Ukraine Breaking News Today Live on 02-23-2025

Trump humiliated Poland, showing up 90 minutes late for a meeting with its president and only giving Andrzej Duda an 11-minute “audience” rather than the scheduled hour.

After insulting Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky last week by calling him a “dictator,” US President Donald Trump broke proper decorum with another allied European leader, according to a post on X.

According to Jürgen Nauditt, a German business leader and managing director of the Franchisor international education company: “Poland’s President Duda waited for Trump for an hour and a half but spoke to him for only 11 minutes.”

In the German elections, Merz’s conservatives humiliate Sholtz’s socialists and should be strong enough to form a coalition without the far-right.

Germany’s conservatives won Sunday’s elections, with their leader Friedrich Merz set to become the next chancellor, followed by the far-right AfD in second place after record gains, according to exit polls.

If confirmed in the final count, the Alternative for Germany (AfD) roughly doubled its score to at least 19.5 percent, boosted by fears over immigration and security after a spate of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.

Trump claimed that Zelensky is a dictator because of the lack of elections in Ukraine after Russia’s 2022 invasion, though elections are constitutionally prohibited during martial law.

President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that only a true authoritarian would take offense at US President Donald Trump’s recent description of him as an illegitimate “dictator.”

“I certainly would not describe the words Trump used as a compliment. One would be offended by the word dictator if he was a dictator. I’m not. I’m the legally elected president,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum in Kyiv.

Time for Trump and his blustering aides to look in the mirror and compare with those they are trying to humiliate and cow.

It’s 18:00 in Kyiv.

I’m watching President Volodymyr Zelensky’s latest press conference, responding to tough questions from both foreign and domestic journalists. No holds barred.

Since Russia’s full-scale invasion of Ukraine in 2022, Western countries have used sanctions and other financial mechanisms to freeze $350 billion of Russian sovereign assets.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said on Sunday that frozen Russian assets should belong solely to Ukraine, not Kyiv’s international partners.

“Frozen Russian assets are our money. It is our money, not shared with our partners,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum in Kyiv.

While she dreams that one day her own homeland will be free, Ludmila Christeseva has been busy helping Ukrainians learn to weave and bake.

When Russia launched the full-scale invasion of Ukraine on Feb.24, 2022, millions of Ukrainians fled to EU countries in search of shelter.

Sweden, a country that has long been a political ally of Ukraine and, historically, was among those who accepted a substantial number of Ukrainian refugees. In March 2022, when the exodus was at its peak, the number of applications for asylum in the country exceeded 26,000.

Zelensky has so far rejected Trump’s team’s demands to trade minerals for security but said Friday that both countries are working on a deal and will likely announce it soon.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday that Kyiv and Washington were nearer to an agreement on US access to Ukrainian natural resources in exchange for security assistance. 

“We are making progress,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum in Kyiv, adding that Ukrainian and US officials had been in touch about the deal earlier in the day.

The Ukrainian president said he was ready to resign during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum while responding to journalists’ questions.

Ukrainian President Volodymyr Zelensky said Sunday - the eve of the third anniversary of Russia’s invasion - that he was ready to quit as Ukraine’s president if it meant Kyiv would be admitted to the NATO military alliance.

“If there is peace for Ukraine, if you really need me to leave my post, I am ready. ... I can exchange it for NATO,” Zelensky said during a press conference at the “Ukraine. The Year 2025” forum, adding he would depart “immediately” if necessary.

The democratic world has lost sight of its principles, and the result is a leaderless capitulation to autocracy.

The degeneration of the Munich Security Conference into an international shouting match about what JD Vance did or didn’t say about Europe is a microcosm of everything that has been wrong with the democratic world since the start of the full-scale invasion of Ukraine. All that has transpired since the conference has followed the same pattern.

Sorely lacking has been a clear-headed understanding of the principles that unite us all, regardless of what side of the Atlantic we live on. When people are unguided by principles, the result is invariably a maelstrom of opportunism and knee-jerk reaction. That is what has characterized international behavior since the conference.

Russia’s war on Ukraine severely impacted Kyiv’s international trade particularly for its Black Sea ports and shipping companies including UkrFerry its main ferry operator.

The war that resulted from Russia’s full-scale invasion severely affected international trade with Ukraine, with no region being as much affected as Ukrainian Black Sea ports and shipping companies - among them UkrFerry, its main Ukrainian ferry operator.

For six months after the start of the war, shipping to and from Ukraine was completely halted. Then, gradually, because of the persistent efforts of the Ukrainian government, some intermediary countries and the UN the work of Ukrainian ports was able to partly restart - for the export of bulk cargo, primarily grain, and the import of steel, fertilizers and coal.

Speaking in Glascow Sunday, Keir Starmer reiterated the UK’s “ironclad support” for Ukraine before heading to Washington with French President Macron to meet Trump.

Speaking at the Scottish Labour conference in Glasgow on Sunday, Prime Minister Keir Starmer insisted there can be no discussion “about Ukraine, without Ukraine” at the table for negotiations, according to a report out of the UK.

Along with French President Immanuel Macron, Starmer is set to meet next week with US President Donald Trump to discuss upcoming negotiations for a “Peace Plan” the US leader is negotiating to end Russia’s eleven-year war against Ukraine, now three years into the Kremlin’s full-scale invasion.

White House official suggested Saturday Trump could negotiate a deal to end the eleven-year-long war as early as “this week” – three years after Russia began its full-scale invasion.

The White House spokesperson on Saturday said that US President Donald Trump believes he could end Russia’s war against Ukraine as early as next week by “striking a deal” with the Kremlin while leveraging mineral rights deal for US “ventures” in Ukraine, according to reports.

White House spokesperson Karoline Leavitt suggested Trump could negotiate a deal to end the “three-year-long conflict” as early as “this week.” While Monday, Feb. 24, 2025, marks the third anniversary of the full-scale invasion, Russia began the war 11 years ago by illegally annexing Crimea.

The world in focus, as seen by Canadian leading global affairs analyst Michael Bociurkiw in a quick review of the biggest news in international media today.

Germany entered its last day of campaigning on Saturday ahead of snap parliamentary elections. The conservative CDU/CSU alliance under Friedrich Merz has been consistently polling at first place, with the far-right Alternative for Germany (AfD) at second place and the ruling Social Democrats (SPD) under current Chancellor Olaf Scholz coming in third. CDU leader and frontrunner for chancellor Friedrich Merz held a final rally ahead of Sunday’s elections, where he promised to be a “strong voice in the European Union. He told supporters: “Europe must become stronger again and Germany must become more involved in the European Union. He said that US President Donald Trump back, Europe must “sit at the main table and safeguard our interests vis-a-vis Russia and China.”

The Holy See press office issued the following statement Saturday regarding the deteriorating health of Pope Francis, describing it as “critical” and the pontiff “not out of danger.” It said: “The condition of the Holy Father continues to be critical. Therefore, as explained yesterday, the Pope is not out of danger. This morning, Pope Francis experienced an asthma-like respiratory crisis of prolonged intensity, which required the administration of high-flow oxygen. Today’s blood tests also revealed thrombocytopenia, associated with anemia, which required the administration of blood transfusions. The Holy Father remains alert and spent the day in an armchair, although he is more uncomfortable than yesterday. At the moment, the prognosis remains guarded.”

Feb. 23 commemorates the day in 1944 when the Soviets uprooted half a million men, women, and children from Chechnya and Ingushetia in order to deport them to Central Asia.

On Feb. 23, 1944, a dark chapter was written in the history of the Chechen and Ingush peoples. Under the guise of “Operation Lentil,” Soviet forces forcibly uprooted nearly half a million men, women, and children from their ancestral homes, casting them into the unforgiving terrains of Central Asia. Families were torn apart, herded into cramped, unheated cattle cars, and subjected to a harrowing journey that many would not survive. This wasn’t just a deportation; it was an attempt to erase our identity, our culture, and our very existence.

Today, as we solemnly commemorate this atrocity, we honor the resilience of our ancestors who, despite unimaginable suffering, preserved the spirit of our nations. Their strength fuels our unwavering commitment to seek global recognition of these events for what they truly were: genocide. The systematic persecution and attempted annihilation of the Chechen and Ingush peoples by Soviet and subsequent Russian regimes cannot be forgotten or overlooked.

Latest from the British Defence Intelligence.

• Russian military commanders are ‘forcing’ men mobilised in 2022 to sign contracts with the Russian Ministry of Defence, according to independent Russian media outlet Verstka.
• Whilst contracts given to Russian soldiers are said to have formal end dates, they can reportedly run indefinitely, with those who refuse to sign threatened with being sent into ‘meat grinder’ assaults with survival rates as low as 10-15 per cent.
• Russian efforts to coerce mobilised soldiers to sign indefinite contracts are highly likely motivated in part by a lack of experienced soldiers, with Russia having sustained approximately 860,000 killed and wounded since invading Ukraine in 2022. This has severely depleted the number of Russian personnel with more than rudimentary levels of training.
• Russia’s leadership also almost certainly perceives such measures as reducing the potential requirement for further domestically unpopular mobilisations. After Putin’s announcement of the partial mobilisation in 2022, hundreds of thousands of young and educated Russians chose to leave the country rather than participate in the illegal Russian invasion. This has substantially contributed to long-term difficulties for Russia’s labour market.

Ukraine has learned the hard way that it is now time to stop being naïve and to rethink who of their potential allies could be the more trustworthy and reliable.

Ukrainians have been naïfs - believing the West supported their struggle for national self-determination, to return the Ukrainian state to its rightful place in Europe. Over the past 3 years, at the cost of tens of thousands of Ukrainian lives, they have finally realized this was self-delusional.

Lessons from ancient history

Ukrainian air defenses destroy 138 out of 267 drones launched by Russia overnight, 119 disappeared from radar.

Ukrainian air defense units have destroyed 138 Russian drones. Photo: Ukraine’s Air Force

Russian forces attacked Ukrainian regions with ballistic missiles, 267 Shahed loitering munitions and various types of decoy drones on the night of 22-23 February, according to an official Ukrainian Air Force post on Facebook, as reported by Ukrainska Pravda.

Today is an important moment of choice for Germany and Europe.

German voters head to the polls on Sunday, with the conservatives the strong favourites after a campaign rocked by a far-right surge and the dramatic return of US President Donald Trump.

Frontrunner Friedrich Merz has vowed a tough rightward shift if elected to win back voters from the far-right anti-immigration Alternative for Germany (AfD), which is eyeing a record result after a string of deadly attacks blamed on asylum seekers.

Russian drones targeted Kyiv in the early hours of February 23, with fires breaking out in the Holosiivskyi and Darnytskyi districts due to falling debris.

Emergency workers have released images showing the aftermath of a Russian drone attack on Kyiv overnight, which sparked multiple fires across several districts. Firefighters have already extinguished the blazes.

In a post on Telegram, Ukraine’s State Emergency Service said the attacks caused significant damage in multiple locations, Ukrinform reports.

Ukraine’s ambassador to Australia is calling on all allies to make common cause and help Ukrainians achieve a just peace rather than some cynical partition.

As the third year since Russia’s unprovoked full-scale invasion of Ukraine is marked, the media is filled with coverage of US President Donald Trump’s intervention.

In reading these stories, Australians should understand that President Trump and Ukraine are aligned in their goal: we want peace.

Meet Ukraine’s armed forces recruits undergoing rigorous training in northern England as part of the UK’s most ambitious internationally supported training program to date.

It’s a bleak February morning. Pellets of rain lash down as the sound of gunshots echoes out across the valley. With military escorts, we trudge through the mud, approaching the source of fire.

An officer spots and deals with an upturned helmet on the hood of a 4x4. “Rule number one,” he exclaims – “keep your equipment dry!”  

The Kremlin has a long history dealing with secessionist movements within the Russian and Soviet empires. Now Moscow is using the experience to weaponizing secession movements elsewhere.

Following Donald Trump’s reelection to the presidency in November 2024, the idea of secession has reemerged on the ballot in America’s richest state.

On Jan. 23, California’s Secretary of State, Shirley Weber, announced approval for the commencement of signature gathering to support a measure requiring California to study the viability of becoming an independent nation by 2027. If the petition attains the necessary 500,000 signatures by late July, the measure would also add a question to the November 2028 ballot reading: “Should California leave the United States and become a free and independent country?”

The UK’s decision to ramp up sanctions comes as US President Donald Trump has in recent weeks sought to sideline Kyiv and its European backers from talks with Russia on the future of the conflict.

London will unveil a significant package of sanctions against Russia on Monday, which marks three years since the start of its war with Ukraine, UK Foreign Secretary David Lammy said Sunday.

“This is also the time to turn the screws on (Vladimir) Putin’s Russia,” Lammy said in a statement.