 PM EDT/4:05 AM local time in Ukraine, all of eastern Ukraine but Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk, and Donetsk Oblasts are under air raid alert for drone swarms.
3:30 AM, air raid alert in Kharkiv has been on for almost 8 hours
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 9:34 PM
The Trump administration continues their master negotiation strategery:
Trump is clearing the path for russia to profit from Ukrainian harvests stolen from occupied soil
— Iryna Voichuk (@irynavoichuk.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 11:24 AM
The Kyiv Independent has the details:
While the White House celebrates a ceasefire in the Black Sea after a 12-hour meeting in Riyadh, in Ukraine, the enthusiasm is muted.
The agreement is missing crucial securities that Ukraine urgently needs, including protecting its ports from Russian attacks as well as opening up the blockaded Mykolaiv port. The deal negotiated by the U.S. and Russia leans more in Moscow’s favor, experts told the Kyiv Independent.
Washington, Kyiv, and Moscow agreed to a ceasefire on March 25 to “eliminate the use of force” and prevent the use of commercial vessels for military purposes. In return, the U.S. will help restore Russia’s fertilizer and agricultural exports to the world market, lower maritime insurance costs, and enhance access to ports and payment systems for such transactions.
“This is definitely not what Ukraine needs,” said Serhiy Vovk, director of the Center for Transportation Strategies, a consultancy in Kyiv.
“What we urgently need now is the protection of our port infrastructure from missiles and drones, but there is not a single word about this in the White House statement.”
Since the start of the full-scale invasion, Russia has damaged or destroyed 385 port infrastructure facilities, destabilizing Ukraine’s port operations. Ports in Odesa Oblast, Ukraine’s last operating seaport region, suffered attacks on average every three days from January to February 2025.
Russia has also blocked the crucial Mykolaiv port since 2022, one of the largest seaports in the country, adding logistical costs to agricultural producers. Farmers across the country can only export goods from three Ukrainian seaports: Pivdennyi, Chornomorsk, and Odesa.
There are conflicting statements about when the ceasefire will start. President Volodymyr Zelensky said it is in effect from today, while the Kremlin says it will begin when sanctions on Russian food producers and exporters are lifted.
After Russia pulled out of the UN and Turkey-brokered Black Sea Grain Initiative in July 2023, Ukraine’s military carved out its own trade route through the sea. It has been a lifeline for Ukraine’s economy by allowing cargo vessels to sail safely by hugging the coastlines of Bulgaria and Romania while guided by the Ukrainian Navy.
Sea drone attacks that sank Russian ships pushed Russia’s fleet eastward and away from the Crimean ports, adding an extra safety cushion.
Ukraine’s Defense Minister Rustem Umerov said Russia would violate the new agreement if it moves its warships westwards again. It will be regarded as a threat to Ukraine’s national security, he added.
“If the Russian navy returns to Sevastopol, to Crimea, we will have many risks regarding, for example, our joint anti-mine initiative where we try to demine our sea routes in partnership with Bulgaria, Turkey, and Romania,” said Vovk.
The U.S. and Russia underwent the negotiations without its European allies at the table, despite concerns from Black Sea countries Romania and Bulgaria that the Russian fleet could dominate the Black Sea again.
Those countries should also be included in talks for their safety, said Vovk. Russian attacks on vessels have hit close to NATO member Romania, even damaging a Romanian ship in July 2023.
“I am concerned that this deal may be shifting from a local solution aimed at saving Ukrainian exports into a broader geopolitical game that does not include Ukraine’s allies at the negotiating table,” said Andrii Pidhainyi, a partner and co-head of Transport and Infrastructure Practice at Arzinger, a Ukrainian law firm.
More at the link!
Russia gets sanctions lifted, and Ukraine gets basically nothing. Art of the deal, baby.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 2:37 PM
Russia agreed to stop striking Ukrainian energy infrastructure, which probably limits their targets strictly to schools, hospitals, and apartment buildings.
— Kate from Kharkiv (@kateinkharkiv.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 12:57 PM
As I’ve been saying for several weeks, Trump and his team are negotiating a new US-Russia relationship, not an end to Putin’s/Russia’s genocidal re-invasion of Ukraine. All the while the Russians recognize that Trump and his team are neither the best, nor the brightest.
Russian propagandists are openly mocking gullible Americans.
Mikhail Zvinchuk, a host on Solovyov’s channel, called the Trump administration “American pots” because Vitkoff believes that Russia is adhering to the “ceasefire.”
— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 3:39 PM
“Guarantees for Russia from Ukraine are nothing more than an order to Zelensky from the United States.” – Lavrov.
It was the year 2025, and Russia was demanding security guarantees from the U.S. to protect itself from Ukraine.
Nothing special.— WarTranslated (Dmitri) (@wartranslated.bsky.social) March 25, 2025 at 8:16 AM
Here is President Zelenskyy’s address from earlier today. Video below, English transcript after the jump.
