Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 01-25-2025

Trump plans to secure US access to global trade routes by limiting China’s Panama Canal access, gaining special rights in Canada’s waters, and increasing US military infrastructure in Greenland.

President Donald Trump, who just has returned to the White House, shocked the world with his recent comments about Canada, the Panama Canal, and Greenland.

Ian Bremmer, President of the political consultancy Eurasia Group, wrote in his blog that the current perception among the Canadian Conservative Party (likely to be victorious in the next elections) changed from “funny/stupid” to “officially no longer funny.”

The issue of exhumations has often threatened to derail ties between Kyiv and Warsaw, a staunch backer of Ukraine in its war against Russia.

Cooperation with Warsaw on the exhumations of victims killed in a WWII massacre remains a priority for Kyiv, the Ukrainian ambassador to Poland has said, amid efforts to turn a new page on a dark chapter of history.

“Both Ukraine and Poland need to say ‘sorry’ to each other if we want to build a shared future,” said Vasyl Bodnar, who has been serving as Kyiv’s envoy to Warsaw since October.

There is much talk about upcoming negotiations to put an end to the war. But is a cease-fire In Ukraine’s best interest… or merely lipstick on a Trojan horse?

On Feb. 24, 2022, Russia began its war against the US, Europe, and much of the democratic world. Very few had taken notice of that war’s scope even though its intent was (prematurely) published and then retracted two days earlier in RIA Novosti, a state-owned news agency. Petr Akopov, the article’s author (“Russia’s Attack and the New World”), is a well-connected propagandist with sources inside the Russian National Security Council. He made it clear that the invasion of Ukraine was merely the “first dimension” against a “world order” allegedly dominated by the US and UK.

The author concluded that this “new era” would require a militarily imposed “unification” of the “totality of Great Russians, Belarusians, and ‘Little Russians’ (i.e., Ukrainians) into a ‘Russian world’” before the start of its “second dimension,” which requires a division of Europe and displacement of America’s role in it.

Humanitarian aid to Ukraine likely to be hit by the Trump executive order, but Zelensky says military aid has so far been spared.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Wednesday that US military assistance to Ukraine has not been suspended as part of a 90-day hold on foreign aid under US President Donald Trump.

Speaking at a joint press conference with Moldovan President Maia Sandu in Kyiv, Zelensky was asked whether a potential halt in US aid would impact Ukraine’s situation.

Zelensky, whose own country’s power grid has been battered by Russian air strikes, said that Ukraine was also prepared to send a delegation to the plant to optimize its output.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Saturday that Ukraine was prepared to send coal to fuel a major power plant in the Moldovan breakaway region of Transnistria, hit by an unprecedented energy crisis.

The territory, wedged between Ukraine and Moldova, has suffered heating and electricity cut-offs since the start of the year when a Kyiv-Moscow gas transit contract, which had allowed Russian gas to flow there, expired.

A presidential election will be held in Belarus on Sunday. Alexander Lukashenka, who has ruled the country as a dictator since 1994, wants to be confirmed for a seventh term.

Simulated democracy

Latvian Delfi comments on the upcoming election in Belarus:

A Ukrainian Navy Telegram post on Saturday shows a ship-mounted surface-to-air missile bringing down a Russian cruise missile attacking a Black Sea commercial seaport.

Overnight on Jan. 24-25 Russia launched another major combined missile and drone attack on several regions within Ukraine, including the capital Kyiv, that involved more than 60 aerial weapons.

One of the locations attacked was the commercial Black Sea port of Pivdennyi which is one of Ukraine’s focuses for the export of grain and other essential goods. This importance has made it a recurring target of Russian military actions.

Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post’s military correspondent, shares his perspective on recent developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.

Sometimes the big trends that probably no one person can stop are best illustrated by factoids that, by themselves, are just boring but taken into context are pretty funny.

If this keeps up then it’s inflection point time

Zelensky said in Kyiv that talks to end the war should be held between the United States, the EU, Ukraine and Russia.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky on Saturday said allies should work towards determining a format for any upcoming peace talks with Russia and that Kyiv must be involved for successful negotiations.

His comments are the latest to pile speculation over the possibility of talks to end the brutal conflict that has cost tens of thousands of lives after almost three years of fighting.

After a two-year break due to the Russian invasion, DakhaBrakha, which has been around for two decades, resumed touring.

Ukraine’s DakhaBrakha ensemble starts the performance at the Parisian Cabaret Sauvage venue with the greeting “Good evening from free Ukraine,” before singer Marko Halanevych, cellist Nina Garenetska, keyboarder Iryna Kovalenko and percussionist Olena Tsybulska launch into the evening’s program.

With identical traditional peasant blouses and layers of necklaces, the group’s three women could pass for sisters. Their tall black hats resembling stove pipes, however, are just a fun prop with no actual roots in Ukrainian folklore.

More than 150,000 Ukrainians had entered the US under the program

Officials from the US Department of Homeland Security have ordered the suspension of a number of programs that allowed immigrants to temporarily settle in the country, including a key initiative that provides entry for Ukrainians.

This was reported by The New York Times, citing a directive contained in an email sent by a senior official of the US Citizenship and Immigration Services and which the publication obtained, Ukrinform reports.

After the fall of the Assad regime in December 2024, Syria’s new leadership canceled Russia’s lease at the Tartus naval base - its only major overseas military port.

Kyiv Post exclusive interview with Tetiana Nikolaenko, a former investigative journalist and long-term member of the public Anti-Corruption Council.

Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense of Ukraine again finds itself in hot water after its head, Rustem Umerov, dismissed another deputy Friday and skipped on renewing a contract with the Defense Procurement Agency – an independent agency set up to buy weapons on Ukraine’s behalf to mitigate corruption risks.

Over the past two years, Ukraine’s Ministry of Defense has repeatedly come under the public eye for corruption scandals involving buying supplies at inflated prices – from eggs to winter coats.

The WSJ “exclusive” report that President Trump was preparing to halt funding for research into virulent viruses saw pro-Russian disinformation channels switching to top gear.

The Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported on Thursday that US President Donald Trump was preparing an executive order that would stop US funding for research into how viruses are made more virulent or contagious. The moratorium is intended to assess whether the current levels of safety and oversight of scientific experiments that modify viruses in secure labs is adequate.

Olga Lautman, through her Disinformation Tracker substack, drew attention to the response of pro-Kremlin and other conspiracy theory bloggers to the news on Friday.

Solidarity, the gas crisis in Moldova, and EU accession on the agenda.

Moldovan President Maia Sandu arrived in Kyiv on Saturday morning for a working visit to hold talks with Ukrainian officials and reaffirm Moldova’s support for Ukraine.

In a post on X, Sandu confirmed her arrival, stating she would discuss a range of issues with President Volodymyr Zelensky.

Azerbaijan has publicly stated that Russian air defenses shot down the plan, but Moscow has refused responsibility.

“I heard a loud explosion, the oxygen masks fell down and the plane shook,” Rinat Assanov told AFP, recalling the moment the Azerbaijan Airlines plane he was on ran into trouble over southern Russia.

The plane, flying from the Azerbaijani capital of Baku to Grozny in Russia’s Chechnya, crashed hundreds of kilometers (miles) to the east, near the Kazakh city of Aktau, killing 38 of the 67 passengers on board. 

While support for Ukraine is not in question, welfare paid in Poland is.

Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk favours cutting benefits for refugees and migrants living and working in Poland, including Ukrainians - a proposal first put forward by the opposition PiS party.

While PiS has already submitted its proposal to parliament, Tusk said the government will “urgently” look into the proposal, which was also put forward by his party’s presidential candidate Rafał Trzaskowski, the incumbent mayor of Warsaw, at a rally on Thursday.

Putin praised Trump, calling him a “smart” leader and saying he could have prevented “the conflict” in Ukraine.

Ukrainian leader Volodymyr Zelensky on Friday warned that Russian autocrat Vladimir Putin wanted to “manipulate” Donald Trump, after the Kremlin chief praised the US leader and said he was ready for talks with him. 

Kyiv earlier warned against any Putin-Trump peace talks on the near three-year war without its and European participation. 

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• As of mid-January 2025, Democratic People’s Republic of Korea (DPRK) forces had highly likely sustained around 4,000 casualties in offensive combat operations against Ukrainian forces in Kursk oblast, Russia. Of these, approximately a quarter were killed in action.
• The total casualties amount to more than a third of the approximately 11,000 DRPK combat troops deployed to the Kursk region. The high rate of DPRK losses in a short time period has almost certainly significantly deteriorated DPRK forces capacity to conduct offensive combat operations in support of Russia’s attempts to push Ukrainian forces out of Kursk.
• Despite significant combat casualties, DPRK troops have only achieved tactical gains in Kursk. Russian and DPRK forces are almost certainly experiencing interoperability difficulties. The two forces do not share a common language and DPRK troops almost certainly have difficulties integrating into Russia’s command-and-control structure.

All of Lukashenko’s opponents are in prison or in exile and any form of criticism against Lukashenko is banned in Belarus.

Wearing a black beanie hat and glasses, Belarusian engineer Vladimir Labanov said he will cast his vote this weekend for the man that has led his Moscow-allied country since long before he was born: Alexander Lukashenko.

Labanov, 24, credits the autocrat – in power since 1994 – for keeping “order” in the reclusive state, believing that if 2020 mass protests had toppled Lukashenko, Belarus would have suffered the same fate as Ukraine. 

China became the major supplier of computer numerical control (CNC) machines and components for Russia after 2022, but Switzerland was not far behind.

Russia purchased over 22,000 computer numerical control (CNC) machines and components worth $18.2 billion from abroad since 2023, as per recent research.

The total includes more than 10,000 CNC machines worth $403 million and more than $4 billion worth of machine tools, United24 media reported, citing research conducted by the Economic Security Council, a Ukrainian NGO.

Nine apartments and six vehicles were reportedly damaged

Two apartment blocks in the Kyiv region were damaged in a Russian drone strike early Saturday, the Kyiv Region Police Department reported.

At 8:05 a.m., authorities reported that the attack caused damage to nine apartments and six vehicles across two districts. In addition, a fire broke out at an enterprise facility, spanning 600 square meters. Firefighters were able to contain and extinguish the blaze.

Do you know the key events that shaped the war in Ukraine this week? Stay up-to-date with Kyiv Post’s latest quiz covering the most significant stories from the last seven days.

From battlefield breakthroughs to debunking misinformation, Ukraine’s war effort continues to make headlines. 

In an open letter, several hundred psychiatrists and psychologists expressed concern about the current climate, calling on the 60-year-old prime minister to consider stepping down.

Tens of thousands of people protested across Slovakia Friday evening, as anger grows over nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico’s push for closer ties with Russia.

Some 40,000 to 60,000 people took to the streets of the capital, Bratislava, according to organizers, and in 20 other cities across the country, calling for Fico to resign.

Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.

Key Takeaways from the ISW:

• Russian President Vladimir Putin is once again attempting to obfuscate his unwillingness to participate in good-faith negotiations to end the war by blaming Ukraine for defending itself against Russia’s invasion and illegal annexation of Ukrainian territory.
• Zelensky signed the decree in September 2022 banning negotiations with Putin in direct response to Putin’s illegal annexation of four regions in eastern and southern Ukraine and after months of negotiations in which Russia continued to demand Ukraine’s full capitulation.
• However, Zelensky has consistently signaled his willingness to negotiate with Russia and make certain compromises in pursuit of peace following the 2022 decree banning formal negotiations with Putin.
• Putin meanwhile continues to signal to both his domestic and global audiences that he is not interested in peace short of his full demands and remains committed to Ukraine’s complete capitulation.
• Putin is attempting to leverage the 2022 decree as a strawman to hide the reality of his disinterest in negotiations and to sow discord between Ukraine and its Western allies.
• Putin also attempted to position himself as Trump’s equal during his interview, reinforcing his long-held belief that Russia is the great-power heir to the Soviet Union.
• Putin demonstrated that he is worried about the effect that lower oil prices would have on his domestic stability and ability to wage his war in Ukraine.
• The Kremlin is attempting to revive its information operation aimed at deterring the US and other Western states from providing further military assistance to Ukraine.
• The Kremlin is framing the new 2025 Union State Security Concept as completely superseding the original 1999 Security Concept, indicating that this new agreement may be more expansive than the original and will further forward the Kremlin’s effort to annex Belarus.
• Ukrainian forces conducted a large series of drone strikes against Russian defense industrial enterprises and oil refineries on the night of January 23 to 24 as part of an ongoing strike series aimed at degrading Russian military capacity.
• Russian forces recently advanced in Kursk Oblast and near Chasiv Yar, Toretsk, Pokrovsk, Kurakhove, and Velyka Novosilka.
• Ukrainian forces recently recaptured lost positions near Toretsk.

VP Vance casts tie-breaking vote to name Trump loyalist Pete Hegseth as defense secretary in the narrowest-ever Pentagon confirmation. His inexperience and Ukraine stance raise concern for some.

US Vice President JD Vance cast a tie-breaking vote in the Senate to confirm former Fox News host Peter Hegseth as the US secretary of defense late Friday night, despite allegations of alcohol abuse, sexual misconduct and other fears about his ability to lead the world’s most powerful military. 

Three Republican senators voted against President Donald Trump’s pick as secretary of defense, resulting in a 50-50 tie that required Vance to cast the deciding ballot – only the second time in history a vice president has had to intervene to save a cabinet nominee.