Ukraine Update Day 1,026….European Countries working on post War ‘Troops on the Ground’…

4/6/2025

• French president Emmanuel Macron on Sunday called for “strong action” if Russia continued “to refuse peace”, days after a Russian ballistic missile killed 20 people, including nine children, in Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s home town. Despite US and European efforts to secure peace in Ukraine, Russia continued “to murder children and civilians”, Macron said. “My thoughts are with the children and all civilian victims of the bloody attacks carried out by Russia, including on 4 April in Kryvyi Rih,” Macron said on X. “A ceasefire is needed as soon as possible. And strong action if Russia continues to try to buy time and refuse peace.” Macron said that even though Ukraine accepted US president Donald Trump’s proposal for a complete ceasefire and European countries were also working to secure peace, “Russia is continuing the war with renewed intensity, with no regard for civilians.”

• Ukraine’s president said Russian attacks were launched on Sunday from the Black Sea, showing why Moscow is refusing to agree to an unconditional ceasefire: “they want to preserve their ability to strike our cities and ports from the sea.” Zelenskyy said a ceasefire at sea was key for overall security and bringing peace closer and suggested Vladimir Putin does not want to end the war, adding: “He is looking for ways to preserve the option of reigniting it at any moment, with even greater force.”

• Zelenskyy said on Sunday that Russia was increasing its aerial bombardment after its forces mounted a “massive” missile and drone attack on Ukraine overnight, killing two people. “The pressure on Russia is still insufficient,” the Ukrainian president added.

• It would be unsafe for Russia to restart the occupied Zaporizhzhia nuclear plant and would take Ukraine up to two years in peacetime if it regained control, the chief executive of the company that runs the site has said. Petro Kotin, chief executive of Energoatom, said “major problems” to overcome included insufficient cooling water, personnel and incoming electricity supply. The future of the Zaporizhzhia plant, Europe’s largest nuclear reactor, is a significant aspect of any negotiations to end the war in Ukraine….

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4/5/2025

• At least three people were injured and several fires broke out in Kyiv early on Sunday after a Russian missile attack, the mayor and military administration of the Ukrainian capital said. All of Ukraine was under air alerts as of 0200 GMT after the country’s air force warned of an attack including on regions bordering Poland, forcing the Nato member to scramble aircraft to ensure air safety. Fires were recorded in at least three districts of Kyiv, mayor Vitali Klitschko said in a Telegram post. Medics hospitalised two civilians in the Darnytskyi district on the eastern bank of the Dnipro River that splits the city, he added. “Do not leave shelters!” Klitschko said.

• The scale of the attack was not immediately clear. There were also no reports of strikes or damage in western Ukrainian regions that border Poland.
  Poland has been on high alert for objects entering its airspace since a stray Ukrainian missile struck the southern Polish village of Przewodow in 2022, killing two people. It scrambles jets each time Russia launches missiles targeting Ukrainian regions close to it.

• The attack comes after an earlier Russian attack killed at least 18 people including nine children in the Ukrainian city of Kryvyi Rih, the home town of the Ukrainian president, Volodymyr Zelenskyy. The Ukrainian leader expressed disappointment in the US embassy’s response to the Russian missile strike on Kryvyi Rih. Zelenskyy, who has been cautious about openly criticising Washington since an uneasy White House meeting with Donald Trump in February, wrote on X that several embassies in Kyiv had condemned Friday’s attack and singled out Russia for carrying it out.

• Zelenskyy noted that the message from the US embassy made no reference to Russia in condemning the attack. “Unfortunately, the response from the U.S. Embassy is surprisingly disappointing – such a strong country, such a strong people, and yet such a weak reaction,” Zelenskyy wrote in English. “They are afraid to even say the word ‘Russian’ when speaking about the missile that murdered children.”

• The US ambassador to Ukraine, Bridget Brink, wrote about the strike in a post on X: “Horrified that tonight a ballistic missile struck near a playground and restaurant in Kryvyi Rih. More than 50 people injured and 16 killed, including 6 children. This is why the war must end.” Under Trump, the US has moved to improve relations with Russia, a shift from the approach of his predecessor, Joe Biden. Zelenskyy has made efforts to smooth over relations with Trump since the Oval Office altercation and has praised US efforts to work towards a settlement of the three-year-old war with Russia.

Eighteen people killed in Russian missile strike on Zelenskyy’s home city

• The death toll from the Kryvyi Rih strike has risen to 18, including nine children, the regional governor, Serhii Lysak, said on Saturday. The Russian defence ministry claimed on Friday it had carried out a precision missile strike with a high explosive warhead on a restaurant where a meeting had taken place with unit commanders and western instructors.

• Zelenskyy met the leaders of the British and French armed forces in Kyiv on Saturday to discuss the potential deployment of a multinational peacekeeping force to Ukraine, despite the reluctance of US president Trump to provide security guarantees. Zelenskyy hailed “tangible progress” after the discussion, writing on social media that the meeting with British chief of the defence staff Tony Radakin and French counterpart Thierry Burkhard had discussed “the first details on how the security contingent of partners can be deployed”, without giving details. The French president, Emmanuel Macron, and the British prime minister, Keir Starmer, are spearheading European efforts to send what they call a “reassurance force” to Ukraine after any end to the war.

• “We continue our discussions on long-term support for the Ukrainian people,” Macron said on X on Saturday. “First, for their army, which is – and will remain – their first line of defence; and second, on a possible reassurance force, deployed behind the line of contact to deter any renewed Russian aggression.” Zelenskyy thanked “the UK and France for their leadership”, saying “it is this kind of joint work, when everyone is focused on a strong result, that helps to bring a reliable and lasting peace to Ukraine”. This is one of the latest efforts by European leaders to agree on a coordinated policy after Trump sidelined them and opened direct talks with the Kremlin.

• The Trump administration has apologised after saying it accidentally informed some Ukrainian refugees fleeing the Russian invasion that they needed to leave the US because their legal status was being revoked, Edward Helmore reports. About 240,000 Ukrainians have been settled in the US as part of the Uniting for Ukraine – or U4U – program launched during Joe Biden’s presidency. But according to CBS News, some resettled Ukrainians received emails this week telling them that the US Department of Homeland Security would be terminating their legal protections.

• Meanwhile, a US neo-Nazi terrorist group with a Russia-based leader is calling for targeted assassinations and attacks on the critical infrastructure of Ukraine in an effort to destabilise the country as it carries out ceasefire negotiations with the Kremlin, Ben Makuch reports. The Base, which has a web of cells all over the world, was founded in 2018 and became the subject of a FBI counter-terrorism investigation that led to several arrests and several countries designating it as a terrorist organisation. Now, with the Trump administration pulling the FBI from pursuing the far right, the Base, left unchecked, is trying to export its violence.

• Russian forces launched 92 drones into Ukraine overnight, with 51 shot down by air defences, the Ukrainian air force wrote on social media on Saturday. A further 31 decoy drones also failed…

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ISW…4/6/2025…Russian Offensive Campaign Assessment, April 6, 2025

• The rate of Russian advances in Ukraine has been steadily declining since November 2024, in part due to successful Ukrainian counterattacks in eastern Ukraine.
• Russian forces conducted the largest series of missile and drone strikes against Ukraine in nearly a month on the night of April 5 and 6.
• Ukrainian officials highlighted the fact that Russia is leveraging its naval vessels in the Black Sea to conduct missile strikes against Ukraine as Russia continues to stall the Black Sea moratorium on military operations that Ukraine and the United States have jointly proposed.
• The Kremlin is attempting to portray Ukraine as consistently violating the proposed temporary ceasefire on strikes against energy infrastructure without providing evidence, in stark contrast to the pattern of Russian reporting about successful Ukrainian strikes against Russian energy infrastructure prior to the ceasefire proposal.
• Ukrainian forces recently advanced near Borova, and Russian forces recently advanced in Kursk and Sumy oblasts and near Kupyansk, Toretsk, Pokrovsk, and Kurakhove

Daily Kos grunt report for today….

Russian military is firing on it’s OWN troops …..

’Shoot them’ — Russian commander ordered troops to open fire on their comrades, intercepted call suggests. Intercepted calls released by Ukraine’s military intelligence (HUR) suggest a Russian commander losing his temper and ordering soldiers to shoot at their own comrades in a neighboring unit.