“The talks have not broken down, but they have not really yielded any results.” Al Jazeera’s Osama Bin Javaid explains what happened—and what didn’t—at the third round of peace talks between Ukraine and Russia.
Published On 18 Feb 202618 Feb 2026
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One week ahead of the fourth anniversary of Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine, United States-led peace talks in Geneva ended for the day earlier than scheduled on Wednesday.
The talks, which are being mediated by Steve Witkoff, US President Donald Trump’s special envoy, and Jared Kushner, Trump’s son-in-law, are just the latest of a number of attempts to end the deadliest fighting in Europe since World War II – and none have reached a breakthrough.
During his presidential campaign in 2024, Trump claimed repeatedly that he would broker a ceasefire in Ukraine within “24 hours”. However, he has been unable to fulfil this promise.
Here is a timeline of the mediation efforts to end the Russia-Ukraine war, which has killed more than a million people, as it heads towards its fifth year.
The first ceasefire talks between Russia and Ukraine took place just four days after Moscow’s full-scale invasion in February 2022.
The meeting lasted about five hours, and featured high-level officials, but with diametrically opposing goals. Nothing came of their talks.
Then, the two sides held three rounds of direct talks in Belarus, ending on March 7, but, again, nothing was agreed.
On March 10, the foreign ministers of Ukraine and Russia, Dmytro Kuleba and Sergey Lavrov, met for the first time since the war started, on the sidelines of the Antalya Diplomacy Forum in Turkiye.
A second meeting between senior leaders in Istanbul towards the end of the month failed to secure a ceasefire.
Then, the withdrawal of Russian forces in early April from parts of Ukraine revealed evidence of massacres committed against the Ukrainian civilian population in Bucha and Irpin near Kyiv, in northern Ukraine.
Ukraine’s President Volodymyr Zelenskyy said this would make negotiations much more difficult, but that it was necessary to persist with the dialogue. Russian President Vladimir Putin later declared the negotiations were at a “dead end” as a result of Ukraine’s allegations of war crimes.
In July 2022, the Black Sea Grain Initiative was signed by Ukraine and Russia with Turkiye and the United Nations in Istanbul. It was the most significant diplomatic breakthrough for the first year of the war.
The agreement aimed to prevent a global food crisis by designating a safe maritime humanitarian corridor through the Black Sea for cargoes of millions of tons of grain stuck in Ukrainian ports.
Ukraine’s Zelenskyy presented a 10-point peace proposal at the Group of 20 (G20) summit in Indonesia, within which he called for Russia’s withdrawal from all Ukrainian territory as well as measures to ensure radiation and nuclear safety, food security, and protection for Ukraine’s grain exports.
He also demanded energy security and the release of all Ukrainian prisoners and deportees, including war prisoners and children deported to Russia.
Russia rejected Zelenskyy’s peace proposal, reiterating that it would not give up any territory it had taken by force, which stood at about one-fifth of Ukraine by then.
China proposed a 12-point peace plan calling for a ceasefire and the end of “unilateral sanctions” that had been imposed by Western nations on Russia. Beijing urged both sides to resume talks on the basis that “the sovereignty, independence and territorial integrity of all countries must be effectively upheld”.
The proposal was criticised by Western allies of Kyiv for not acknowledging “Russia’s violation of Ukrainian sovereignty”.
In June 2023, a high-level delegation of African leaders, led by South African President Cyril Ramaphosa and including the presidents of Senegal and Zambia, visited both Kyiv and St Petersburg to present a 10-point plan focusing on de-escalation and grain exports.
Analysts said it was driven largely by the war’s impact on African food security and fertiliser prices.
But Ukrainian President Zelenskyy rejected the call for “de-escalation”, arguing that a ceasefire without a Russian withdrawal would simply “freeze” the war.
The following month, President Putin pulled Russia out of the Black Sea Grain Initiative.
Saudi Arabia hosted representatives from 40 countries to discuss Zelenskyy’s “Peace Formula”, but no final agreement or joint statement was reached.
In a major surprise, Beijing sent its special envoy, Li Hui, to the talks. But Russia was not invited, and the Kremlin said the efforts would fail.
The June 2024 Summit on Peace in Ukraine, held at Switzerland’s Burgenstock resort, brought together more than 90 nations to discuss a framework for ending the conflict in Ukraine. The summit focused on nuclear safety, food security and prisoner exchanges, though Russia was not invited, and several nations, including India and Saudi Arabia, did not sign the final joint communique.
A month after beginning his second term as US president, Trump posted on his Truth Social platform that he held a long phone call with his Russian counterpart, Putin, in a bid to restart direct negotiations aimed at ending the war.
On February 18, delegations from Washington and the Kremlin, including US Secretary of State Marco Rubio and Russian Foreign Minister Lavrov, met in Saudi Arabia.
They laid the groundwork for future negotiations, but the talks raised significant concerns in Kyiv and Brussels, as both Ukraine and the European Union had been sidelined from the meeting.
Ten days later, on February 28, there came a saturation point at the White House.
In one of the most confrontational moments in modern diplomacy, President Trump and Vice President JD Vance berated President Zelenskyy in a televised meeting in the Oval Office.
Zelenskyy – called out for not wearing a suit and not expressing enough gratitude to the US – found himself cornered.
Trump envoy Steve Witkoff travelled to Moscow to meet Putin on August 6. It was his third trip to Moscow and came amid renewed Western threats of sanctions on Russian oil exports and US threats of “secondary” trade tariffs.
Trump said afterwards that the meeting was “highly productive” and that “everyone agrees this war must come to a close”. Nothing more concrete came out of this meeting, however.
Trump dropped his sanctions threat and met Putin in person on August 15, 2025, at Joint Base Elmendorf-Richardson in Alaska.
But no deal was reached.
Trump hosted Zelenskyy and other European leaders in Washington and said he would ask Putin to agree to a trilateral summit.
But nothing came out of this visit, either.
In November 2025, the Geneva talks became a flashpoint for Western unity, as the Trump administration’s controversial 28-point plan leaked to the press, reportedly involving a cap on Ukraine’s military and a freeze on NATO membership. It also suggested that Ukraine should cede territory to Russia.
Reportedly authored by US envoy Witkoff along with Russian envoy Kirill Dmitriev, the draft sparked accusations that the US was drafting a “capitulation” for Ukraine.
No deal was reached after revisions were made to the draft proposal.
On December 14 and 15 last year, President Zelenskyy travelled to Berlin to meet US envoys Witkoff and Kushner, alongside a powerful group of European leaders, including Germany’s Chancellor Friedrich Merz, the United Kingdom’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer, and France’s President Emmanuel Macron.
Following this, US negotiators optimistically claimed that 90 percent of the issues between the two sides had been resolved.
Then, later in the month, Witkoff and Kushner hosted another session of talks in Miami, Florida in the US. But the issues around sovereignty over Ukraine’s Donbas region and the exact line of demarcation proved impossible to bridge.
And no deal was reached.
On January 23, high-level delegations from the US, Ukraine and Russia sat face to face to hold trilateral talks for the first time since the 2022 invasion.
Hosted at the Al Shati Palace in Abu Dhabi, talks were mediated by the United Arab Emirates.
Another round of talks was held on February 4, reaching an agreement on a major prisoner exchange but leaving key political and security issues unresolved.
The delegations agreed to exchange 314 prisoners of war – 157 each – the first such swap in five months.
Talks in Geneva are currently under way.
Senior military figures from both Ukraine and Russia have attended the second three-way effort, along with the US, to end the war in Ukraine. These have largely stalled so far due to Russia’s insistence on keeping territory it has seized from Ukraine.
Feb. 18 (UPI) — U.S. Special Envoy Steve Witkoff early Wednesday reported “meaningful progress” in tri-lateral U.S.-Russian-Ukraine talks in Switzerland on ending the war.
Crediting U.S. President Donald Trump‘s “success in bringing both sides of this war together” to enable the progress to be made in the U.S.-moderated talks in Geneva, Witkoff provided no details of what had been achieved.
“Both parties agreed to update their respective leaders and continue working towards a deal,” he wrote X.
The accounts of Russia and Ukraine of Tuesday’s talks, which lasted six hours, were less positive with Russia’s state-run TASS news agency reporting they were “very tense” while Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said they were “difficult” and accused Moscow of playing for time.
“Yesterday’s meetings were indeed difficult, and we can state that Russia is trying to drag out the negotiations, which could already have moved to the final stage. We are grateful to the American side for their attention to detail and patience in talks with the current Russian representatives,” said Zelensky in a post on X.
A source in the Russian delegation told TASS that all sides had, however, agreed to continue the talks on Wednesday.
The negotiations are being held against the backdrop of the fourth anniversary of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb. 24, with no sign of any let up in hostilities.
At least two people were killed and 25 injured in strikes across five eastern, southern and central Ukrainian provinces overnight after Russian forces launched 126 drones and one ballistic missile, according to a Ukrainian Air Force update on social media.
Russia’s Defense Ministry said one person was injured in the city of Cheboksary, 440 miles east of Moscow, after Ukraine launched a large-scale airborne assault into Russian territory overnight using attack drones. The defense ministry said air defenses downed 43 of the drones.
Two previous rounds of talks, in Abu Dhabi in January and earlier this month, were unable to gain traction in overcoming the main stumbling blocks of Russia’s demand that Ukraine cede territory and Ukraine’s insistence on cast-iron Western security guarantees.
The negotiations are based on a heavily revised version of a 28-point plan, first drawn up by Witkoff’s team and Russian officials in November, under which Ukraine would give up Luhansk and Donetsk, including areas its forces still control, in exchange for security guarantees.
Kyiv has ruled out giving up territory it still occupies but the Americans are pushing a compromise solution that would see those areas become a demilitarized “special economic” buffer zone.
However, the security guarantees remain the potentially most intractable issue with Moscow adamant they cannot involve Western boots on the ground — something Ukraine believes must be permissable for any guarantee to be credible.
Delegations from Russia and Ukraine are set to meet for another round of peace talks in Geneva, as United States President Donald Trump pushes for an end to Europe’s biggest conflict since World War II.
The two-day talks, which begin on Tuesday, are likely to focus on the issue of territory and come just days before the fourth anniversary, on February 24, of Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.
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Trump is pressing Moscow and Kyiv to reach a deal soon, though Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has complained that his country is facing the greatest pressure from Washington to make concessions.
Russia is demanding that Kyiv cede the remaining 20 percent of the eastern region of Donetsk that Moscow has failed to capture – something Kyiv refuses to do.
Trump again increased the pressure on Ukraine late on Monday.
When asked about the talks on board Air Force One, he described the negotiations as “big” and said, “Ukraine better come to the table, fast.” He did not elaborate further, saying, “That’s all I am telling you.”
The talks, which the Kremlin said will be held behind closed doors and with no media present, come after two earlier rounds held this year in Abu Dhabi. Those talks did not yield a breakthrough.
“This time, the idea is to discuss a broader range of issues, including, in fact, the main ones,” Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov told reporters on Monday. “The main issues concern both the territories and everything else related to the demands we have put forward,” he said.
Ukraine, meanwhile, said Russia was unwilling to compromise and wants to keep fighting.
“Even on the eve of the trilateral meetings in Geneva, the Russian army has no orders other than to continue striking Ukraine. This speaks volumes about how Russia regards the partners’ diplomatic efforts,” Zelenskyy said in a social media post on Monday.
“Only with sufficient pressure on Russia and clear security guarantees for Ukraine can this war realistically be brought to an end,” he added.
The Russia-Ukraine war has spiralled into Europe’s deadliest conflict since 1945, with tens of thousands killed, millions forced to flee their homes and many Ukrainian cities, towns and villages devastated by the fighting.
Russia occupies about one-fifth of Ukraine, including Crimea and parts of the eastern Donbas region seized before the 2022 invasion. It wants Ukrainian troops to withdraw from swaths of heavily fortified and strategic territory as part of any peace deal. Kyiv has rejected the demand, which would be politically and militarily fraught, and has instead demanded robust security guarantees from the West.
The Kremlin said the Russian delegation would be led by Vladimir Medinsky, an aide to President Vladimir Putin.
However, the fact that Ukrainian negotiators have accused Medinsky in the past of lecturing them about history as an excuse for Russia’s invasion has further lowered expectations for any significant breakthrough in Geneva.
Military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov will also take part in the talks, while Putin’s special envoy Kirill Dmitriev will be part of a separate working group on economic issues.
Vladmir Sotnikov, a political scientist based in Moscow, said the Russian team will consist of about 20 people, many more than delegations in previous rounds of talks.
“I think the Russian intentions are serious. Because you know, the situation here in Russia is that ordinary people are just tired of this war,” he told Al Jazeera.
Kyiv’s delegation will be led by Rustem Umerov, the secretary of Ukraine’s national security and defence council, and Zelenskyy’s chief of staff, Kyrylo Budanov. Senior presidential aide Serhiy Kyslytsya will also be present.
Before the delegation left for Geneva, Umerov said Ukraine’s goal of “a sustainable and lasting peace” remained unchanged.
As well as land, Russia and Ukraine also remain far apart on issues such as who should control the Zaporizhzhia nuclear power plant and the possible role of Western troops in post-war Ukraine.
US envoys Steve Witkoff and Jared Kushner will represent the Trump administration at the talks, according to the Reuters news agency. They are also attending talks in Geneva this week with Iran.
Iran’s top diplomat says he hopes to ‘achieve a fair and equitable deal’ before high-stakes talks are held on Tuesday.
Iranian Foreign Minister Abbas Araghchi has arrived in Geneva for high-stakes second round of nuclear talks with the United States aimed at reducing tensions and avert a new military confrontation that Iran’s Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has warned could turn into a regional conflict.
“I am in Geneva with real ideas to achieve a fair and equitable deal,” Araghchi wrote on X on Monday. “What is not on the table: submission before threats.”
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Iran and the US renewed negotiations earlier this month to tackle their decades-long dispute over Tehran’s nuclear programme as US deploys warships, including a second aircraft carrier, to the region as mediators work to prevent a war.
Araghchi met with Rafael Grossi, the head of the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), on Monday, after saying his team nuclear experts for a “deep technical discussion”.
The United Nations nuclear watchdog has been calling for access to Iran’s main nuclear facilities that were bombed by the US and Israel during the 12-day war in June. Tehran has said there might be a risk of radiation, so an official protocol is required to carry out the unprecedented task of inspecting highly enriched uranium ostensibly buried under the rubble.
Speaking to state-run IRNA news agency on Monday, foreign ministry spokesman Esmail Baghaei said the IAEA will play “an important role” in upcoming mediated talks between Iran and the US. But he also renewed Tehran’s criticism of Grossi for the director’s refusal to condemn military strikes on Iranian nuclear sites that are protected under agency safeguards as part of the Non-Proliferation Treaty (NPT).
Araghchi also said he would meet his Omani counterpart, Badr bin Hamad al-Busaidi, who mediated the first round of talks between Iran and the US since the war earlier this month.
Iran has repeatedly emphasised that it will not agree to Washington’s demand for zero nuclear enrichment, and considers its missile programme a “red line” that cannot be negotiated.
Meanwhile, the US continues to build up its military presence in the region, with President Donald Trump saying a change of power in Iran “would be the best thing that could happen” and sending in a second aircraft carrier.
Trump is again likely to send his special envoy Steve Witkoff and his son-in-law Jared Kushner to represent the White House in the Geneva talks. Brad Cooper, the most senior US military commander in the region, had unexpectedly joined the US delegation during the Muscat talks on February 6.
The talks also come over a month after Iran’s deadly crackdown against nationwide protests, with Iranian officials claiming “terrorists” and “rioters” armed and funded by the US and Israel were behind the unrest.
The UN and international human rights organisations have blamed Iranian authorities for the widespread use of lethal force against peaceful protesters, which killed thousands, mainly on the nights of January 8 and 9.
But the hardliners in Tehran are more concerned about any potential concessions that could be given during upcoming talks with the US.
Addressing an open session on Monday, one of the most hardline lawmakers in Iran’s parliament cautioned security chief Ali Larijani against giving inspection access to the IAEA befire ensuring Iran’s territorial integrity, the security of nuclear sites and scientists, and use of peaceful nuclear energy for civilian purposes under the NPT.
“When US warships have opened their arms to embrace Iranian missiles, US bases have opened arms to take our missiles, and the homes of Zionist military personnel are anticipating the sound of the air raid sirens, it is obvious that such conditions cannot be met at the moment,” said Hamid Rasaei, a cleric close to the hardline Paydari (Steadfastness) faction.
In the other diplomatic track pursued in Switzerland on Tuesday, officials will be discussing ways of ending the Ukraine war, which is approaching the end of its fourth year after Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022.
But no immediate breakthrough appears in sight, with Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy telling the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday that Kyiv has “too often” been asked to make concessions.
The support for Ukrainian athletes at the Milan-Cortina Games suggests there may be challenges with reinstating Russia and Belarus for the LA28 Olympics.
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WASHINGTON — President Biden is considering a ban on imports of Russian oil while weighing actions that would boost energy production by autocracies in the hopes of mitigating the effects on American consumers and global energy markets, U.S. officials said.
“What the president is most focused on is ensuring we are continuing to take steps to deliver punishing economic consequences on [Russian President Vladimir] Putin while taking all action necessary to limit the impact to prices at the gas pump,” White House Press Secretary Jen Psaki said Monday.
Until now, the economic strangulation of Russia by the West over its unprovoked invasion of Ukraine has avoided its robust energy sector, with administration officials suggesting that such a move could weaken the global economy.
But as Russia increases its unrelenting bombardment of Ukrainian cities, political pressure on the West has grown to do more to put pressure on Putin to stop the onslaught. U.S. officials said the Biden administration is considering easing restrictions on imports of oil from Venezuela to alleviate the void left by Russian oil bans, a politically problematic step.
It has also sought to convince Saudi Arabia, which has been under fire from U.S. and European officials over its human rights record, to boost oil production.
Biden spoke Monday for more than an hour with German Chancellor Olaf Scholz, French President Emmanuel Macron and British Prime Minister Boris Johnson, although the official White House readout of the conversation did not explicitly state that they discussed a ban on Russian energy.
According to the White House, “the leaders affirmed their determination to continue raising the costs on Russia for its unprovoked and unjustified invasion of Ukraine. They also underscored their commitment to continue providing security, economic and humanitarian assistance to Ukraine.”
Psaki said administration officials were also discussing whether the U.S. would send military aircraft to Poland should its leaders provide Soviet-era bombers to support Ukraine, but noted that the White House was not “preventing or blocking or discouraging” officials in Warsaw. “They are a sovereign country. They make their own decisions, but it is not as easy as just moving planes around,” she said.
The U.S. has been reluctant to get ahead of European allies in responding to Putin’s aggression. And while an oil embargo from Washington would have some effect, doing so in concert with Europe would deliver a far greater impact. Europe imports 4 million barrels of Russian oil a day, compared with 700,000 barrels imported daily by the U.S.
U.S. Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken said Sunday during an interview with CNN that the administration was indeed exploring the “prospect” of an energy ban “in a coordinated way” with allies, although he did not rule out the possibility that Washington could act on its own to bar Russian oil.
The administration may not have much of a choice. Members of both political parties have introduced bills in both houses of Congress to block such imports.
“We may have to pay more at the pump because of this attack and our bipartisan response, but it is worth it to ensure that Putin pays the price for his paranoid adventurism and his attack on a peaceful democracy,” Rep. Jimmy Panetta (D-Carmel Valley), who has co-sponsored a bill to ban Russian oil, said in a statement.
Rep. Lou Correa (D-Santa Ana), who supports the measure, said a Russian oil ban may only have limited success if the U.S. cannot persuade other countries to join the effort.
“I don’t believe Europe and some of the other countries are ready to say no to Russian energy, so that’s the challenge right now,” Correa said in an interview. “Not only does Russia have nukes, but also people have to buy their energy from the Russians.”
Congress is weighing an oil ban as it pushes to pass a measure to send Ukraine billions of dollars in emergency assistance. Senate Majority Leader Charles E. Schumer (D-N.Y.) on Monday called for passage of a $12-billion aid package this week, saying it “will provide both humanitarian and military assistance for Ukraine: funding for refugees, medical supplies, emergency food supplies, as well as funding to support weapons transfers into Ukraine, and help for our eastern flank NATO allies.”
In a letter to House Democrats on Sunday, House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-San Francisco) said Congress intended to pass $10 billion in emergency aid for Ukraine as part of a larger government funding measure. The House is also exploring legislation that would “further isolate” Russia from the world economy, Pelosi said.
Banning Russian oil imports would probably lead to higher prices at the pump in the U.S. and globally. Gas is averaging $4 a gallon nationwide, up from $2.77 a year ago, according to AAA. The average price of gas in California during that same period has risen from $3.75 to $5.34.
In a clear signal of how seriously the Biden administration is considering a Russian oil ban, U.S. officials traveled over the weekend to Caracas, Venezuela, for talks about potentially easing sanctions imposed on the South American nation by the Trump administration in 2019. President Trump took that step after declaring President Nicolas Maduro’s election victory a sham and recognizing another politician, Juan Guaido, as the country’s rightful leader, a position Biden has affirmed.
Those measures built upon similar sanctions imposed by President Obama, signaling the long history of trouble Washington has had with Caracas and its socialist leaders.
The Venezuela economy is reeling, despite sitting on some of the world’s largest oil reserves, and Maduro is likely eager to be free of the sanctions. However, his economy and many of his government agencies are deeply intertwined with Russian assets and advisors. Any lenience by the White House toward Maduro, even if it’s driven by a desire to crack down on Putin, could undercut Biden’s messaging about the existential threat that autocracies present to democracies.
Psaki on Monday batted away questions about a potential rapprochement with Caracas, telling reporters that any easing of sanctions was “leaping several stages ahead” of where talks currently stand.
Complicating matters has been Venezuela’s decision to imprison six executives from the Citgo oil company for the last four years. Five are U.S. citizens and the sixth a U.S. permanent resident. They were convicted in show trials on trumped-up embezzlement charges and other crimes, according to their families and human rights activists.
Psaki said discussions about the release of the men and sanctions relief were taking place “in different channels,” and not tied together.
Republicans, who have seized on the potential energy crisis to call for stepping up domestic fossil fuel production, have already made clear that they will hit the White House hard should it look to offset any ban on Russian oil by looking to foreign suppliers.
Florida Sen. Marco Rubio criticized Biden in a tweet Sunday, saying: “Rather than produce more American oil, he wants to replace the oil we buy from one murderous dictator with oil from another murderous dictator.”
These are the key developments from day 1,453 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 16 Feb 202616 Feb 2026
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Here is where things stand on Monday, February 16:
Five European countries say lab tests conclude that Russian opposition leader Alexey Navalny was killed in 2024 by a rare dart frog toxin while serving a 19-year sentence in a Siberia prison. Moscow rejects the claim as Western disinformation, insisting he died of natural causes.
Published On 15 Feb 202615 Feb 2026
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Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy has expressed hope for United States-brokered peace talks with Russia next week, but warned that Kyiv was being asked “too often” to make concessions and pressed his allies for “clear security guarantees”.
Zelenskyy’s speech at the annual Munich Security Conference on Saturday came as US President Donald Trump seeks to broker a deal to end Europe’s biggest war since 1945.
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Ukraine and Russia, which invaded its neighbour in February 2022, have engaged in two recent rounds of talks mediated by Washington in Abu Dhabi, UAE, described by the parties as constructive but achieving no breakthroughs.
The three sides are due to sit down in Geneva, Switzerland, again this week.
In his speech, Zelenskyy said he hoped the trilateral talks in Geneva on Tuesday and Wednesday “will be serious, substantive” and “helpful for all of us”.
“But honestly, sometimes it feels like the sides are talking about completely different things,” Zelenskyy said.
“The Americans often return to the topic of concessions, and too often those concessions are discussed only in the context of Ukraine, not Russia,” he said.
The Ukrainian leader also argued that there would be a greater chance of ending the war if European countries had a seat at the negotiating table, something Moscow has opposed.
“Europe is practically not present at the table. It’s a big mistake to my mind,” he said. And Ukraine, he said, “keeps returning to one simple point”.
“Peace can only be built on clear security guarantees. Where there is no clear security system, war always returns,” Zelenskyy said.
Among the most contentious issues in the negotiations is Russia’s demand for a full withdrawal of Ukrainian troops from the remaining parts of Ukraine’s eastern region of Donetsk that it still controls. Ukraine has rejected a unilateral pullback, while also demanding Western security guarantees to deter Russia from relaunching its invasion if a ceasefire is reached.
Zelenskyy, in remarks to reporters, said the US had proposed a security guarantee lasting for 15 years after the war, but Ukraine wanted a deal for 20 years or longer. He added that Putin opposes the deployment of foreign troops in Ukraine, as it would deter any future aggression by Russia.
Zelenskyy said Russia had to accept a ceasefire monitoring mission and an exchange of prisoners of war. He estimated that Russia currently has about 7,000 Ukrainian soldiers, while Kyiv has more than 4,000 Russian personnel.
He also acknowledged feeling “a little bit” of pressure from Trump, who on Friday urged him not to miss the “opportunity” to make peace and told him “to get moving”. Zelenskyy also called for greater action from Ukraine’s allies to press Russia into making peace, both in the form of tougher sanctions and more weapons supplies.
Trump has the power to force Putin to declare a ceasefire and needs to do so, Zelenskyy said. Ukrainian officials have said a ceasefire is required to hold a referendum on any peace deal, which would be organised alongside national elections.
Zelenskyy also expressed surprise at Russia’s decision to change its delegation to the Geneva talks and said it suggested to him that Russia wanted to delay any decisions from being agreed.
The Kremlin had said the Russian delegation would be led by Putin’s adviser Vladimir Medinsky, a change from negotiations in Abu Dhabi, where military intelligence chief Igor Kostyukov was in the lead. Ukrainian officials have criticised Medinsky’s handling of previous talks, accusing him of delivering history lessons to the Ukrainian team instead of engaging in constructive negotiations.
In his main speech at the Munich event, Zelenskyy also denounced Putin as a “slave to war”.
He drew parallels between the current talks and the 1938 Munich Agreement, when European powers let Hitler take part of the erstwhile Czechoslovakia, only for World War II to break out the following year.
“It would be an illusion to believe that this war can now be reliably ended by dividing Ukraine, just as it was an illusion to believe that sacrificing Czechoslovakia would save Europe from a great war,” he warned.
Five European countries say findings ‘conclusively’ confirm the deadly toxin in the Russian opposition leader’s body as Moscow calls it Western propaganda.
Five European countries – the United Kingdom, France, Germany, Sweden and the Netherlands – have accused Russia of poisoning and killing opposition leader Alexey Navalny in 2024 based on lab results from a sample taken from his body.
The five governments said in a statement on Saturday that tissue samples “conclusively” confirmed the lethal toxin epibatidine. The poison is found in wild dart frogs from South America.
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“The UK, Sweden, France, Germany and the Netherlands are confident that Alexey Navalny was poisoned with a lethal toxin,” the statement issued during the Munich Security Conference said.
Russia had “the means, motive, and opportunity to administer this poison”, the UK Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office added in a statement.
Russian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova told state-run RIA Novosti news agency she’ll comment once the test results are publicly presented – something she noted has not yet been done.
The five countries said they’re reporting Russia to the Organisation for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for a breach of the Chemical Weapons Convention. There was no immediate comment from the organisation.
Navalny, who crusaded against official corruption and staged anti-Kremlin protests as President Vladimir Putin’s fiercest foe, died in an Arctic penal colony on February 16, 2024, while serving a 19-year sentence he called politically motivated.
Epibatidine is found naturally in dart frogs and can also be manufactured in a lab, something European scientists suspect was the case in the alleged poisoning of Navalny.
The poison works by causing shortness of breath, convulsions, seizures and a slowed heart rate and can kill on contact.
The five countries said Russia needs to be held accountable for its “repeated violations” of the convention.
British Foreign Secretary Yvette Cooper met Navalny’s widow, Yulia Navalnaya, at the Munich Security Conference. She said the new findings are “shining a light on the Kremlin’s barbaric plot to silence his voice”.
French Foreign Minister Jean-Noel Barrot wrote on X the alleged poisoning shows “Vladimir Putin is prepared to use biological weapons against his own people in order to remain in power.”
The Russian government has repeatedly denied any involvement in Navalny’s death. Authorities said he became ill after a walk and died from natural causes.
“Once there are test results – once there are formulas for the substances – there will be a comment. Without this, all talk and statements are just information leaks aimed at distracting attention from the West’s pressing problems,” said Zakharova.
It’s unclear how the samples from Navalny’s body were obtained or where they were assessed. Cooper told reporters “UK scientists worked with our European partners to pursue the truth” on Navalny’s death.
Navalnaya said the “murder” of her husband is now a “science-proven fact”.
“Two years ago, I came on stage here and said that it was Vladimir Putin who killed my husband,” Navalnaya said on the sidelines of the Munich Security Conference.
“I was, of course, certain that it was a murder, … but back then, it was just words. But today these words have become science-proven fact,” Navalnaya added.
Navalny was the previous target of a nerve agent poisoning in 2020 that he blamed on the Kremlin.
He was flown to Germany for treatment, and when he returned to Russia five months later, he was immediately arrested and imprisoned for the remaining three years of his life.
The UK held a public inquiry into the poisoning in Britain of Russian double agent Sergey Skripal in 2018. It concluded last year that Putin must have ordered the Novichok nerve agent attack. The Kremlin has denied involvement.
Russia also denied poisoning Alexander Litvinenko, a former Russian agent-turned-Kremlin critic who died in London in 2006 after ingesting the radioactive isotope polonium-210. A British inquiry concluded that two Russian agents killed Litvinenko.
‘Illiberal’ PM, endorsed by ally Trump this week, to receive US Secretary of State Marco Rubio on Sunday.
Published On 14 Feb 202614 Feb 2026
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Hungarian Prime Minister Viktor Orban says his country should fear the European Union more than Russia while promising to clear away the EU’s “oppressive machinery” before what looks will be heated parliamentary elections.
Delivering his annual state-of-the-nation speech on Saturday, Orban pledged to push out “the foreign influence that limits our sovereignty together with its agents” as the opposition Tisza Party maintains an 8 to 12 percentage point lead over Orban’s ruling Fidesz party eight weeks from the April 12 elections.
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“Fear-mongering about [Russian President Vladimir] Putin is primitive and unserious. Brussels, however, is a palpable reality and a source of imminent danger,” said the 62-year-old leader, who compared the EU to the repressive Soviet regime that dominated Hungary for decades last century.
Since returning to power for a second time in 2010, Orban has waged a campaign against “pseudo-civil organisations”, “bought journalists”, judges and politicians in his drive to build what he calls an “illiberal state”.
His crackdown on immigration has provided a blueprint for right-wing leaders, such as United States President Donald Trump.
In Saturday’s speech, Orban signalled his work of clearing liberal forces from the country is only “half-done”, noting that Trump, who is backing him to win the upcoming vote, “rebelled against the liberals’ global-scale business, media and political network, thereby improving our chances as well”.
On Friday, Trump posted a new endorsement of Orban on his Truth Social platform, saying he’s a “truly strong and powerful leader with a proven track record of delivering phenomenal results”.
The US president’s comments came as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio prepares to visit Hungary on Sunday. Rubio will fly in from the Munich Security Conference in Germany with a stopover in Slovakia for talks with nationalist Prime Minister Robert Fico.
Orban, who has cultivated warm relations with Putin during his current stretch in power, this week cast the April elections as a stark choice between “war or peace”, warning in a Facebook post that Peter Magyar’s Tisza Party would drag the country into the conflict raging next door in Ukraine.
The prime minister has doubled down on his strategy of portraying Magyar as a “Brussels puppet” with billboards depicting him saying “yes” to a demand for “Money for Ukraine!” from European Commission President Ursula von der Leyen.
A fire at a key fuel refinery in the capital comes amid Cuba’s mounting fuel emergency due to US-imposed restrictions.
Published On 14 Feb 202614 Feb 2026
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A fire broke out at a key fuel processing plant in the Cuban capital Havana, threatening to exacerbate an energy crisis as the country struggles under an oil blockade imposed by the United States.
A large plume of smoke was seen rising above Havana Bay from the Nico Lopez refinery on Friday, drawing the attention of the capital’s residents before fading as fire crews fought to bring the situation under control.
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Cuba’s Ministry of Energy and Mines said the fire, which erupted in a warehouse at the refinery, was eventually extinguished and that “the cause is under investigation”. There were no injuries and the fire did not spread to nearby areas, the ministry said in a post on social media.
“The workday at the Nico Lopez Refinery continues with complete normalcy,” the ministry said.
The location of the fire was close to where two oil tankers were moored in Havana’s harbour.
Cuba, which has been in a severe economic crisis for years, relied heavily on oil imports from Venezuela, which have been cut off since the abduction of the country’s leader Nicolas Maduro by United States forces last month.
US President Donald Trump has also threatened Cuba’s government and passed a recent executive order allowing for trade tariffs on any country that supplies oil to the island.
The country has seen widespread power outages due to the lack of fuel. Bus and train services have been cut, some hotels have closed, schools and universities have been restricted, and public sector workers are on a four-day work week. Staffing at hospitals was also cut back.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week of a humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba if its energy needs go unmet.
On Thursday, two Mexican navy vessels carrying more than 800 tonnes of humanitarian aid arrived in Havana, underscoring the nation’s growing need for humanitarian assistance amid the tightening US stranglehold on fuel.
Experts in maritime transport tracking told the AFP news agency that no foreign fuel or oil tankers have arrived in Cuba in weeks.
Cuba can only produce about one-third of its total fuel requirements.
Cuba’s Deputy Foreign Minister Carlos de Cossio accused the US of carrying out “massive punishment” against the Cuban people in a post on social media Friday.
Cuba requires imports of fuel and “the US is applying threats [and] coercive measures against any country that provides it”, the deputy minister said.
“Lack of fuel harms transportation, medical services, schooling, energy, production of food, the standard of living,” he said.
“Massive punishment is a crime,” he added.
Mexico’s President Claudia Sheinbaum has said her government seeks to “open the doors for dialogue to develop” between Cuba and the US and has criticised Washington’s oil restrictions as “unfair”.
Ukrainian skeleton racer Heraskevych says 2006 Winter Olympics ‘acts as propoganda for Russia’ after IOC decision.
Published On 13 Feb 202613 Feb 2026
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The Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) began hearing Ukrainian skeleton racer Vladyslav Heraskevych’s appeal on Friday, with a decision expected later in the day on whether he can return to competition at the Milano Cortina Olympics after his disqualification over his “helmet of remembrance”.
The 27-year-old was removed from the Olympic programme on Thursday when the International Bobsleigh and Skeleton Federation jury ruled that imagery on the helmet — depicting athletes killed since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022 — breached rules on political neutrality at the Games.
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Heraskevych is seeking reinstatement or at least a CAS-supervised run, pending a decision by sport’s highest court in advance of the final two runs set for Friday evening.
“I’m pretty positive about how it went,” he told reporters outside the office of CAS in Milan following his appearance before the court. “I hope the truth will prevail, and I know that I was innocent.”
The racer said he was now getting threats from Russians and blamed the IOC’s decision for that.
“I believe that these Games now and this act of the IOC also serves as an instrument of propaganda for Russia,” Heraskevych said. “I still receive a lot of threats from the Russian side.”
The IOC, whose president, Kirsty Coventry, met Heraskevych on Thursday in a last-ditch effort to break the impasse, has allowed the athlete to keep his credentials despite his disqualification, so he can stay at the Milano Cortina Games.
“For me, sitting down with Vladyslav and his dad, the conversation was extremely respectful,” Coventry told a news conference on Friday. “After that, I asked the disciplinary commission to re-look at not pulling his accreditation, out of respect for him and his dad. I thought that was the right thing to do.”
The case has dominated headlines in the first week of the Olympics.
CAS Secretary-General Matthieu Reeb could not say exactly when they were likely to reach a decision, despite the tight schedule.
“We hope to have a final decision announced today, but it’s difficult for me to say when,” Reeb told reporters. “Obviously, we know the schedule of the competition, and it is an objective for CAS to be able to run the decision before the start of the race, but we don’t know how long the hearing will take.
“We have only one arbitrator from Germany, and she will be in charge of this case. We have participants attending in person, like the IOC, the athlete is here, the father of the athlete is here.
“We have a representative of IBSF attending remotely. The athlete is also assisted by legal counsel speaking from Kyiv.”
These are the key developments from day 1,450 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 13 Feb 202613 Feb 2026
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Here is where things stand on Friday, February 13 :
WhatsApp said Thursday that Russia was trying to block its service. File Photo by Hayoung Jeong/EPA-EFE
Feb. 12 (UPI) — Russia has attempted to block access to WhatsApp, the Meta-owned encrypted smartphone messaging application said, accusing the Kremlin of trying to force its citizens to use a state-owned service.
WhatsApp said the Russian attempt to block the service occurred Thursday.
“Trying to isolate over 100 million users from private and secure communication is a backwards step and can only lead to less safety for people in Russia,” WhatsApp said in a brief statement in both English and Russian.
“We continue to do everything we can to keep users connected.”
Little information about the alleged effort was made public by the U.S.-based company. UPI has contacted WhatsApp and Roskomnadzor, Russia’s Federal Service for Supervision of Communications, Information Technology and Mass Media, for comment.
The application Russia was allegedly attempting to drive users to was not named by WhatsApp, but is widely believed to be Max, a smartphone application that Reporters Without Borders condemns as a tool for digital control.
According to the free speech and media watchdog, Russia is seeking to make Max the most widely used messaging app in Russia and the occupied Ukrainian territories. It said the service requires a Russian or Belarusian phone number and blocks communication with other parts of Ukraine while harvesting user data and disseminating pro-Kremlin news and information.
“Max gives the Kremlin a powerful tool for spreading its propaganda in a centralized digital space,” Vincent Berthier and Pauline Maufrais of RSF said in a joint statement published in November.
“This forced adoption also creates an information blackout for Ukrainian citizens in the occupied territories, cut off from free Ukraine.”
WhatsApp made its accusation after Telegram founder Pavel Durov made similar allegations against Moscow.
“Russia is restricting access to Telegram in an attempt to force its citizens to switch to a state-controlled app built for surveillance and political censorship,” he said in a post on Telegram.
“Restricting citizens’ freedom is never the right answer. Telegram stands for freedom of speech and privacy, no matter the pressure.”
Roskomnadzor said in a statement that it will continue to restrict access to Telegram over alleged violations of Russian law, privately owned Russian business news outlet RBC reported.
It accused Telegram of not implementing legally regulated measures to protect the security of citizens’ data and said it would continue to take steps to compel its compliance with the law.
“By decision of the authorized bodies, Roskomnadzor will continue the introduction of phased restrictions in order to achieve compliance with Russian legislation and ensure the protection of citizens,” the agency said.
Meta was designated as an extremist organization by a Russian court in 2022, leading to bans of Meta-owned Facebook and Instagram. Other social media platforms, including X, are blocked or restricted in the country.
Jeffrey Epstein used a former Russian official with links to Moscow’s FSB intelligence services to collect information on a woman he claimed was attempting to blackmail his business associates, according to documents released by the United States Department of Justice.
Epstein reached out to Sergei Belyakov, a former deputy minister of economic development, for advice in 2015 about what he described as an attempt to blackmail a group of “powerful” businessmen in New York, the documents contained in the latest tranche of the so-called Epstein files show.
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“I need a favor,” Epstein wrote to Belyakov in a July 2015 email, describing an extortion attempt by a Russian woman who had arrived at the Four Seasons Hotel in New York the previous week.
Epstein said the situation was “bad for business for everyone involved” and asked for “suggestions”.
Belyakov, a graduate of the FSB Academy, Moscow’s institute for training intelligence personnel, wrote back that he needed some time to “get information about her” and that he would meet a man who knew the woman the next day.
Several days later, Belyakov sent Epstein a roughly 100-word description of the woman’s background and what the ex-official described as her “sex and escort” business.
“She has nobody behind her,” Belyakov said, adding that she was believed to have “no patronage”.
Belyakov said “business problems” may have led the woman to resort to blackmail, and suggested that denying her entry to the US would be a “real threat” to her business.
Belyakov, who took up the position of board chairman at the St Petersburg International Economic Forum after leaving the Kremlin in 2014, relied on Epstein for access to high-profile figures in the financier’s orbit, according to the documents.
After a meeting with Epstein in May 2014, Belyakov told the convicted sex offender that he did not know many people who could offer “new horizons and prospects”.
“And I’m looking forward for next meeting with you,” he told Epstein.
In July 2015, Belyakov sought Epstein’s help to organise meetings with American venture capitalist Peter Thiel and the billionaire heir and businessman Thomas Pritzker.
“Sergey – let me know when you are in SF and it would be good to find a time to meet,” Thiel wrote to Belyakov in an email in July 2015, following an introduction by Epstein.
A little over a week later, Belyakov told Epstein that Thiel and Pritzker had shared their views on Russia’s economy and other topics, calling the meetings “very helpful”.
“By the way I was surprised that they had a lot of information about Russian economy and their view about our society,” Belyakov wrote, adding he hoped to see both businessmen again in Moscow.
In 2016, Belyakov sought Epstein’s feedback on proposals he wished to discuss with business leaders in the US.
Epstein told Belyakov he liked the idea, which was not specified in the emails, but that he should get a “good English speaking editor” before sharing business proposals, and there were “pretty women” who could fill the role.
Efforts by Al Jazeera to contact Belyakov, including through the St Petersburg International Economic Forum and the e-commerce company Ozon, where he served as managing director from 2021 to 2024, were unsuccessful.
Thiel’s foundation did not respond to a request for comment. Pritzker declined to comment through a spokesperson for his foundation.
Epstein also sought to arrange meetings with Russian President Vladimir Putin and Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, according to the documents, though there is no indication he was successful.
“I think you might suggest to putin, that lavrov, can get insight on talking to me,” Epstein wrote in an email to former Norwegian Prime Minister Thorbjorn Jagland in June 2018.
Jagland, who is under investigation in Norway on suspicion of corruption in his dealings with Epstein, wrote back that he would “suggest” the idea to Lavrov’s assistant.
Epstein, who died in 2019 while in prison awaiting trial on sex trafficking charges, has long been the focus of speculation that he worked for or with intelligence agencies on behalf of various countries, including Israel.
He had close ties with former Israeli Prime Minister Ehud Barak during his lifetime, with the two men exploring numerous business ventures and regularly exchanging correspondence on personal matters.
Barak’s former aide Yoni Koren, an ex-Israeli military intelligence officer who died in 2023, also stayed at residences belonging to Epstein for long stretches while receiving cancer treatment in the US in the late 2010s.
Russia will operate only return flights from Cuba as ‘evacuation’ of Russian citizens visiting the Caribbean island gets under way.
Published On 12 Feb 202612 Feb 2026
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Russia is preparing to evacuate its citizens who are visiting Cuba, Moscow’s aviation authorities said, after a United States-imposed oil blockade on the island nation has choked off supplies of jet fuel.
“Due to the difficulties with refuelling aircraft in Cuba, Rossiya Airlines and Nordwind Airlines have been forced to adjust their flight schedules to airports in the country,” Russia’s federal aviation regulator Rosaviatsia said in a statement on Wednesday.
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“Rossiya Airlines will operate a number of return flights only – from Havana and Varadero to Moscow – to ensure the evacuation of Russian tourists currently in Cuba,” the regulator said.
About 5,000 Russian tourists may be on the island, Russia’s Association of Tour Operators said earlier this week.
Russia’s Ministry of Economic Development separately called on citizens not to travel to Cuba amid its worst fuel crisis in years, caused by the US choking off supplies of oil from Venezuela following the US military’s abduction of Venezuelan President Nicolas Maduro in early January.
Russia’s TASS news agency said the Russian embassy in Havana is in contact with national carrier Aeroflot and Cuban aviation authorities to “ensure our citizens return home safely”.
Aeroflot has announced repatriation flights for Russians, TASS said, reporting also that the embassy in Havana told Russian media outlet Izvestia that Moscow plans to send humanitarian aid shipments of oil and petroleum products to Cuba.
A traditional ally of Havana, Moscow has accused Washington of attempting to “suffocate” the Caribbean island nation.
Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said on Monday that Moscow was discussing “possible solutions” to provide Havana with “whatever assistance” it needs.
More than 130,000 Russians visited Cuba in 2025, according to reports, the third-largest group of visitors to the island after Canadians and Cubans living abroad.
Air Canada and the Canadian airlines Air Transat and WestJet have also cut flights to Cuba due to the fuel shortages.
While Cuba has been in a severe economic crisis for years, largely caused by longstanding US sanctions due to Washington’s antipathy towards Havana’s socialist leadership, the situation has become dire since the return of President Donald Trump to the White House.
Trump has directly threatened Cuba’s government and passed a recent executive order allowing for the imposition of trade tariffs on countries that supply oil to Cuba.
Cuba, which can produce just a third of its total fuel requirements, has seen widespread power outages due to the lack of fuel. Bus and train services have been cut, some hotels have closed, schools and universities have been restricted, and public sector workers are on a four-day work week.
United Nations Secretary-General Antonio Guterres warned last week of a humanitarian “collapse” in Cuba if its energy needs go unmet.
Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov did not say why he believed the US would respect the limits set out in New START.
Published On 11 Feb 202611 Feb 2026
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Russia has said it will abide by limits on its nuclear weapons as set out in a lapsed arms control treaty with the United States, as long as Washington continues to do the same.
The New START agreement expired earlier this month, leaving the world’s two biggest nuclear-armed powers with no binding constraints on their strategic arsenals for the first time in more than half a century and sparking fears of a new global arms race.
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In an address to parliament on Wednesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov said that Moscow was in no rush to start developing and deploying more weapons – backtracking on comments made by his ministry last week that said Russia considered itself no longer bound by the treaty’s terms.
“We proceed from the fact that this moratorium, which was announced by our president, remains in effect, but only while the United States does not exceed the outlined limits,” said Lavrov.
“We have reason to believe that the United States is in no hurry to abandon these limits and that they will be observed for the foreseeable future,” he said, without explaining the basis for that assumption.
US President Donald Trump rejected an offer from Russian President Vladimir Putin to voluntarily abide by the limits set out in New START for another year, saying he wanted a “new, improved and modernised” treaty rather than an extension of the old one.
Russia has also indicated it wants to strike a new arms control agreement.
Washington is pushing for China to be included in the talks, pointing to its growing nuclear arsenal.
According to the Stockholm International Peace Research Institute (SIPRI), China’s nuclear arsenal is growing faster than that of any other country by about 100 new warheads a year since 2023.
However, Beijing refuses to negotiate with the US and Russia because it says it has only a fraction of their warhead numbers – an estimated 600, compared with about 4,000 each for Russia and the US.
As the treaty expired, Chinese Foreign Ministry spokesperson Lin Jian said that China would not be joining the bilateral arms-reduction talks.
Moscow says if China is brought into a new deal, then so too should the US’s nuclear allies, the United Kingdom and France, which have 290 and 225 warheads, respectively.
New START, first signed in Prague in 2010 by the then-presidents of the US and Russia, Barack Obama and Dmitry Medvedev, limited each side’s nuclear arsenal to 1,550 deployed strategic warheads – a reduction of nearly 30 percent from the previous limit set in 2002.
Deployed weapons or warheads are those in active service and available for rapid use as opposed to those in storage or awaiting dismantlement.
It also allowed each side to conduct on-site inspections of the other’s nuclear arsenal, although these were suspended during the COVID-19 pandemic and have not resumed since.
Russia in 2023 rejected inspections of its nuclear sites under the treaty, as tensions rose with the US over its nearly four-year war in Ukraine.
But it said it had remained committed to the quantitative limits set down.
These are the key developments from day 1,448 of Russia’s war on Ukraine.
Published On 11 Feb 202611 Feb 2026
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Here is where things stand on Wednesday, February 11:
A Russian attack killed four people, including three small children, in the Ukrainian city of Bohodukhiv, west of Kharkiv, regional governor Oleh Syniehubov said on the Telegram messaging app early on Wednesday.
Kyiv, Ukraine – A heavy Russian Geran drone struck a fast-moving train in northern Ukraine on January 27, killing five, wounding two and starting a fire that disfigured the railway carriage.
Such an attack was impossible back in 2022, when Russia started dispatching roaring swarms of Shaheds, the Geran-2’s Iranian prototypes.
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Ukrainian servicemen ridiculed them for their slow speed and low effectiveness – and shot them down with their assault rifles and machineguns.
But the Geran kamikaze drones have undergone countless modifications, becoming faster and deadlier – and some were equipped with Starlink satellite internet terminals.
The terminals made them immune to Ukrainian jamming and even allowed their Russian operators to navigate their movement in real time.
Western sanctions prohibit the import of the notebook-sized terminals operated by Elon Musk’s SpaceX company to Russia.
But Moscow has allegedly smuggled thousands of them via ex-Soviet republics and the Middle East, notably Dubai, using falsified documents and activation in nations where the use of Starlink is legal, according to Russian war correspondents and media reports.
Russian forces were able to counter the use of Starlink by Ukrainian forces as the terminals linked to SpaceX’s satellite armada orbiting the Earth allowed faster communication and data exchange, as well as greater precision.
In early February, SpaceX blocked the use of every Starlink geolocated on Ukrainian territory, including the ones used by Ukrainian forces.
Only after a verification and inclusion into “white lists” that are updated every 24 hours can they be back online.
But any terminal will be shut down if moving faster than 90km/h (56mph) to prevent drone attacks.
“Looks like the steps we took to stop the unauthorized use of Starlink by Russia have worked,” Musk wrote on X on February 1.
The step is ascribed to Ukraine’s new defence minister, Mykhailo Fedorov, a 35-year-old who had served as the minister of digital transformation. He introduced dozens of innovations that simplified bureaucracy and business, according to a four-star general.
“Fedorov managed to sort it out with Musk – somehow, because we couldn’t do it earlier,” Lieutenant General Ihor Romanenko, a former deputy head of Ukrainian armed forces, told Al Jazeera.
He said the shut-off “significantly lowered” the effectiveness of Russia’s drone attacks and disrupted the communication of small groups of Russian soldiers trying to infiltrate Ukrainian positions.
The effect was so devastating that it made Russian forces “howl” with despair, said Andriy Pronin, one of the pioneers of military drone use in Ukraine.
“They’re like blind kittens now,” he told Al Jazeera.
Russian servicemen in places like the contested eastern town of Kupiansk are now “deprived of any way of getting in touch with mainland”, one of them complained on Telegram on February 4.
Other servicemen and war correspondents decried the shortsightedness of Russian generals who built communications around Starlink and did not create an alternative based on Russian technologies and devices.
However, the shutdown affected Ukrainian users of Starlink that were not supplied to the Defence Ministry but were procured by civilians and charities.
“The communications were down for two days until we figured out the white list procedure,” Kyrylo, a serviceman in the northern Kharkiv region, told Al Jazeera. He withheld his last name in accordance with the wartime protocol.
The effect, however, is short-term and is unlikely to turn the tables in the conflict that is about to enter another year.
“It’s not a panacea, it’s not like we’re winning the war,” Pronin said. “It will be hard [for Russians], but they will restore their communications.”
According to Romanenko, “it’ll take them several weeks to switch to older” communication devices such as radio, wi-fi, fibre optic or mobile phone internet.
Russian authorities on Sunday announced the arrest of a suspect in Friday’s failed assassination attempt of Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alexeyev. File Photo by Russian Defense Ministry/EPA
Feb. 9 (UPI) — Two detained Russian nationals have confessed to their roles in the failed assassination attempt of a senior military general, Russia’s Federal Security Service said Monday, as Moscow sought to bolster its claim that Ukraine was behind the attack.
Lt. Gen. Vladimir Alekseyev was seriously wounded Friday when he was shot by an assailant in Moscow. Authorities said Alekseyev was inside a residential building on Moscow’s Volokolamskoye Highway when the attack occurred.
Lyubomyr Korba, born in 1960 in what was then the Ukrainian Soviet Socialist Republic, was arrested over the weekend in Dubai and extradited to Russia. Viktor Vasin, born in 1959, was arrested by Russian authorities in Moscow.
Russia’s intelligence agency FSB said in a statement Monday that both men “confessed their guilt” and described the attempt on Alekseyev’s life.
According to the intelligence agents, Korba was the alleged shooter and Vasin an alleged accomplice.
The FSB accused Korba of entering Alekseyev’s apartment building and waiting for the general to appear in the lobby. Four shots were fired. The pistol, previously identified as a Makarov-type firearm fitted with a suppressor, was discarded at the scene, after which the suspect fled.
Within hours of the shooting, Korba had allegedly boarded a plane for the UAE and was detained in Dubai by local authorities at the request of Russia.
The Investigative Committee of the Russian Federation on Sunday said in a statement that Korba arrived in Moscow late last year “on assignment from the Ukrainian special services to carry out a terrorist attack.”
On Monday, the FSB accused Korba of being recruited by the Security Service of Ukraine in August. He is alleged to have conducted surveillance on senior Russian military officials in Moscow at Kyiv’s instruction.
Russian intelligence said Korba allegedly retrieved the gun and an electronic key for the apartment building from a drop location in Moscow.
Vasin is alleged by Russian agents to be a supporter of the Anti-Corruption Foundation, an organization designated by the Kremlin as a terrorist organization and founded by the late opposition leader Alexei Navalny who died in a Russian penal colony on Feb. 16, 2024.
The FSB accuses Vasin of having rented a “covert residence” for the operation as well as having provided Korba with public transportation tickets.
A third suspect, Zinaida Serebritskaya, born in 1971, is alleged to have lived in the same apartment building as Alekseyev and to have supplied the electronic key used for the alleged shooter to gain access to the target.
The three were identified as suspects in the attempted assassination on Sunday, when the FSB said in a statement that Korba had been handed over to Russia by the UAE.
Neither UAE nor Dubai authorities have confirmed the arrest nor offered details on the operation.
State-run Russian news has published FSB-released video showing the suspect Korba handcuffed and blindfolded being escorted off a plane by masked men and seemingly onto the tarmac of a Russian airport.
Korba has been charged with attempted murder of a service member and illegal possession of firearms, according to the investigative committee.
Russian authorities said Vasin was detained in the Moscow region and is facing the same charges as Korba.
Russia’s Investigative committee said Serebritskaya has left Russia for Ukraine.
Alekseyev, 64, is a senior official in the General Staff and is accused of leading intelligence supporting Russia’s February 2022 invasion of Ukraine.