Trump, Russia and Ukraine are making progress

A new €200 million grant was announced to support the reconstruction of Ukraine, at a meeting between Ukrainian Deputy Prime Minister Oleksii Soboliev, French aid representative Pierre Heilbronn and French Development Agency director Rémy Rioux. Expanding on cooperation initiated under an intergovernmental agreement of the same amount signed in July 2024, the fund will finance projects in social housing, industrial development, private sector support and privatization processes.

The United Nations has praised recent exchanges of prisoners of war between Russia and Ukraine and called for their continuation, UN Deputy Secretary-General Miroslav Jenca said. "We welcome these exchanges and encourage their continuation so that all prisoners of war and detained civilians can soon return home," Jenca told a UN Security Council meeting on the conflict in Ukraine. He stressed that such initiatives bring closure to families experiencing "uncertainty" and free prisoners from difficult conditions.

"Today, the Russians once again openly and with absolute cynicism declared that they are 'not in the mood' for a ceasefire. Russia wants to wage war. Even brandishing some threats," Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said in his evening message on social media. "This means that either the pressure from the world is not yet strong enough, or they are trying with all their might to save face," he added, "well, the Russian economy is already collapsing. We will support this process even more. Ayatollah Putin can look at his friends in Iran to see where such regimes end up and to what extent they bring their country to degradation."

“Russia and Ukraine are making progress,” US President Donald Trump said in a statement to reporters.