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President says military discussed issues seriously but ‘sensitive political matters’ not addressed properly
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The White House has hit back at Volodymyr Zelensky after he said the US was piling undue pressure on Kyiv to end the war.
Zelensky said Trump’s insistence that Ukraine should compromise was “not fair” ahead of trilateral talks in Geneva, which ended abruptly on Wednesday after just two hours.
White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt said that Trump believes the war has been “very unfair, not just for the Russians and Ukrainians who have lost their lives, but also for the American people and the American taxpayer who were footing the bill for this war effort before President Trump put a stop to it”.
Both sides have said they are willing to continue peace talks in future, though it is not clear when or where this will take place.
Zelensky said he was dissatisfied with the lack of progress in Geneva, insisting that “sensitive political matters” and the need for compromise had not been addressed properly.
“As of today, we cannot say that the result is sufficient,” Zelensky said.
Ukrainian president Volodymyr Zelensky has said he is set to hold a peace talks discussion with the members of his negotiating team after talks in Switzerland.
“Today all members of our negotiating group will already be in Ukraine, and for tomorrow I have scheduled a special meeting with them regarding our next steps and decisions. There will be a report here in Kyiv on those aspects of the negotiations that should not be discussed over the phone. We will also define the further framework of talks with our partners – the American side, the Europeans – and with the Russian side,” he said.
Russian forces attacked Ukraine’s leading state-owned fuel and energy company Naftogaz Group three times more than its previous years’ strikes, the company said in a statement.
“The scale of attacks in 2025 was unprecedented in terms of the scale of attacks on our infrastructure,” Serhiy Koretskyi, CEO of Naftogaz Ukraine, said in a statement.
Russia attacked the energy company at least 229 times last year.
“Despite this, we are providing the country with gas and maintaining the stability of the energy system,” he said.
Polish president Karol Nawrocki has approved a legislation calling for an end to support measures for Ukrainian refugees entering Poland and moved help into the country’s general law for protection of foreigners seeking refuge.
The earlier legal framework was created when Russia launched a full-scale invasion on Ukraine in February 2022 and offered simplified residence, employment, access to social benefits, and education for Ukrainians fleeing the war.
“I sign this law with the conviction that it protects our state finances, streamlines the system, and restores a sense of basic justice,” Karol Nawrocki said.
These provisions will now incorporate Ukrainians into a broader foreigner protection legislation and will create a unified temporary protection system that apply to all foreigners.
However, Poland will continue to extend the legal stay of Ukrainian nationals on their territory till 4 March, 2027.
The law also offers residency rights for Ukrainians already granted protection or whose documents were extended due to the war.
Ukrainian officials are poised to boycott the upcoming Milano Cortina Paralympics next month, protesting the participation of Russian and Belarusian athletes competing under their national flags.
Ukraine‘s sports minister Matvii Bidnyi confirmed on Wednesday that while Ukrainian athletes will still take part in the 6-15 March games, no official representatives from Ukraine will attend the opening ceremony or any other event.
It comes after the International Paralympic Committee’s (IPC) decision on Tuesday, which cleared a combined total of 10 para-athletes from Russia and Belarus to compete.
Six slots have been handed to Russia and four to Belarus.
The European Union is eager to begin Ukraine’s EU membership talks “as soon as possible”, European Council president António Costa said.
“I cannot say if it’s in 2027 or even in 2026 or later, but what is important is we cannot lose the momentum,” Costa said, speaking to reporters during a visit to Oslo.
The top official did not mention a specific date of Ukraine joining the bloc.
The US plan for an end to the war in Ukraine calls for Kyiv’s EU accession by January 2027, though experts generally consider that date highly unrealistic.
Ukrainian drones hit a Russian oil depot in the western region of Pskov, causing explosions and a fire, an official from Ukraine’s SBU security service said on Thursday.
“The destruction of oil depots directly affects the enemy’s ability to conduct combat operations, advance and move staff reserves. Such operations are part of a systematic weakening of Russia’s military potential,” the official told the Reuters news agency.
The European Union has said it is not seeing any tangible signs from Russia of serious engagement to end the war in Ukraine after the latest round of peace talks in Geneva.
“We see that Russia continues its relentless attacks on Ukraine. This does reflect that Russia is not ready for peace. We still do not see tangible signs that Russia is engaging seriously in peace,” said European Commission spokesperson Anouar El Anouni.
“Even this week, ahead of the peace talks, Ukraine experienced another massive missile and drone strike, according to Ukrainian authorities. As long as the bloodshed continues, we will continue to put pressure on Russia,” he said.
The EU spokesperson added that “nothing can be decided about Ukraine without Europe at the negotiating table”.
Hungary is considering a halt in its power and gas exports to Ukraine and will take steps unless Ukraine resumes crude shipments via the Druzhba pipeline, prime minister Viktor Orban’s chief of staff told a briefing on Thursday.
The Ukrainian foreign ministry suspended Russian oil transit to eastern Europe via the Ukrainian part of the Druzhba oil pipeline on 27 January as a result of a Russian attack.
The move drew criticism from the Slovak and Hungarian governments, who said it was an attempt by Kyiv to pressure Hungary to drop its opposition to Kyiv’s future membership of the European Union
Chief of staff Gergely Gulyas also said the government had freed up strategic oil reserves, after oil group MOL asked for it on Monday.
Russia’s foreign ministry has said they have “no reason” to believe that India has changed its position on buying Russian oil.
The US president Donald Trump has repeatedly claimed that India has agreed to stop its crude oil imports from Russia.
“We have no reason to believe that India has changed its position on buying Russian hydrocarbons. India’s purchase of Russian hydrocarbons benefits both countries and helps maintain stability in the international energy market,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Maria Zakharova said in her weekly briefing.
“There is nothing new in the claims of US president Donald Trump, as well as US Secretary of State Marco Rubio, who have grabbed the right to dictate to independent nations,” Ms Zakharova said.
However, Russian crude accounted for its smallest share of India’s oil imports since late 2022 in January, industry data showed.
India – the world’s third-largest oil importer and consumer – had sharply increased purchases of discounted Russian oil after Moscow’s invasion of Ukraine in 2022, with volumes exceeding 2 million barrels a day in some months.
But western sanctions and pressure to secure a trade deal with the United States have led New Delhi to scale back imports.
Since November, China has overtaken India as the largest buyer of Russia’s seaborne crude.
European intelligence chiefs do not believe a deal to end Russia’s war in Ukraine will be reached in 2026, Reuters is reporting citing the heads of five intelligence services.
Trilateral talks this year have failed to see any significant progress, despite positive sounds from both sides following earlier meetings.
Four of the five senior intelligence officials said Moscow is using negotiations with the US to seek sanctions being lifted and to help business deals be concluded. They have described the talks in Geneva as “negotiation theatre”, one said.
It marks a striking difference in views between Europe and the White House, which says talks have been constructive.
“Russia is not seeking a peace agreement. They are seeking their strategic goals, and those have not changed,” one European intelligence chief said.
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