There is no good news for theUkraine And not only from the battlefield. The United States by Donald Trump have in fact announced one reduction of funds allocated for military assistance to Kiev in the next defense budget. The confirmation came from the secretary of the US defense Pete Hegseth in an audition to the congress: “This is a reduction of this budget. This administration has a very different vision of this conflict. We believe that a peaceful and negotiated solution is in the best interest of both sides and our nation, especially considering all the conflicting interests all over the world”. The Pentagon has not yet published the complete documentation relating to the 2026 budget. According to Hegseth, the outstanding budget “provides a historical level of funding for military readiness, putting the fighters (US) and their needs first. Hegseth did not reveal details on the extent of the cuts to funding for Ukraine. A cold shower for Zelensky, because his country will soon have to deal with a reduced ability of weapons.
As for the war on the field, one New wave of Russian raids He hit Ukraine in between Monday and Tuesday, with missile attacks and drones who targeted several cities, including Kiev and Odessa. The temporary balance is at least three dead and thirteen injured. Among the objectives also a neonatal hospital in the port city, as well as civil infrastructures damaged in several areas. The Ukrainian president denounced the intensification of bombings as “one of the greatest attacks against Kiev” since the beginning of the invasion, and has addressed a direct appeal to the United States and to European partners to adopt “concrete actions” against Russia.
The answer of Brussels It arrived in a close tour. The European Commission has announced the content of the 18th package of sanctions against Moscow, currently at the exam of the Member States. Among the proposed measures, the stop stands to each transaction linked to the North Stream 1 and 2 gas pipelines and a lowering of the Price Cap on Russian oil from 60 to 45 dollars per barrel – a value lower than that of the market, designed to reduce the revenues of the Kremlin and hinder the financing of the war.
“Russia does not seek peace, but wants to impose itself by force,” said the president of the European Commission, Ursula von der leyenpresenting the new measures. The roof at the price of oil, he explained, needs to be reviewed since “the price of crude oil has fallen and the effectiveness of the current level is questioned”. According to Brussels, oil exports still constitute a third of Russian public revenues.
Particularly significant the Measures on the banking front. The Commission proposes to extend the total prohibition of transaction to 22 other Russian banks, going beyond the simple blocking of access to the Swift system. “The goal is to further weaken the ability of the Russian financial system to support the war effort,” reads an official note.
Also i pipeline North Stream – today not operational – end up in the sights: Brussels wants to prevent them from being reactivated in the future, prohibiting any type of transaction by European subjects with the consortia involved. “We will not return to the past,” the commission remarked. In the evening the German chancellor Friedrich Merz also spoke, who condemned the Russian military operation hardly. “These attacks are terrorism against the civilian population, not a response proportionate to the targeted attacks by Ukraine against Russian military airports,” he said. According to Merz, “Russia really wanted to cause a bloodbath”.
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