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Russia praises US votes in UN siding with Russia

Russia praises US votes in UN siding with Russia
By Alex Kozul-Wright
Published On 26 Feb 2025

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26 Feb 2025 - 16:58
 (16:58 GMT)

That’s a wrap from us

This live page is now closed. Thanks for joining us.

You can read our comprehensive explainer about the US-Ukraine critical minerals deal here and watch an episode of Counting the Cost about it here.

And you can check out our story about a new film that reveals how Russia’s overhauled, pro-war syllabus is influencing a generation of young people here.

26 Feb 2025 - 16:53
 (16:53 GMT)
Houthi

Trump says Zelenskyy to visit Washington on Friday

The US president has confirmed that Zelenskyy will visit the White House on Friday to sign the critical minerals deal.

Trump made the comment during a cabinet meeting.

26 Feb 2025 - 16:45
 (16:45 GMT)

Here’s what happened today

We will be closing this live page soon, so let’s bring you up to speed with the main developments today:

  • Ukrainian President Volodomyr Zelenskyy has confirmed a framework is ready for a minerals deal with the US but says he has not received any security guarantees from the Trump administration.
  • Diplomats from Russia and the US will hold talks in the Turkish city of Istanbul on Thursday, Russian Foreign Ministry Sergey Lavrov has said.
  • Russia claims that it has recaptured the villages of Orlivka and Pogrebki in the Kursk region, which were seized by Ukraine last year.
  • Ukraine says it struck an oil refinery in Russia’s Tuapse, as well as military airfields in Crimea.
  • Overnight, Russia attacked Ukraine with nearly 200 drones targeting the Kyiv region and energy facilities in the east. Officials said at least seven people were killed.
26 Feb 2025 - 16:30
 (16:30 GMT)

Dozens of delegates leave room as Russia begins UN rights council speech

Dignitaries from a number of countries, including the ambassadors of UK, France and Germany, have walked out of Russia’s speech to the UN Human Rights Council in support of Ukraine.

The delegates gathered outside the room in Geneva where the session was taking place to mark three years since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine.

“Our support for Ukraine is ironclad. We want to see a just and enduring peace in line with the UN charter,” said Simon Manley, the UK’s ambassador to the UN and World Trade Organization.

“Ukraine has to be at the negotiating table,” said Manley, who walked out of the speech as it started.

“If we let slide what happened with Ukraine without reacting … we would open the door to a disintegration of fundamental principles on which the UN was founded,” France’s Ambassador Jerome Bonnafont said.

In his speech to the council, Russia’s Deputy Foreign Minister Sergey Vershinin accused Ukraine of a “flagrant violation of fundamental human rights”, accusing it of Russophobia.

“Securing human rights and freedoms is incompatible with double standards,” Vershinin added.

Ukraine’s representative criticised Russia for defying international law.

“The aggressor should be punished, aggression should not be rewarded,” Ukraine’s deputy minister for foreign affairs, Mariana Betsa, told the council.

26 Feb 2025 - 16:15
 (16:15 GMT)

UK PM heading to US with defence spending pledge to help sway Trump over Ukraine

Keir Starmer is flying to Washington, DC after announcing a big increase in his government’s defence budget, in what is partly seen as an attempt to persuade Trump to maintain support for Ukraine.

Though the British prime minister is likely to tout the transatlantic “special relationship” that has endured since World War II during his visit to the White House on Thursday, he faces an uncertain reception after Trump upended decades of US foreign policy norms during his first month in office.

Ukraine and its European allies are scrambling to respond after the Trump administration engaged directly with Moscow on ending the war in Ukraine.

Starmer’s visit, which follows a trip to the US by French President Emmanuel Macron earlier this week, is part of European efforts to ensure Ukraine gets a voice in negotiations, and that the US still backs Europe in dealing with Russia.

The prime minister announced yesterday that the UK will hike military spending to 2.5 percent of gross domestic product by 2027, years earlier than expected, and will aim to hit 3 percent by 2035.

Starmer called it the “biggest sustained increase in defense spending since the end of the Cold War”.

Britain’s Prime Minister Keir Starmer [File: Paul Grover/AFP]
26 Feb 2025 - 16:00
 (16:00 GMT)

Russia’s central bank links rouble rally to geopolitics

The Russian central bank has said that the rouble’s rally since the start of the year is partly linked to geopolitical factors, but it’s still too early to evaluate the impact on the country’s economy.

The Russian currency has gained roughly 24 percent against the US dollar and 15 percent against China’s yuan so far this year, mostly on expectations of better relations with the US.

“The strengthening of the rouble was linked both to the markets’ reaction to geopolitical events and to the seasonal decrease in demand for foreign currency from importers,” the monetary authority said.

“It is currently difficult to assess how sustainable the strengthening of the rouble observed in recent weeks will be and how it will affect prices,” it added in the published minutes from its rate-setting meeting on February 14.

A stronger rouble would help to bring down Russia’s rate of inflation, which has become a drag on the economy and a headache for the government.

26 Feb 2025 - 15:45
 (15:45 GMT)

Ukraine to set up high-level courts as part of reform drive

Ukrainian lawmakers have approved a measure that would allow for the setting up of new courts to settle high-level political disputes, as part of a reform effort being closely watched by the country’s Western partners.

The courts’ creation is a condition set by the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for it to continue its $15.6bn financing programme for Ukraine.

Based in Kyiv, the courts would hear cases involving state institutions, such as ministries or other central agencies. They would replace a body that was dissolved in 2022 after years of corruption allegations.

Lawmaker Yaroslav Zhelezniak said on social media that the measure to create them was passed with 234 votes and that the judges of the proposed courts would be appointed with the help of foreign advisers.

An IMF delegation is in Kyiv for talks on continuing the fund’s loan programme. Ukraine has accelerated its reform drive during the war with Russia, launching corruption cases against sitting lawmakers and senior ministers and refreshing its judiciary.

The campaign is central to Ukraine’s bid to join the European Union.

26 Feb 2025 - 15:30
 (15:30 GMT)

Questions remain over US-Ukraine deal

By Charles Stratford

Reporting from Kyiv, Ukraine

The basic concept that needs to be understood is what the Ukrainians, who seem to have been bamboozled by the US into making this deal, are hoping for.

We know that the initial draft agreement was rejected by Ukraine’s President Zelenskyy over security guarantees, and then there was a war of words, with US President Trump insulting the Ukrainian leader, calling him a “dictator” and blaming him for the start of the war.

A lot has happened since then, but seemingly we’re at a point now where the Ukrainians say that they are potentially closer to signing this agreement than they’ve ever been before.

Zelenskyy has described it as a framework agreement. He says that if and when he gets to the White House, he’ll be very direct in pushing Trump on what in fact is in it for Ukraine.

Ukraine’s hope is that if the US has major assets in the country, then it will be more forthcoming with giving it support. But Zelenskyy still has questions as to whether that support will be, for example, buying weapons from the US.

26 Feb 2025 - 15:15
 (15:15 GMT)
Developing

Ukraine will not accept ’10 cents’ of debt repayment in agreement with US, says Zelenskyy

We have some more comments from Volodymyr Zelenskyy’s news conference in Kyiv.

The Ukrainian president said his country will not accept even “10 cents of debt repayment” in its minerals agreement with the US.

“The question is not that we are ungrateful. We are grateful. But if the next agreement contains a condition that new aid will not be free, I will not play,” he said. “There is no $500bn debt, nor $350bn, nor $100bn. That would be unfair to us,” he said.

Zelenskyy emphasised the importance of maintaining Ukraine’s military strength. “I will keep the army as it is because it is the best guarantee of security,” he said.

He added that the deal includes “at least a mention” of security guarantees for Ukraine in the 10th point, adding: “Officials briefed me, and it is there. This is important.”

When asked about a possible trip to the US on Friday, Zelenskyy said that he hopes to meet Trump in Washington: “There was an invitation. The offices are working. We are waiting to see when and what,” he said.

26 Feb 2025 - 15:00
 (15:00 GMT)

Ukraine says it struck Russian oil refinery in Tuapse, military airfields in Crimea

The Ukrainian military says that overnight, it attacked Russia’s Tuapse oil refinery on the Black Sea coast, as well as two Russian military airfields in Crimea.

At least 40 blasts were recorded in the area of the oil plant, the Ukraine’s General Staff said in a post on Telegram.

There was no immediate comment by Russia.

26 Feb 2025 - 14:45
 (14:45 GMT)

What is the state of Russia-US diplomatic relations?

Russia and the US are seeking to mend diplomatic relations during talks in Istanbul on Thursday, as part of a surprise rapprochement under Trump.

Here is a rundown of recent diplomatic spats between the two countries:

  • Moscow has had no ambassador in Washington since last October when the previous envoy – Anatoly Antonov – left his post. A senior Russian lawmaker said in late January that Washington had granted approval for a new ambassador, but the Foreign Ministry said on February 22 there was no agreement yet. The US has an ambassador in Moscow, Lynne Tracy.
  • Days after Russian President Vladimir Putin sent tens of thousands of Russian troops into Ukraine on February 24, 2022, the US ordered the expulsion of 12 Russian diplomats at the United Nations, whom it described as intelligence operatives engaged in espionage. That March, Russia expelled an unspecified number of US diplomats from their Moscow embassy in a tit-for-tat move. It is currently unclear how many diplomats each side has in the other’s country.
  • Russia has been engaged in a dispute over its diplomatic property in the US since 2017, when Washington closed down the Russian consulate in San Francisco and two diplomatic annexes in New York and Washington, DC, after accusations by US intelligence officials that Russia interfered in the 2016 US presidential election. Moscow denied political interference and denounced the closures as a hostile act violating international law.
  • In 2018, Trump ordered the closure of the Russian consulate in Seattle due to its proximity to a US submarine base and planemaker Boeing. In the years since, Moscow has repeatedly appealed to the UN to urge the US to return the property to Russia.
26 Feb 2025 - 14:30
 (14:30 GMT)

Russia opposes European ‘peacekeeping’ efforts

By Yulia Shapovalova

Reporting from Moscow, Russia

According to Russian Foreign Minister Sergey Lavrov, Moscow is not considering any options for deploying European peacekeeping forces into Ukraine. He thinks that would simply heat up the conflict.

Earlier this week, US President Donald Trump spoke in favour of deploying Russian forces in Ukraine, as peacekeeping agents. Russian President Vladimir Putin is allegedly not opposed to Trump’s proposal.

The Russian government is also opposed to entrenching hostilities on the current front line. According to Lavrov, there are people in Ukraine who find it more convenient to speak Russian and who want to preserve their ancestral traditions. He thinks they should be allowed to do so.

Lavrov made his comments in Doha where he met the Qatari foreign minister and praised his country for the enormous efforts it has made in reuniting families, as, over the course of the war, Ukrainian children have been being taken to Russia, and vice versa.

The Qatari side is mediating in order to reunite family members.

26 Feb 2025 - 14:15
 (14:15 GMT)

Italy’s Meloni wants ‘security guarantees’ for Ukraine peace deal

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni has said that any peace deal in Ukraine must include “security guarantees” that ensure that “what we have seen over the past three years does not happen again”.

“These security guarantees must be implemented in the context of the Atlantic alliance”, she said, referring to NATO.

Her comments come a day before diplomats from Russia and the US will meet in Istanbul.

Italian Prime Minister Giorgia Meloni [File: Guglielmo Mangiapane/Reuters]
26 Feb 2025 - 14:00
 (14:00 GMT)

US abstains from WTO condemnation of Russia’s aggression in Ukraine: Report

The US abstained from co-sponsoring a joint statement at the World Trade Organization condemning Russia’s aggression in Ukraine, a diplomatic source and a Geneva trade official have told Reuters.

It would be the first time the US did not support the dispatch that has been issued each year since Russia’s full-scale invasion in February 2022, in another signal of the Trump administration’s closer ties to Russia.

More than 40 WTO members agreed on the statement, which was shared at the Ukraine trade review session at the WTO. They included the European Union, the United Kingdom, Canada and Australia.

There was no immediate comment from the US mission to the UN in Geneva.

26 Feb 2025 - 13:50
 (13:50 GMT)
Developing

More from Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian president has told reported that the framework economic deal with the US is a first step towards a full agreement that will be subject to ratification by Ukraine’s parliament.

Ukraine needs to know where the US stands on its continued military support, Zelenskyy told a news conference in Kyiv.

He said he wanted to visit Washington, DC to have a wide-ranging conversation with Trump.

“I want to coordinate with the US,” Zelenskyy said.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelenskyy speaks to journalists in Kyiv [Evgeniy Maloletka/AP Photo]
26 Feb 2025 - 13:45
 (13:45 GMT)

Kyiv says its launched a counterattack near Pokrovsk, key highway

Ukrainian forces say they have launched a successful counterattack in the eastern Donetsk region, gaining control over the village of Kotlyne near a key transit artery and the logistics hub of Pokrovsk.

“Taking this settlement would have allowed the occupiers to reach the Pokrovsk-Dnipro highway, so the enemy sent significant forces to capture it,” the Ukrainian unit involved in the operation posted on social media.

26 Feb 2025 - 13:40
 (13:40 GMT)
Houthi

No security guarantees agreed yet under US minerals deal: Zelenskyy

The Ukrainian president has said a framework economic deal with the US is ready but security guarantees remain to be decided.

Speaking to reporters, Volodymyr Zelenskyy also said the success of the agreement would depend on Trump.

He said the deal was part of broader agreements with the US and could provide security guarantees to Ukraine to ensure a lasting and fair peace.

We’ll bring you more of his comments shortly.

26 Feb 2025 - 13:30
 (13:30 GMT)

No concrete security guarantees as Ukrainian PM outlines minerals deal with US

Denis Smyhal has disclosed the details of the draft minerals deal speaking on public television.

The Ukrainian prime minister said its wording showed the US supported Ukraine’s effort to get security guarantees but details were still to be worked out.

Smyhal said the government would authorise the draft agreement later today so it could be signed, with Zelenskyy expected to visit Washington, DC on Friday to meet Trump.

“After the Ukrainian president and the US president agree on security guarantees, agree on how we tie this preliminary agreement to security guarantees from the United States for our country, in the presence of [both] presidents, a representative of the Ukrainian government will sign this preliminary agreement.”

Outlining the draft, Smyhal said Ukraine would contribute 50 percent of “all proceeds received from the future monetisation of all relevant state-owned natural resource assets and relevant infrastructure”.

Those proceeds would go into a fund under the joint control of the US and Ukraine, he said.

“Already existing deposits, facilities, licences and rents are not subject to discussion when creating this fund,” he added.

26 Feb 2025 - 13:15
 (13:15 GMT)

‘Propaganda lessons for everyone’: Russia’s wartime curriculum exposed

By Niko Vorobyov

In Pavel Talankin’s film, Mr. Nobody Against Putin, one scene depicts Russian schoolteachers struggling to explain the reasons for Moscow’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine to their pupils, early on in the war.

One cannot say “denazification”, a word the Kremlin often uses to justify its onslaught. Later, though, a history teacher displays no hesitation.

“The economic component of hybrid warfare, these are the sanctions against our country,” he tells a class of 12- and 13-year-olds. “You already know that Europe, not Russia, is suffering the most from these sanctions now … There are no local agricultural products: No wheat, oils and so on. Well, OK, in France they’re used to eating oysters and frogs. They will last for some time. But what about the others, like England?”

Since the war erupted three years ago, classrooms, lecture halls and even kindergartens across Russia have reflected the new normal in a militarised syllabus that critics accuse of indoctrinating children into a warlike ideology.

Talankin’s documentary aims to expose how the “special military operation”, as the invasion is officially termed, has spilled over into the nation’s schools.

Read more here.

Pavel Talankin risked Russia’s wrath by secretly sharing footage of a new wartime education programme with a US filmmaker for their documentary, Mr. Nobody Against Putin [Courtesy: Frantisek Svatos]
26 Feb 2025 - 13:00
 (13:00 GMT)

UK defence chief says this is time for ‘strength’

Cutting aid to fund a major increase in defence spending was a “really difficult decision”, but national security must come first, John Healey has said.

“This is a time when hard power, not soft power, is needed to try and prevent and deter future conflicts,” the British defence secretary said, referring to the UK government’s decision to spend 2.5 percent of GDP on defence by 2027.

Speaking to Sky News, Healey said the decision was taken “because the world has changed. We need to increase defence spending. We need to strengthen our armed forces.”

Asked about reports regarding the critical minerals deal between the US and Ukraine, he said anything that binds the US more closely to the future of Ukraine and reinforces Trump’s commitment to deliver a durable peace “is a good step”.

However, he cautioned, “We still got a long way to go.”

“If we want a lasting, durable peace, as President Trump and Zelenskyy have both said, peace comes through strength.”