Here is the situation on Monday, February 24, the third anniversary of the start of the war:

Fighting

• The Russian Ministry of Defence said its forces seized eastern Ukraine’s Ulakly and Novoandriivka in the Donetsk region.
• President Volodymyr Zelenskyy announced that Ukraine is working on a domestic alternative to the US Patriot air defence system.
• Ukrainian Ombudsman Dmytro Lubinets said social media footage showed a Russian servicemember executing a Ukrainian prisoner in an unspecified area of Kursk Oblast, according to the Institute for the Study of War.
• Protesters in many countries, including the United States, France, Turkiye and Greece, as well as the island of Taiwan, took to the streets to mark the third anniversary of the war.

Politics and diplomacy

• On the eve of the anniversary, President Vladimir Putin said Russian soldiers were defending “national interests” at the risk of their lives in Ukraine and pledged to continue with an “unchanged” strategy for strengthening the armed forces.
• Putin also said in a military decorations award ceremony that God and fate entrusted him and the Russian army with “the mission” to defend the country.
• Kremlin spokesman Dmitry Peskov said Russia would never sell captured Ukrainian territories, claiming that “the people decided to join Russia a long time ago”.

• Peskov also said US President Donald Trump’s hostility towards Zelenskyy was “understandable”, and accused Zelenskyy of repeatedly making “inappropriate remarks” against Trump.
• Zelenskyy’s top aide Andriy Yermak said at a news conference that Kyiv could not compromise on independence, territorial integrity or sovereignty.
• White House spokeswoman Karoline Leavitt said Trump was “very confident” that the war would end this week.
• Ukraine’s Deputy Prime Minister Yulia Svyrydenko told reporters at a news conference that there was about $350bn worth of critical rare earth minerals in the Russia-occupied regions of the country.
• Ukraine’s military spy chief Kyrylo Budanov said in a news conference that 50 percent of Russia’s ammunition needs for the war were fulfilled by North Korea.
• Ukrainian Defence Minister Rustem Umerov said the country was exploring alternatives to Starlink satellite internet service amid reports that the US could cease access to Kyiv. “We are already working on this. There are alternatives,” he said.
• Trump’s special envoy Steve Witkoff said the US expects Washington and Kyiv to sign an agreement for rare earths this week.
• Zelenskyy said he was willing to step down as president if it meant Ukraine’s entry to NATO was guaranteed. “If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready,” he said.

• He refused to accept that Kyiv owes Washington $500bn for aid provided in the past, and said the US gave $100bn in aid to Ukraine during the past three years and a touted minerals deal could not work if the US demands that aid be repaid.
• Noting that about $15bn of previously pledged US aid to Ukraine has yet to be delivered, Zelenskyy said deploying American soldiers to Ukraine would be logical if the bilateral minerals deal included security guarantees.