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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 05-19-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
European leaders earlier called for more sanctions on Moscow to pressure it into complying with an unconditional ceasefire.
Berlin said Europe is ready to “increase pressure” on Russia via sanctions after US President Donald Trump briefed European leaders on his Monday phone call with Russian President Vladimir Putin.
Berlin also said the US has agreed to “tightly coordinate” talks on Ukraine with its European partners, according to AFP, citing the call readout for the discussions between Trump and the European leaders provided by German Chancellor Friedrich Merz’s spokesperson.
US President Donald Trump mentioned the Vatican as a potential location for the Kyiv-Moscow direct ceasefire talks, hours after Vice President JD Vance and top diplomat Rubio met with the Pope.
The US announced on Monday that Russia and Ukraine will “immediately” begin negotiations on a ceasefire, mentioning the Vatican as a potential location for the talks.
The White House said US President Donald Trump spoke with Russian President Vladimir Putin for about two hours, after speaking with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky earlier in the day. In response to Kyiv Post’s questions, a State Department official confirmed in the background that Trump also spoke with European leaders without offering further details.
The US president said Moscow and Kyiv would start working towards a ceasefire deal, and his tone suggests that more sanctions on Moscow are unlikely at present.
US President Donald Trump said Kyiv and Moscow would start working towards a ceasefire bilaterally after his Monday phone call with Russian leader Vladimir Putin.
Prior to the call, Trump was expected to urge Putin to accept a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Kyiv, following a White House statement that Trump was “weary and frustrated” with the slow pace of efforts to end the war in Ukraine.
The leaders held a much-anticipated phone call to discuss ending the war in Ukraine amid signs that the US leader is growing increasingly impatient with Moscow.
Russian leader Vladimir Putin said Moscow is open to a ceasefire memorandum with Kyiv but stopped short of agreeing to the unconditional ceasefire requested after his Monday call with US President Donald Trump.
The Trump–Putin call was seen as a follow-up to Friday’s Istanbul talks, where Ukraine and Russia reached a prisoner exchange deal but Moscow rejected a ceasefire.
The Japanese tech giant has reportedly taken steps to crack down on Russian accounts registered in other countries to skirt earlier restrictions.
Sony has reportedly begun to remove new PlayStation accounts associated with Russian users who are registered in several countries, including India, Turkey and Ukraine.
According to a Sunday Telegram post from Russian outlet Mash, online PlayStation forums are full of complaints from Russian users about losing access to their accounts.
Authoritarian regimes are cracking. Thor Halvorssen joins Jason Jay Smart to explain why 2025 could be the year the dominoes fall – from Russia to Iran.
As authoritarian regimes face mounting pressure across the globe, leading human rights advocate Thor Halvorssen joins political analyst and Kyiv Post special correspondent Jason Jay Smart to deliver an exciting analysis of what may come next – perhaps in the very near future.
Halvorssen – president of the Human Rights Foundation and founder of the Oslo Freedom Forum – asserts that from Russia to Iran, dictatorships are weakening under the weight of internal dissent, international sanctions, and rising global resistance.
Trump had held out the possibility of joining Russia-Ukraine peace talks in Istanbul last week if there was a chance of meeting Putin, but the Russian leader was a no-show.
Donald Trump spoke with Russia’s Vladimir Putin on Monday as the US president seeks a breakthrough to end the grinding conflict triggered by Moscow’s 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
Trump is pinning his hopes on a fresh personal appeal to Putin to get the Kremlin leader to agree to a 30-day unconditional ceasefire with Kyiv.
Multiple reports originating from Ukraine’s presidential office said US President Donald Trump held an unexpected phone call with President Volodymyr Zelensky.
US President Donald Trump called President Volodymyr Zelensky before talking to Russian leader Vladimir Putin on Monday, reports claim.
The phone call was unexpected as Trump was scheduled to have a call with Putin at 5 p.m., then with Zelensky and Western leaders later.
The case follows a string of similar incidents in which Ukraine accused Russia of recruiting locals to manufacture and deliver explosive devices against government institutions.
Ukraine is said to have arrested a 17-year-old teenager in Kyiv who had been tasked by Moscow to blow up a local military recruitment center.
The incident followed a series of similar cases in which locals were reportedly recruited by Russian intelligence agents to place bombs near government institutions or in public spaces – at times intentionally blowing up their unsuspecting dupe in the process.
As Russia’s so-called Victory Day ceasefire fizzled, Kyiv Post visited an AFU drone team near Pokrovsk to see how fiber-optic coils and AI tools are being used to outsmart Russian jamming.
A veteran combat commander, with two medals for valor, led an attack unit in the 47th Brigade, a hand-picked unit armed with US-made Bradley fighting vehicles and Abrams tanks, quit on Saturday.
A field commander decorated for bravery and serving in one of Ukrainian Ground Force’s premier assault units quit his job on Saturday because, he said, the orders military leadership has been giving him are stupid and they are getting his men killed for no reason.
“I have never received more stupid missions than in the current sector (Russia’s Kursk region),” said Maj. Oleksandr Shirshyn in a rare public criticism of Ukraine’s Armed Forces (AFU) senior leadership by a fighting officer.
Zelensky congratulates Romania’s new president Nicușor Dan after his defeat against far-right candidate George Simion.
President Volodymyr Zelensky congratulated Romania’s newly elected President Nicușor Dan on Monday, May 19, after Dan’s victory in Sunday’s presidential election run-off.
Zelensky called for more cooperation between Bucharest and Kyiv in the call, according to his Telegram update.
Exclusive Kyiv Post interview with Moshe Asman – chief rabbi of Ukraine, who was born in the same city as Vladimir Putin, but has been connected all his life with Ukraine and its Jewish community
Russia claimed to be planning the launch of a Yars ICBM which many said was to intimidate Ukraine and the West – but the missile never left the ground, and no videos or flight data emerged.
Russia reportedly failed to launch its RS-24 Yars intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) early Monday morning, May 19, despite previous announcements of a planned “training and combat” launch.
On Sunday, Ukraine’s Main Intelligence Directorate (HUR) reported on Telegram that Russia planned the launch to exert pressure on Ukraine, the EU, and NATO member states. The missile was expected to carry an inert warhead and was said to have a flight range exceeding 10,000 kilometers (6,250 miles).
The process of loading the first of 49 vehicles onto a cargo ship has begun, but for security reasons, the government is not disclosing their current location or expected arrival date in Europe.
The first of the 49 M1A1 Abrams tanks pledged to Ukraine by the Australian government are already on their way to the country.
That is according to the Australian news outlet ABC News, Ukrinform reports.
Discussions at recent Estonian security conference highlighted that many attendees want to overcome disappointment about levels of Western support for Ukraine and move on.
The annual Lennart Meri Conference took place in Tallinn, May 16-18. It attracted an impressive number of European and American intellectuals and officials, though eastern and northern Europe dominated. The main topic was Ukrainian security, and the theme of the conference was “We shall go forward together” – but many participants asked whether that was really the case.
In his many statements on the war in Ukraine US President Donald Trump has done his best to avoid criticizing Russian President Vladimir Putin. He has declared that no ceasefire could be achieved in Ukraine unless he and the Russian leader meet and plans that they should talk by phone on Monday, May 19 – although the US no longer plays any role in this war.
Where do things stand after a flurry of diplomatic activity following last week’s Istanbul debacle and as we await Trump’s phone call to Putin.
For Ukraine, the situation, or rather the diplomatic atmosphere, appears to have improved over the past 10 days.
A coalition of the voluntary committed supporters of Ukraine, along with the most prominent European leaders, the new Pope, Turkey, and, in its own way, China, have intensified the pressure on Putin to agree to a serious ceasefire, and on Trump to stop appeasing and in effect condoning the Russian war criminal.
Putin answered Trump’s question concerning whether or not a deal was possible – no. The question now is – what does “proceed accordingly” mean?
Last Sunday, during a press conference at the Kremlin, Russian President Vladimir Putin announced he had rejected a European ultimatum for a ceasefire, but proposed to hold “direct negotiations without any preconditions” with Ukraine on May 15 in Istanbul.
President Donald Trump quickly chimed in stating, “President Putin of Russia doesn’t want to have a Cease Fire Agreement with Ukraine, but rather wants to meet on Thursday, in Turkey, to negotiate a possible end to the BLOODBATH. Ukraine should agree to this, IMMEDIATELY. At least they will be able to determine whether or not a deal is possible, and if it is not, European leaders, and the U.S., will know where everything stands, and can proceed accordingly!”
A Sweden-based aviation tracking service reported on Saturday that a US RQ-4B Global Hawk surveillance drone had made the first flight over the Black Sea area in nearly a year.
Data from the Stockholm-based aviation tracking service Flightradar24 reported on Saturday, May 17, that a US RQ-4B Global Hawk strategic reconnaissance drone had made a new flight in the Black Sea area.
The data showed that the unmanned aircraft, call sign Forte10, flew from NATO’s Sigonella naval air base in Sicily and conducted reconnaissance near the Romanian coast at an altitude of about 15,500 meters (51,000 feet) around 130 kilometers (80 miles) from Crimea.
The shipment, which was falsely declared to be truck and bus tires, was intercepted at a border crossing with Belarus during a routine inspection.
Polish customs officials have seized five metric tons of Boeing aircraft tires destined for Russia, Poland’s National Revenue Administration (KAS) said on Monday.
The shipment, which was falsely declared to be truck and bus tires, was intercepted in the eastern village of Koroszczyn at a border crossing with Belarus during a routine inspection.
SBU hits Russian radars and supply depots on Black Sea gas rigs using air and sea drones in a coordinated strike dubbed a model of “paired” drone warfare.
The Security Service of Ukraine (SBU) carried out a bold strike against Russian military assets on gas production platforms in the Black Sea, destroying radar systems, storage facilities, and living quarters using a combination of air and sea drones.
In a video shared on Telegram, the SBU said its forces are continuing to conduct special operations aimed at clearing the Black Sea of Russian personnel, their equipment, and military infrastructure.
The Russians carried out nearly 10 strikes using guided aerial bombs and dropped explosive ordnance from drones more than 60 times, alongside launching a missile attack.
During the day, from the morning of May 18 to the morning of May 19, the Russian army struck 135 times in Sumy region, causing casualties, two people were wounded.
According to Ukrinform, this was reported by the Sumy Regional Military Administration in Telegram.
Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.
Putin believes Russian forces will seize four Ukrainian regions by year-end, ahead of a call with Trump, who faces pressure from allies not to rush a deal.
Russian President Vladimir Putin is heading into Monday’s call with US President Donald Trump believing that Russian forces will fully capture the four Ukrainian regions he claims as Russian territory – Donetsk, Luhansk, Zaporizhia, and Kherson – by the end of 2025.
According to a Bloomberg report citing a source familiar with Putin’s thinking, “Putin is confident that his forces can break through Ukraine’s defenses by the end of the year to take full control of four regions that he has claimed for Russia.” The source requested anonymity to discuss private conversations.
Trump to speak with Putin on Monday, urging a Ukraine ceasefire after failed Istanbul talks, “where the Russians sent a low-level delegation with no decision-making powers.”
US President Donald Trump will speak with Russian President Vladimir Putin on Monday, part of what he called a renewed push to end the war in Ukraine.
According to AFP, the announcement follows last week’s direct talks between Ukrainian and Russian delegations in Istanbul- the first in nearly three years. Those negotiations ended without agreement on a ceasefire, with both sides trading barbs. Ukraine accused Moscow of sending a “dummy” delegation of low-ranking officials.
According to the HUR, Russian special services have been pushing “false and manipulative content” on social media platforms since March in an attempt to influence Polish voters.
Russia has intensified its information war against Poland in the run-up to the country’s presidential election, spreading fake news about the government’s policies and the EU, Ukraine’s military intelligence agency (HUR) said on Sunday.
The agency said Russian special services have been pushing “false and manipulative content” on social media platforms since March in an attempt to influence Polish voters.
Von der Leyen told J.D. Vance they shared a desire for a just, lasting peace in Ukraine and thanked him for his efforts to help end the war in Ukraine.
European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen believes that this week will be decisive in creating the conditions to end Russia’s war against Ukraine.
She made this statement on Sunday during a trilateral meeting in Rome with Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni and U.S. Vice President J.D. Vance, according to Ukrinform, citing the European Commission’s press service.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
“Mass political repression in the USSR, especially in the period of the ‘Great Terror’ (1937-1938) have become one of the most tragic pages of the history of Ukraine,” Ministry of Culture remembers.
On Sunday, May 18, Ukraine marked the Day of Remembrance of Victims of Political Repression, the Ministry of Culture and Strategic Communications reminded Ukrainians on social media.
A victory for the mayor would boost the centrist government led by former EU leader Donald Tusk. The nationalists have charged the country’s one million Ukrainians of taking advantage of Poland.
Pro-EU Warsaw mayor Rafal Trzaskowski was set to face nationalist historian Karol Nawrocki in Poland’s presidential runoff on June 1, an exit poll showed after the first round, as the far-right made record advances.
An overall victory for Trzaskowski would be a boost for the centrist government led by former European Union leader Donald Tusk, which has been at loggerheads with the current nationalist president.
“In today’s elections a community of Romanians who want a profound change in Romania won,” the 55-year-old said.
Pro-EU Bucharest mayor Nicusor Dan, who won Sunday’s tense presidential vote in Romania, campaigned on a slogan of change, saying he wants to “rebuild” the Eastern European country.
The former math prodigy gained 54 percent compared to 46 percent by nationalist George Simion, who had topped the May 4 first round of voting in the EU and NATO member bordering war-torn Ukraine.
In her first big interview since leaving her post in April, Bridget Brink warns that the Trump team is giving Russia too much leeway in negotiations, “putting pressure on the victim” instead.
On Sunday, the former US Ambassador to Ukraine explained on CBS News why she had left her post in Kyiv and the dangers of letting Kremlin strongman Vladimir Putin call all the shots.
“I resigned from Ukraine and also from the Foreign Service, because the policy since the beginning of the administration was to put pressure on the victim, Ukraine, rather than on the aggressor, Russia,” Brink told her interviewer on the weekly “Face the Nation” program.
