European Union foreign policy head Kaja Kallas arrives for a Foreign Ministers meeting in Brussels, Belgium, February 23, 2026 (Virginia Mayo/AP)
Monday’s Coverage: Russia Kills Policewoman, Wounds 25 in “Terrorist Attack” in Lviv
UPDATE 1840 GMT:
Ukraine has dismissed the Kremlin’s claim that Kyiv is trying to obtain nuclear weapons with the help of Britain and France.
Foreign Ministry spokesperson Heorhii Tykhyi said:
Russian officials, known for their impressive record of lies, are once again trying to fabricate the old “dirty bomb” nonsense.
For the record: Ukraine has already denied such absurd Russian claims many times before, and we officially deny them again now. We urge the international community to reject and condemn Russia’s dirty information bombs.
UPDATE 1426 GMT:
At least three civilians have been murdered and 28 injured by Russian attacks across Ukraine over the past day.
Air defenses intercepted 111 of 133 drones. At least 19 UAVs and an Iskander-M ballistic missile struck 16 locations.
In the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine, one person was killed and six others injured amid 918 strikes on 36 settlements.
In the Kherson region, one civilian was murdered and five injured. Two multi-story apartment buildings and 11 houses were damaged.
In the Dnipropetrovsk region in south-central Ukraine, a 35-year-old man was killed in Nikopol during a Russian drone attack.
Casualties were also reported in the Kharkiv and Donetsk regions.
UPDATE 1414 GMT:
In a virtual meeting of the Coalition of the Willing, French President Emmanuel Macron said he is “very sceptical” about the prospect of ending Moscow’s invasion, as “there is no willingness on the Russian side to have peace”.
He called for more support for Ukraine, with approval of the European Union’s €90 billion ($78.6 million) loan and further sanctions on Russia, including against its shadow fleet.
He said security guarantees are “being finalized” and need to be “agreed on in concrete terms”.
German Chancellor Friedrich Merz says Germany’s support remains “iron clad”: “We must be very clear this war will only end when Putin realises that he cannot win….We must increase pressure on Russia [and] dry up Moscow’s war funding.”
He noted, “Moscow is not as strong as it would like the world to think. Russia is not winning.”
UPDATE 1410 GMT:
The Kremlin says it will persist in its quest to conquer Ukraine.
Spokesman Dmitry Peskov said, “The past four years have been extremely significant in Russia’s life and will remain in people’s memory forever….The goals haven’t been fully achieved yet, which is why the military operation continues.”
UPDATE 1402 GMT:
Speaking in Brussels, NATO Secretary General Mark Rutte has said Ukraine needs to get “ammunition today and every day until the bloodshop stops” as well as “essential” military, financial and humanitarian aid needed to fight against “Russian terror from the skies”.
Ukraine continues to blunt Russia’s aggression and despite Putin’s posturing, Russia has failed to meet their ambitions on the battlefield.
Their security is our security. There cannot be true peace in Europe without real peace in Ukraine.
Referring Winston Churchill’s declaration during World War II, “Our qualities and deeds must burn and glow through the gloom of Europe,” Rutte said, “The flame of freedom is alive in Ukraine, and that flame continues to burn and glow.”
UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer added from London:
This is not a remote conflict a long way away from the United Kingdom.
It’s about us in so many levels. It’s about our values of freedom, democracy and the right of a country to decide for itself….
How and when this conflict ends is going to affect everybody in the United Kingdom for a very long time, which is why it’s so important that we make sure that it’s a just and lasting peace.
Ukraine is very much the frontline of our freedom, and we need to bear that in mind as we mark this four years since the outbreak of this.
UPDATE 0942 GMT:
Addressing the European Parliament in Brussels via video link, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky says that Russia has “a mentality of an unstable dictatorship that cannot accept that in Europe every life matters, human rights are important, and nations are protected, big or small”.
He explains that Vladimir Putin is actively “choosing” war and conflict, whether in Chechnya, Georgia, Syria, Africa, or Iran: “Putin cannot accept one simple thing: that somewhere people can live differently and enjoy a life that is not the one he prefers.”
“We must be just as determined and strong as we were when the invasion began [as] the threat hasn’t become smaller,” the President said. Europe can only respond by working with the US, even as it “is not an easy task to maintain transatlantic unity and cooperation in the current conditions”.
He added,”There must be no place in the free world for Russian oil, for Russian tankers, Russian banks, Russian sanctions …, schemes, or for any Russian war criminals. The time has come to fully ban all participants in Russia’s aggression from entire Europe.”
UPDATE 0800 GMT:
In an interview with the Financial Times, Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has urged the Trump Administration to see through Vladimir Putin’s negotiating “games”.
I see it, because they are very poor actors. They are playing with Trump and playing with the entire world….
Putin thinks he looks convincing and that he can be trusted. No — he is a bad actor.
Zelensky warned that without firm security guarantees for Ukraine, Russia will use a ceasefire to rebuild for another assault.
The President urged the European Union to confirm Ukraine’s accession to the bloc as early as 2027.
I want a date. I am asking for it.
Let us not allow the next leaders or the next generation to face a situation where Russia blocks Ukraine’s EU membership for 50 years.
Zelensky dismantled the Kremlin’s claims that it is “winning”, pointing out that Russia’s slow advances in 2025 cost “an average of 167 people per kilometer of occupied territory”.
He pushed back Moscow’s exaggerations and disinformation, “You can see immediately what they are occupying and what they are not. Where they claim to be holding positions, you can see they are not holding anything.”
The President added, “On the contrary, we have advanced,” referring to the liberation of around 400 square km (154 square miles) in the Zaporizhzhia region in southern Ukraine.
He concluded, to standing applause:
In many ways, we can see how Russia shows contempt for Europe, but Russians should learn that Europe is not just a land for the villas of Russian oligarchs.
It’s not a museum for the lovers of Russian officials to admire beauty, another place of leisure for Russian killers.
Russians must learn that Europe is a union of independent nations and millions of people who do not tolerate humiliation and will not accept violence….
[You must] continue to defend the European way of life.
UPDATE 0729 GMT:
A Russian police officer was killed and two wounded when a man detonated an explosive device beside a patrol car in central Moscow at 12:05 a.m.
The blast was on the square of the Savyolovsky station, one of Moscow’s main railway hubs. The attacker died at the scene.
An explosion on Monday evening in Mykolaiv in southern Ukrainie city wounded seven Ukrainian police officers, two critically.
On Sunday, a 23-year-old policewoman was killed and 25 people wounded, including six other law enforcement personnel suffering serious injuries, in a double explosion in Lviv in western Ukraine.
Authorities have arrested a Ukrainian woman, saying Russia directed the “terrorist attack”.
UPDATE 0718 GMT:
Ukraine President Volodymyr Zelensky has posted a video message marking the 4th anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion:
Looking back at the beginning of the invasion and reflecting on today, we have every right to say: we have defended our independence, we have not lost our statehood; Putin has not achieved his goals.
He has not broken Ukrainians; he has not won this war. We have preserved Ukraine, and we will do everything to secure peace and justice.
Glory to Ukraine!
Today marks exactly four years since Putin started his three-day push to take Kyiv. And that says a great deal about our resistance, about how Ukraine has fought all this time. Behind those words stand millions of our people, immense courage, incredibly hard work, endurance, and… pic.twitter.com/9qiqACurhx
— Volodymyr Zelenskyy / Володимир Зеленський (@ZelenskyyUa) February 24, 2026
ORIGINAL ENTRY: Holding Ukraine and the European Union to ransom over its gas supplies from Russia, Hungary has blocked the EU’s 20th package of sanctions over Moscow’s invasion.
EU foreign policy head Kaja Kallas confirmed that Monday’s meeting of foreign ministers could not overback the veto of Hungary, led by Vladimir Putin’s ally Viktor Orbán.
It’s not easy. It’s never easy, but the work continues.
I really regret that we didn’t [secure] an agreement today considering that tomorrow is the sad anniversary of the start of this war, and we really need to send strong signals to Ukraine that we keep on helping Ukraine, but also putting more pressure on Russia.
Hungary and Slovakia are demanding the reopening of the Druzhba pipeline, running from Russia, which was damaged on January 27 by a Russian drone strike on western Ukraine.
Rather than blaming Moscow, Budpest and Bratislava, led by pro-Kremlin Prime Minister Robert Fico, are threatening punishment of Ukraine, including the cutoff of electricity supplies.
Hungary said over the weekend that it will also block the EU’s €90 billion loan to maintain Kyiv’s finances through 2027.
European Council president António Costa appealed to Orbán to honor the EU decision in December for the loan.
When leaders reach a consensus, they are bound by their decision. Any breach of this commitment constitutes a violation of the principle of sincere cooperation.
No Member State can be allowed to undermine the credibility of decisions taken collectively by the European Council.
But Slovakia’s Fico reiterated in a Facebook video that he plans to halt electricity to Ukraine, whose energy infrastructure has been badly damaged by Russian missile and drone strikes amid freezing temperatures.
He said the suspension will be lifted as soon as Ukraine resumes oil transit via the Druzhba pipeline, insisting that it remains operational. He warned he is ready to escalate the dispute further if Kyiv does not respond.
Ukrainian national power company Ukrenergo said any suspension by Slovakia will have no effect on the grid.
EU in Kyiv for 4th Anniversary of Invasion
EU leaders had hoped to confirm the sanctions before their visit to Kyiv on Tuesday for the 4th anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Polish Foreign Minister Radosław Sikorski said, referring to Hungary’s Parliamentary elections in April:
I would have expected a much greater feeling of solidarity from Hungary for Ukraine. Instead, with the help of state propaganda and private-but-controlled-by-the-government media, the ruling party managed to create a climate of hostility towards the victim of aggression, and…now is trying to exploit that in the general election.
German Foreign Minister Johann Wadephul said he was “astonished” by the Hungarian position. Estonian counterpart Margus Tsahkna emphasized, “If we are not able to put the sanctions on Russia, then Russia will be happy.”
