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Stay on top of Russia-Ukraine war 02-03-2025 developments on the ground with KyivPost fact-based news, exclusive video footage, photos and updated war maps.
Recent polls suggest the populist party will win and they don’t want Czechia to continue its search to find more critically needed ammunition for Ukraine’s hard-pressed army.
A senior Czech Republic official on Friday said his government wants to kick off a second iteration of the international purchasing project they initiated. During 2024 Prague’s initiative delivered about 1.5 million vitally needed rounds of artillery ammunition to Ukraine’s military, one-third of it of the critical 155mm howitzer caliber. However, a top opposition politician said that if elected his government will have nothing to do with it. Announced in February 2024 and kicked off in June, the Czech-led shells-for-Ukraine initiative drummed up more than $1.5 billion in donations and commitments to buy artillery ammunition from Indian and South African producers as well as European suppliers in Slovakia, Italy, Germany, Spain, Norway, and France.
Contributors included Canada, Germany, Poland, Latvia, Lithuania, Estonia, Belgium, Finland, Portugal, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, the Netherlands, Luxembourg, Spain and Slovenia.
Ukraine vowed further attacks on Russian oil facilities and military sites
Ukraine on Monday stepped up its bombing campaign of Russian energy sites with aerial attacks on two oil facilities in the west of the country, Kyiv’s military said.
Ukraine and Russia have both targeted each others’ energy facilities and military infrastructure in almost nightly drone or missile attacks.
The UN identified 79 cases of Russian soldiers murdering Ukrainian POWs and a single instance of Ukrainian soldiers murdering a Russian POW.
The United Nations on Monday warned that Russian forces have been killing more captured Ukrainian soldiers over recent months, echoing growing allegations from officials in Kyiv.
Moscow and Kyiv have accused each other of committing war crimes, including killing prisoners of war, since Russia invaded Ukraine in February 2022.
Armen Sarkisyan was on Ukraine’s wanted list as one of the organizers of the Maidan killings in February 2014. He appears to have been targeted along with two others linked to Yanukovych.
Armen Sarkisyan, a criminal figure from the era of fugitive President Viktor Yanukovych, was killed in Moscow, according to Russian state media.
Sarkisyan, also known as “Gorlovsky,” was reportedly blown up at in the Alye Parusa luxury residential complex in northwest Moscow in an explosion that reportedly occurred at 9:45 a.m. local time.
Kyiv Post worked with experts and specialists to analyze the potential problems caused by the suspension of USAID assistance to Ukraine. Part One.
A week has passed since USAID stopped operations worldwide, except in Egypt and Israel. Assistance programs simultaneously found themselves without instructions and left in the dark about their future.
Initially, the Donald Trump-led White House’s suspension of aid was declared as temporary – something intended to last for the duration of a three-month audit of USAID expenditures.
Musk said he wanted to shut down USAID, describing it as “a bowl of worms” with “no apple,” arguing that the agency is “beyond repair” and that “you’ve got to get rid of the whole thing.”
Elon Musk, head of the newly created US Department of Government Efficiency (DOGE), announced that President Trump has “agreed” to shut down the US Agency for International Development (USAID), according to reports from Axios and CNBC.
Musk announced during an audio-only appearance on X in the middle of the night, saying, “We’re shutting it down.” At another point, he added, “We’re in the process” of “shutting down USAID.”
Putin should be panicking about Russia’s economy – but he appears to be in denial. Is he being shielded from reality by his own advisers, setting the stage for a dramatic downfall?
Stefan Korshak, Kyiv Post’s military correspondent, shares his perspective on recent developments in Russia’s war in Ukraine.
This week doesn’t break neatly into three sections, but the overall theme is: Things are dynamic, there are all manner of developments and changes in the war, some bad-for-Russia trends are continuing.
So honestly I am scratching my head on why the White House this week was talking like the Russo-Ukrainian War is a frozen, static conflict that can be turned off like a light switch. Maybe they were talking about a different war than the one we are in.
The US Justice Department found Russia and Turkey financed Rosatom’s nuclear projects through intermediary American banks, but the true aim of the transfers was to avoid sanctions.
The US government halted a $2 billion JPMorgan transfer from unsanctioned Russian bank Gazprombank to Turkey’s biggest bank, state-owned Ziraat, meant for the construction of a Rosatom nuclear plant in Turkey.
The true aim of the payment was to conceal avoiding sanctions, the Wall Street Journal (WSJ) reported.
This marks a slight slowdown compared to previous months, after a record advance of 725 square kilometres in November and 476 square kilometres in December.
Russian forces advanced 430 square kilometres (166 square miles) into Ukrainian territory in January and are headed towards the logistics hub of Pokrovsk, according to an AFP analysis of data from the US-based Institute for the Study of War (ISW).
This marks a slight slowdown compared to previous months, after a record advance of 725 square kilometres in November and 476 square kilometres in December.
New land-based drones will fulfill a wider range of combat and support roles, including medical evacuation, remote assault missions, minelaying, and acting as kamikaze attack vectors.
The success of aerial and seaborne drones in the war in Ukraine has captured the headlines but their ground-based cousins are also poised to exert their influence on the battlefield.
Mykhailo Fedorov, Ukraine’s Minister for Digital Transformation, reported at the end of November how around 100 Ukrainian-manufactured unmanned ground systems (UGS) drones had been exhaustively tested for use in combat at the Brave1 testing ground. The drones were designed to fulfill a wide range of combat and support functions including medical evacuation, logistics resupply, remote assault missions, minelaying, and kamikaze attack vehicles.
In an intercepted call, a resident of Russia’s Bryansk region describes the fighting near Kupyansk as a “meat grinder,” saying that Russian media reports are far from the truth.
A Russian woman from the Bryansk region discussing the severe losses suffered by Moscow’s army in the Kupyansk area of the Kharkiv region, as an intercepted call by Ukrainian intelligence (HUR) shared via Telegram reveals.
The woman, reportedly speaking about a relative involved in the fighting, described the battlefield as a “meat grinder,” contradicting Russian media reports.
Keith Kellogg, Trump’s special envoy to Ukraine and Russia, told Reuters in an interview that elections “need to be done” if Kyiv can agree to a ceasefire with Russia in the coming months.
The White House proposal to hold elections in Ukraine by the end of the year, contingent on a ceasefire, is a “failed” plan unless Washington takes further steps toward achieving sustainable peace, said Dmytro Lytvyn, communications adviser to the Ukrainian president.
“Moscow keeps increasing missile and ammunition production, finding new ways to bypass sanctions, and making money from oil. And it’s clear that all these weapons are not being built to respect democratic neighbors,” Lytvyn said.
Among the thousands of foreign soldiers who came to Ukraine to fight against the Russian invaders, the Colombian contingent was one of the more numerous.
Following Russia’s full-scale invasion in 2022, numerous international volunteers joined Ukraine’s armed forces. While many enlisted in the International Legion, others were integrated into various units. Among them was a contingent of Colombian fighters who served alongside Ukrainian troops.
However, with the situation steadily eroding on the front, many Colombian soldiers have finished their contracts and left Ukraine. Some even attempted to terminate their contract early.
Georgia’s “brutal crackdown” on anti-government protests has been branded “unacceptable” by the European Union’s foreign policy chief.
Opposition leaders were among those arrested on Sunday, as thousands of demonstrators gathered for a rally on the outskirts of the capital, Tbilisi, where they briefly blocked a motorway.
Nika Melia, who leads the country’s main opposition party, claimed he was attacked in police custody before later being released.
Lukoil facilities across Russia have become frequent targets of Ukrainian drone and cyberattacks recently, and the Volgograd refinery is one of the Kremlin’s largest.
[UPDATES] As of 2 p.m., Ukraine’s Special Operations Forces (SSO) reported on Telegram that, alongside the Security Service of Ukraine, they launched drone strikes on two Russian energy sites—the Volgograd oil refinery, owned by Lukoil, and the Astrakhan gas processing plant.
At the Volgograd refinery, which processes nearly 6% of Russia’s oil, multiple facilities were hit, including a flare farm, primary processing plants, and technological units. Fires continue to burn. After dozens of explosions, Volgograd authorities declared a “red” danger level and shut down the local airport.
Sunday’s blast was the latest in a series of similar incidents, just a day after a separate blast killed one person.
An explosion outside a military recruitment center in Pavlograd, Dnipropetrovsk region, left one person injured on Sunday, Feb. 3, police reported. Without giving a possible cause, the Dnipropetrovsk regional police said an investigation was ongoing into the blast which happened at 6:40 p.m. (1640 UTC).
“According to preliminary information, a man was wounded by the explosion of an unidentified object,” the police said in a statement.
The Brussels gathering is a “triple first”: the EU’s 27 leaders’ first meeting since the US president’s inauguration, their first defense talks, and their first with a UK premier since Brexit.
EU leaders huddle Monday with Britain’s prime minister and the head of NATO to discuss efforts to boost Europe’s defenses faced with an aggressive Russia -- as Donald Trump demands America’s allies spend much more.
The gathering in Brussels is billed as a “triple first”: the first time the European Union’s 27 leaders meet since the US president’s inauguration, their first-ever dedicated talks on defense and their first with a British premier since Brexit.
Latest from the Institute for the Study of War.
Key Takeaways from the ISW:
The White House has spoken with the Kremlin about ending Russia’s war in Ukraine, raising concerns in Kyiv about getting left out of peace talks.
US President Donald Trump said on Friday that members of his administration are “already talking” with Russian officials about ending the war in Ukraine, the first time the new president has confirmed discussing the war with the Kremlin since taking office on Jan. 20.
He did not disclose who within his administration has been part of the discussions, which Trump called “very serious,” or whether the talks had resulted in any decisions.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky made some of his strongest comments yet about how negotiations may form to end the war in Ukraine but warned against letting Putin control the process.
Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said he envisions future peace talks including Ukraine, Russia, the United States, and the European Union, marking one of his most direct comments yet about potential negotiations to end Russia’s full-scale invasion.
Zelensky said that after speaking with US President Donald Trump, “we should move on to some kind of format of conversation with Russians,” during an interview with the Associated Press published Saturday.
The head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate said on Friday that media reports that Pyongyang’s men have not been seen on the front lines for weeks are just plain “wrong.”
Lieutenant General Kyrylo Budanov, head of Ukraine’s Defense Intelligence Directorate (HUR) told the military issues website The War Zone (TWZ) that recent media reports of the almost total withdrawal of North Korean (DPRK) troops from the front line were simply wrong.
He said that there are still as many as 8,000 fighting on the front lines in Kursk, even though the heavy casualties they have experienced since being deployed to the Russian region have impacted on their operations and redeployment from some parts of the combat zone. Budanov is quoted as saying the reasons for this are unclear:
Trump’s Ukraine envoy says Kyiv and Moscow should both make concessions, without specifying the extent that the White House expects Ukraine to give way.
US President Donald Trump‘s Ukraine envoy said Sunday that both Kyiv and Moscow would have to make concessions if they are to successfully negotiate a solution to the ongoing war.
“I think both sides will give a little bit,” Keith Kellogg, a retired lieutenant general who recently returned from a visit to Ukraine, said in a televised Fox News interview.
