Thursday, March 13
Russia’s war against Ukraine
Iryna Petrochenko, 50, looks out from a damaged apartment after a Russian missile strike on March 12, 2025 in Kryvyi Rih. The attack killed a 47-year-old woman and wounded at least 16 others. (Paula Bronstein/Getty Images)
Ukraine doesn’t trust Russia but wants to show readiness for peace, Zelensky says on ceasefire deal. “I have repeatedly stressed that none of us trust Russia… but we will not play with narratives that we want the war to continue,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said at a press conference.
Trump to invite Zelensky back to White House following Saudi talks. When asked if President Volodymyr Zelensky would be invited back to the White House, U.S. President Donald Trump responded, “Sure, absolutely.”
Ukraine, US to start discussing ceasefire details next week, Yermak says. “Next week, we have already agreed that at the technical expert level, the teams will start talking about all the details,” Presidential Office head Andriy Yermak said.
30-day ceasefire deal may be struck within days, Rubio says. “Here’s what we’d like the world to look like in a few days: Neither side is shooting at each other — not rockets, not missiles, not bullets, nothing, not artillery,” U.S. Secretary of State Marco Rubio said on March 12. “The shooting stops, the fighting stops, and the talking starts.”
Putin unlikely to accept 30-day ceasefire in Ukraine, Reuters reports. Any ceasefire agreement would have to take Russia’s battlefield advances into account and provide “guarantees” to Moscow, sources told Reuters.
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Russia reportedly enters Ukraine-held Sudzha in Kursk Oblast; military hasn’t confirmed. According to DeepState, Russian forces have entered the eastern part of Sudzha and are entrenching their positions.
Ukraine’s military ‘preserving maximum of lives of our soldiers’ in Kursk Oblast, Zelensky says. “The military command is doing what it should do, preserving the maximum lives of our soldiers,” President Volodymyr Zelensky said, urging a “sober” assessment of the battlefield situation.
Ukraine says it’s ready to fight in Kursk Oblast ‘as long as necessary,’ as Russia claims to retake over 86% of seized territories. Commander-in-Chief Oleksandr Syrskyi confirmed ongoing battles in the suburbs of Sudzha in Kursk Oblast and the surrounding areas.
Putin reportedly makes first visit to Kursk Oblast since start of incursion. Russian President Vladimir Putin on March 12 reportedly made his first visit to Russia’s Kursk Oblast since Ukraine’s incursion into the region began in August 2024.
Russia has stepped up attacks in Ukraine’s south over past two weeks, military says. “This is not an offensive or part of the enemy’s strategic actions, but tactical attempts to improve their position relative to the combat line,” said Vladyslav Voloshyn, a spokesperson for the Ukrainian military’s Southern Command.
Russian intelligence recruited teenagers for terrorist attack in western Ukraine, SBU claims. According to law enforcement, the recruited agents were two teenagers aged 15 and 17 who sought quick money on Telegram channels.
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Trump said Ukraine is ‘more difficult to deal with’ than Russia — that might be about to change
“I think (Putin) probably sees Trump as a useful idiot who is helpful in promoting his agenda,” Ryhor Nizhnikau, a Russia expert at the Finnish Institute of International Affairs, told the Kyiv Independent.
Photo: Samuel Corum/Sipa/Bloomberg/Getty Images
‘There will still be war’ — Ukraine’s soldiers on ceasefire proposal, Russia, and Putin
“They will now start bargaining, and what will they bargain with? With Ukraine, our state, our lands, our people. … We’ve been through this before. An agreement with the Russians is not worth the paper it is written on.”
Photo: Wolfgang Schwan/Anadolu/Getty Images
Ukraine struggles to hold on in Kursk Oblast as Russia strikes back before peace talks
Ukraine’s retreat from Kursk Oblast appears more likely as the latest news shows Russia taking ground amid intense attacks to drive Ukraine out, experts and soldiers say. Retaking Ukrainian-held territory in Kursk Oblast could leave Kyiv without its hard-fought bargaining chip.
Photo: Roman Pilipey/AFP via Getty Images
Losing foothold in Russia’s Kursk Oblast would be ‘politically significant,’ experts say
“It’s not about the city of Sudzha or square kilometers, but about Russian territorial integrity,” international security expert Oleksiy Melnyk said. But it may have been a poor decision for Kyiv to publicly discuss its openness for trading the Kursk salient for Ukrainian territory, he added.
Photo: Kostiantyn Liberov/Libkos/Getty Images
Human cost of Russia’s war
14 killed, 41 injured in Russian attacks against Ukraine over past day. Russian attacks across Ukraine killed at least 14 civilians and injured at least 33 over the past day, regional authorities reported on March 12. The casualties included children and Syrian crew members of a merchant vessel in Odesa.
General Staff: Russia has lost 889,050 troops in Ukraine since Feb. 24, 2022. This number includes 1,430 casualties Russian forces suffered just over the past day.
Ex-envoy to Russia on Trump’s negotiating strategy: ‘incredibly bad’
International response
US officials heading to Russia for ceasefire talks, Trump says. Speaking to journalists in the Oval Office, President Donald Trump said Washington has “some positive messages about a possible ceasefire.” He added that a potential of the temporary truce is now up to Russia.
Russian, US intelligence chiefs call to discuss ‘reducing confrontation,’ Russian media reports. According to Kommersant, the agencies agreed to maintain communication “to help ensure international stability and security, as well as to reduce confrontation.”
US resumes sharing intelligence with Ukraine, Gabbard confirms. Tulsi Gabbard, the U.S. director of national intelligence, confirmed on March 12 that the U.S. had resumed sharing intelligence with Ukraine per President Donald Trump’s direction.
Maxar reportedly restores Ukraine’s access to high-resolution satellite imagery. Ukraine has relied on such imagery for defense and strategic planning, including tracking Russian troop movements, assessing battlefield conditions, and monitoring damage to Russian infrastructure.
Raiffeisen Bank International’s subsidiary remains invested in sanctioned Russian entities, report says. As of January, Raiffeisen Capital held around 31.7 billion rubles ($365 million) in sanctioned entities, such as the Sberbank bank or the state-owned energy giant Gazprom, the report said, citing financial documents.
Opinions and insights
Slovakia’s protests prove the fight for Europe isn’t over
“Political instability and mounting public resistance continue to pressure Fico. On the streets of Slovak cities, the Ukrainian flag has become a symbol of pro-European commitment for many. They are not “foreign agents,” as Fico claims, but decent citizens of Slovakia who want to avoid the Orbánization of their country,” writes Peter Techet, research associate at the Institute for the Danube and Central Europe.
Photo: Tomas Benedikovic / AFP via Getty Images
In other news
Georgia’s ex-President Saakashvili sentenced to 9 more years in prison on embezzlement charges. The judge found Former Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili guilty of misappropriating 9 million lari (about $5.4 million at the time) from the state budget for personal expenses, including luxury hotels, cosmetic procedures, and designer clothing.
EU retaliates against new US steel, aluminum tariffs. The move follows U.S. President Donald Trump’s decision to impose 25% tariffs on imported steel and aluminum, reigniting trade tensions between Washington and Brussels.
Russia, China, Iran hold joint naval drills in Gulf of Oman. The exercises, named Maritime Security Belt 2025, were held near the strategic Strait of Hormuz, a key global shipping route through which a fifth of the world’s traded crude oil passes.
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