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Hungary
17.04.2025 "It's shocking to see that while the entire world, including the Americas, Asia, and Africa, is in favor of peace returning to Europe, it is the European politicians going against peace,' says Hungarian top diplomat Szijjártó at a joint press conference with his Pakistani counterpart Dar, who is also the deputy prime minister, in the capital Islamabad. This attitude is "unacceptable," he remarked. He called on European politicians not to undermine US President Trump's efforts to restore peace in Central Europe. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
France
17/04/2025 US Secretary of State Rubio began talks in Paris today aimed at reviving stalled negotiations for a ceasefire in Ukraine and addressing growing tensions between the US and Europe. On his first official visit to France, Rubio met with French President Macron and Foreign Minister Barrot. He was accompanied by Witkoff, US President Trump’s special envoy for Ukraine and the Middle East. High-level Ukrainian officials and ministers also arrived in Paris for separate meetings with US officials and representatives from France, Germany, and the UK. French Defense Minister Lecornu is in Washington for talks with US Defense Secretary Hegseth. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Germany
(Tuesday), /04/15/2025 On Sunday, 'conservative' leader Merz advocated sending Taurus missiles to Ukraine in an interview with broadcaster ARD. He argued that the advanced weapons systems would allow Kyiv to disrupt Russian military supply lines, particularly those linked to Crimea. Russia rebuked the statement, with Kremlin spokesperson Peskov telling that European countries were 'further provoking the continuation of the war'. Taurus missiles, with a range of more than 500 kilometers, are known for their precision in striking fortified targets such as bridges and deeply buried command bunkers. Under the new coalition, the Social Democrats will retain the Defense Ministry, with Pistorius expected to continue as defense minister. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Greece
Monday 14 April 2025 Greece continues to procure defences. It has signed a new deal with France to purchase dozens of anti-ship missiles. The southeastern European nation has already bought two dozen Rafale warplanes and three Belharra-class frigates. In addition, Greece has said it will buy a fourth Belharra frigate and cruise missiles from France, as part of a 25-billion-euro defence plan by 2036. Speaking in Parliament earlier this month, Defense Minister Dendias said Greece plans to shift from traditional defence systems to a high-tech, networked strategy centred on mobile, Artificial Intelligence-powered missile systems, drone technologies, and advanced command units - reducing reliance on conventional fleets. Greece's modernisation drive – launched after years of defence cuts during the 2010-2018 financial crisis – already includes all branches of the armed forces and focuses on cooperation with France, Israel, and the United States. (Source: Independent - United Kingdom)
Poland
April 18, 2025 ’We want French nukes, Polish president says.’ In March, Polish Prime Minister Donald Tusk said Poland was ’talking seriously’ with France about the possibility. French President Macron has suggested extending France’s so-called nuclear umbrella over its European allies to the European Union’s eastern flank. With around 300 nuclear warheads, France is the only EU member country to possess such weapons, and one of three NATO members along with the U.S. and the U.K. ’I believe we can accept both solutions,’ Duda said in remarks published today about hosting both U.S. and French warheads on Polish soil. ’These two ideas are neither contradictory nor mutually exclusive.’ Poland and Denmark have previously expressed openness to the idea of sheltering under France’s nuclear protection. Warsaw has dramatically upscaled its conventional military in recent years, ’with its fighting force of 200,000 now the largest in the EU - and it hopes to build an army half a million strong in the coming years’. (Source: Politico - based in U.S., owned by a German company)
European Commission
April 15, 2025 Work has started on a 17th package of sanctions against Russia focusing on the shadow fleet and other elements, EU High Representative Kallas announced after the European Foreign Affairs Council, convened on 14 April in Luxembourg. It is clear that all the EU member states want peace, Kallas, 4, told journalists after the meeting. The EU is the biggest provider of military aid to Ukraine, but also the greatest supporter of the Ukrainian defence industry, as European countries have so far committed over €23 billion for military aid to Ukraine this year, according to the High Representative. The Council also touched on the training of Ukrainian soldiers through the EU Military Assistance Mission to Ukraine (EUMAM Ukraine), which has so far trained over 73,000 soldiers. As to the initiative on delivering two million rounds of ammunition to Ukraine, the High Representative announced that two-thirds of the target had already been reached, and that ’a large majority of member states’ agreed that the EU needed to do more. (Source: Eu Neighbours East – ’funded by the European Union’)
European Union
(15 April 2025) Germany is the largest extra-EU exporter of medicinal and pharmaceutical products, with €67.9 billion of exports recorded in 2024. Ireland, with €56.6 billion worth and Belgium, with €41.4 billion of exports, rank second and third. In 2024, the EU exported €313.4 billion worth of medicinal and pharmaceutical products, which was a 13.5% increase on the previous year. Imports saw an increase of 0.5% last year, totalling €119.7 billion. The main destination for extra-EU exports of medicinal and pharmaceutical products last year was the United States, which accounted for 38.2% of all exports outside the EU, or €119.8 billion. (Source: Europe-data - ?)
Russia
(Saturday), April 19, 2025 "Guided by humanitarian considerations, today from 18:00 to 00:00 from Sunday to Monday, the Russian side declares an Easter truce. I order that all military actions be stopped for this period," Putin said at a meeting with Chief of the General Staff Gerasimov. (Source: NPR - U.S.)
Ukraine
April 17, 2025 Towards the clinching of an agreement on developing minerals in Ukraine: "We are happy to announce the signing, with our American partners, of a Memorandum of Intent, which paves the way for an Economic Partnership Agreement and the establishment of the Investment Fund for the Reconstruction of Ukraine," Ukraine's first deputy prime minister and economy minister Svyrydenko wrote on the social media platform X. (Source: Reuters - United Kingdom)
Sat 12 Apr 2025 US and Ukrainian officials met yesterday to discuss White House proposals for a minerals deal. Trump last week complained Zelenskyy was trying to back out of an agreement and said Ukraine’s president would have big problems if he failed to sign. On Thursday, Zelenskyy said that Ukraine could only agree if there was parity between the two sides, with revenues split '50-50'. The latest US draft is more maximalist than the original version from February, which proposed giving Washington $500bn worth of rare metals, as well as oil and gas. The most recent document includes a demand that the US government’s International Development Finance Corporation take control of the natural gas pipeline in Ukraine used to send Russian gas to Europe. It runs from the town of Sudzha in western Russia to the city of Uzhhorod, about 1,200km away, on the border with the EU. Built in Soviet times, the pipeline is a key piece of infrastructure and a major energy route. On 1 January, Ukraine cut off the supply of gas when its five-year contract with the Russian state energy company Gazprom expired. It had previously earned hundreds of millions of euros in transit fees, including during the first three years of full-scale war. Landa, a senior economist with the Centre for Economic Strategy, a Kyiv thinktank, said the Americans’ demands had little chance of being accepted by Kyiv. The US Treasury confirmed technical talks were ongoing. (Source: The Guardian - United Kingdom)
(Saturday), Apr 12, 2025 US and Ukrainian officials met last Friday to discuss a US proposal for access to Ukraine's mineral wealth. But prospects for a breakthrough seemed slim due to the meeting's ’antagonistic’ atmosphere. Tension stemmed from the Trump administration's latest draft proposal being more extensive than the initial version. Despite these challenges, discussions were confirmed by a Treasury Department spokesperson who described them as "technical in nature." Lieutenant General Kellogg, Trump's envoy to Kyiv, has suggested a possible partitioning of the country similar to Berlin's division post-World War II. As Russia has still not agreed on a truce, Kellogg said Ukraine could be divided into zones of control. British and French troops would make up a reassurance force in the west, while Russian forces would take over the east, he envisioned. US officials have disclosed that more than 100 Chinese nationals are fighting for Russia against Ukraine. These are mercenaries with no direct connections to China's government. However, it was confirmed that Chinese military officers have been fighting the war behind Russian lines with Beijing's approval, in order to gain tactical lessons from the conflict. The United States President's special envoy, Witkoff, and Putin talked for over four hours, discussing aspects of a potential Ukrainian settlement. Ukraine's allies pledged a record $24 billion in additional military support for Kyiv. The meeting, attended by over 40 countries, was jointly convened by the UK and Germany, but the US did not attend in person. (Source: NewsBytes – India)
11.04.2025 Defense Minister Umerov announced today that Norway will provide €7 billion ($7.9 billion) in military aid to Ukraine in 2025, following a meeting with Norwegian Defense Minister Sandvik. (Source: Anadolu Agency - Turkey)
Europe
12 April 2025 Several European nations have been offering sobering guidance in recent months - envisioning garages and subway stations transformed into bunkers and promoting psychological resilience. Finland has been preparing for the possibility of a conflict with Russia for decades. Since the 1950s, the construction of bomb shelters under apartment blocks and office buildings has been mandatory. The state has been accelerating its state of readiness since Russia's full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022. Two years ago, prompted by Russia's war, the Finnish government took stock of its available emergency shelters, finding it had a total of 50,500 - which could shelter a possible 4.8 million people in a country of 5.6m. Helsinki's interior ministry also issued new crisis guidance in November, giving readers advice on how to prepare for long power cuts, water outages, telecommunications disruptions, extreme weather events and military conflict. Last June, Germany updated its Framework Directive for Overall Defence, giving directions on what to do should conflict break out in Europe. The document envisions the complete transformation of daily life for German citizens in the event of war. A preparedness booklet 'If the crisis or war comes' was distributed to households in Sweden in November. That leaflet instructs Swedes on how warnings would be issued in the event of war, including an outdoor alert system which it says is operational in most areas. 'Go indoors, close all windows and doors and, if possible, switch off the ventilation. Listen to Swedish public broadcaster Sveriges Radio, channel P4 for more information,' the pamphlet instructs. Specific advice is given to Swedish citizens regarding attacks using nuclear weapons, telling them: 'Radiation levels will lower drastically after a couple of days.' One overarching message is NATO Secretary-General Rutte’s who told security experts in Brussels in December: ’It is time to shift to a wartime mindset.’ The European Commission has urged all citizens to stockpile enough food and other essential supplies to sustain them for at least 72 hours in the event of a crisis in guidance released in March. How effective these contingency plans would really be, and will take civilians the guidance seriously? There remains no guarantee on how much attention individuals will pay to civilian protection guidance. The fine line is to increase preparedness without going into alarmism and catastrophising. In Finland - which lost territory to Russia during the Winter War in 1939-40 - and in the Baltic nations, which were annexed by the Soviet Union between 1940 and 1991, the threat from Russia is more embedded. ’They learned from history; nobody is going to help us. We have to do it on our own.’ In Portugal, Italy and the United Kingdom the threat from Russia is less present in the national consciousness. Italy is more concerned with the threat from terrorism and instability from fragile states close to the country's southern border. The mainland UK, an island nation, was last invaded by a foreign power in 1066, while for many countries in Western Europe, they were invaded during World War II. Living generations have less experience from which to draw on and its civilians may be less likely to take heed of any government advice. The civilian protection plans in the past, have even been met with ridicule. The British government’s pamphlet published in May 1980 included tips on how to build a makeshift fallout room in your home, including a so-called inner refuge to protect from radioactive dust. The UK government's advice to whitewash windows to help stop the spread of heat from a nuclear blast was one of the more comical suggestions. Civilians were instructed to 'coat windows inside with diluted emulsion paint of a light colour so that they will reflect away much of the heat flash, even if the blast which will follow is to shatter them'. The campaign became the subject of criticism for offering unrealistic advice and presenting a false sense of optimism in the face of nuclear annihilation. It was long satirised in British popular culture. The booklet was published at a time when there wasn't an imminent threat of attack. (Source: CNN - U.S.)
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