Ukraine in Focus
April 16, 2026
By Svitlana Morenets
What makes a man proud? For Vice President J.D. Vance, it is cutting off US funding to Ukraine. Vance said it was a ‘key achievement’ of the Trump administration at a Turning Point USA event in Athens, Georgia, yesterday. Recalling how he was confronted by a Ukrainian-American over his pledge to stop helping Ukraine before the elections, Vance said he still believes it was the right call. He added: ‘One of the things I’m proudest that we’ve done in this administration is we’ve told Europe, “if you want to buy weapons, you can, but the United States is not buying weapons and sending them to Ukraine any more”.’
Halting aid to a country defending itself against an unprovoked invasion is a strange thing to be proud of. You don’t have to be Ukrainian to think that this war is as morally clear a conflict as could be. On one side, there is Vladimir Putin, deploying tens of thousands of troops in 2022 to overthrow Ukraine’s democratically elected government and seize control of the whole country. Once Russian soldiers retreated, they left only traces of torture, rape and murder. I, like many, remain haunted by the pictures of civilians with hands tied behind their backs, their bodies buried in mass graves in Bucha and other cities to hide the evidence of evil.
On the other side, there is Ukraine, fighting for its freedom and independence against Russian aggression. Ukrainians, refusing to give up their home to a murderous dictator who has ordered the erasure of their language, history and culture in the land Russia has occupied since 2014. Any opposition has been uprooted through imprisonment or mobilisation to the front, where subjugated Ukrainians from occupied lands are sent to kill their compatriots. It is a perfect cycle of extermination; Putin’s sadistic wheel of torture to destroy the Ukrainian nation.
These facts make me wonder whether Vance, Donald Trump and the other stooges in the White House who have blamed Ukraine for the war are Russian assets or simply morally bankrupt. At a time when Vance brags about halting US assistance to Ukraine, the country is suffering severe shortages of US-produced Patriot air defence missiles as a result of his policies. Volodymyr Zelensky said the situation ‘could not be any worse’ earlier this week. As if to prove his statement, Putin went on to launch a wave of missiles and drone strikes that have killed at least 30 civilians and injured more than 200 since Monday.
In Kyiv, Russia killed a 12-year-old child last night. In Cherkasy, an eight-year-old boy died in a drone attack on Tuesday. For Vance, are these and the other hundreds of deaths a fair price for the American dollars he has saved? This is not America’s war, he may claim. But they are his policies which make it easier for Russia to fight Ukraine. From a moral standpoint, arguably that makes him as complicit in these killings as Putin.
Portrait of the week in Ukraine
- J.D. Vance said cutting off US funding for Ukraine was a ‘key achievement’ of Donald Trump’s administration.
- Russia launched a missile and drone attack against Ukraine overnight, killing at least 22 people and injuring more than 130.
- Ukraine has a severe shortage of US-produced Patriot air defence missiles and the situation ‘could not be any worse’, Volodymyr Zelensky said.
- Nato member states will give Ukraine £54bn in military support this year, the alliance’s secretary general Mark Rutte announced.
- Russia violated an Orthodox Easter ceasefire nearly 11,000 times during Vladimir Putin’s 32-hour ‘truce’ last weekend.
- Ukrainian troops detected and killed 29 Russian soldiers who attempted to infiltrate rear positions via a gas pipeline in the Sumy region. Russians hold about 60 square miles along the border area.
- Hungary’s next Prime Minister Peter Magyar said he won’t block a £78bn EU loan to Ukraine previously vetoed by Viktor Orban.
- Ukraine and Germany signed a £3.5bn defence deal and agreed to cooperate on returning draft-age men who illegally left Ukraine.
- The UK announced it will deliver at least 120,000 drones for Ukraine this year, the largest number ever supplied by the UK.
- Russia-linked hackers broke into more than 170 email accounts belonging to Ukrainian prosecutors and investigators.
- Russia’s State Duma approved a bill allowing President Putin to deploy troops to protect Russians detained abroad.
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Wider reading on the war
- Nearly 2,000 Ukrainian civilians trapped in Russian-occupied Kherson Oblast town facing ‘humanitarian catastrophe’ – Kyiv Independent
- ‘The frontline is like Terminator’: fighting robots give Ukraine hope in war with Russia – Guardian
- The Sea of Azov: Ukraine’s loss but hardly Russia’s gain – Al Jazeera
- Ukrainian drones in Germany: how Frontline Robotics has become Ukraine’s first exporter of military technology – Ukrainska Pravda
- Fear of populists is pushing governments to oppose expanding the EU – Politico
In pictures
Secret location, Ukraine: Volodymyr Zelensky showcases Ukrainian Flamingo long-range cruise missile and other weapons developed during the war in an address on Arms Makers’ Day. (Credit: The President’s website)
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Quote of the week
‘We are not building new cooperation with partners on weapons the way it was done in the 1990s or early 2000s, when Ukrainian weapons and strength were sold off like a Black Friday sale. We are not making fairs of our weapons, nor are we emptying our stockpiles. We are offering security partnerships – long-term and profitable for Ukraine’
– Volodymyr Zelensky says Ukrainian military expertise is now ‘the most sought-after’ around the world.
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The war in numbers
The average oil price at Russia’s western ports
$106.30 a barrel
42% higher than in March
Missions carried out by Ukraine’s robotic systems
22,000
on the frontline in the past three months
Military aid Germany allocated to Ukraine in 2026
£10 billion
more than a third of all international military assistance for Ukraine
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A note from the author: Thank you for your interest in this newsletter. I hope it helps you to understand my country – and the war – better from a Ukrainian perspective. If you enjoy the Ukraine in Focus newsletter, please forward it to someone you know: you can sign up here. My writing for The Spectator can be found here. All feedback is welcome: svitlana@spectator.co.uk
“Halting aid to a country defending itself against an unprovoked invasion is a strange thing to be proud of ….”
Strange? That does not do justice to the enormity of the offence. It surely has to be unique in the history of democratic countries?
“These facts make me wonder whether Vance, Donald Trump and the other stooges in the White House who have blamed Ukraine for the war are Russian assets or simply morally bankrupt.”
I think both Lana.
“This is not America’s war, he may claim. But they are his policies which make it easier for Russia to fight Ukraine. From a moral standpoint, arguably that makes him as complicit in these killings as Putin.”
Not arguably, definitely.
And not for the first time. The occupation of Kursk was ended with the help of Krasnov, who has blocked aid and intel sharing on several occasions.
He even said in March 2025 that “Ukraine may not survive.”
https://www.timesofisrael.com/trump-says-us-has-just-about-ended-pause-on-ukraine-intel-sharing/
In 2023 on live TV he stated that “Putin’s gonna take all Ukraine.”
He might have added : “but only with my help.”
They are wanking at Ukrainians suffering. But those responsible will suffer themselves once this zionist hateful bunch of fake-Christian aSSholeZ are removed from power.
Roman Sheremeta just now :
“Russians have just struck a Baptist church in the city of Zaporizhzhia, Ukraine. One person was killed.
It would be good if Trump, instead of posting pictures of himself as Jesus, showed some basic human decency and helped Ukrainian Christians survive this genocide.”
His son in law is jewish, and Trump seems, just like Vance, part of a Zatanic cult. They all got the ass wide open.
Btw, i have no problems with jewish people. We have great jewish people in America. I posted back on Disqus an article about awesome Carrie Fisher who died from a stroke on a plane. But too many drunk of material and political power think they are untouchable and get away with anything. That is a disturbing imbalance of power. My generation, including today Ukrainians and Danes did neither assist in the holocaust nor justify or deny it. There is no reason to hate us, except for paranoids and evil people.
Zel just now :
“🇺🇦 Zelenskyy responds to U.S. Vice President’s comments on cutting aid to Ukraine
Volodymyr Zelenskyy commented on J.D. Vance’s statement that reducing aid to Ukraine is one of his key achievements in office.
At a joint press conference with the Dutch Prime Minister, the Ukrainian President said:
💬 “I hope that the United States will not stop providing aid. It is very important for us. I hope they will not abandon this war.” 💬
Zelenskyy added that American support is important not only for Ukraine but also for the United States, as it helps maintain ties with Europe.”
Why didn’t he finally tell Trump and Vance to go fuck themselveZ?! It’s sooooooooo overdue! 😤
It would be better to go to a downtown anywhere in America and choose a homeless drunk and a homeless drug addict to be president and vice president, and you would have better people for these posts than the subhuman filth that are now dirtying up the White House with their evilness. I could never eat as much as I want to throw up when I think about who the current president and VP are. I will cherish the day when both are gone. Waiting for two big, beautiful obituaries.