FT: Ukraine plans to announce elections on February 24 after the US told Kyiv to hold them by May 15 — or risk losing proposed US security guarantees.
At the same time, the Zelenskyy Office says elections are impossible without proper security conditions. 1/
According to the FT, Kyiv is considering holding presidential elections alongside a national referendum on any peace deal with Russia.
Ukrainian and Western officials familiar with the discussions confirm active planning. 2/
The May 15 deadline comes amid White House pressure to finalize a peace framework by June.
Zelenskyy said on February 9 that Washington wants a “clear schedule” and aims to close the war before US midterm campaigning intensifies in November. 3/
Russia knows it can’t create a second Ukrainian SSR. Its goal is the destruction of Ukraine — “Novorossiya,” LNR/DNR, “Malorossiya.”
Signs of genocide are clear, including deporting children, Ukrainian Institute of National Memory head Oleksandr Alfyorov for Ukrainska Pravda.1/
Alfyorov: “In Ukraine, Russia needs only two resources: history and children.”
Russia uses history as a weapon — through “Novorossiya,” “LNR,” “DNR,” “Malorossiya,” and the myth of a “fight against Nazism” to justify occupation and erase Ukrainian statehood.
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Alfyorov: “Russians violate territories with their markers and people.”
They glorify Soviet generals, invent imperial continuity, and turn memory into a tool that normalizes war, borders, and violence.
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IOC banned Ukrainian skeleton racer from wearing helmet with faces of athletes killed by Russia at the Olympics.
Vladyslav Heraskevych: "The IOC is betraying those athletes who were part of the Olympic movement, not allowing them to be honored" — The Telegraph. 1/
Heraskevych wore the helmet at Cortina d'Ampezzo.
On it: figure skater Dmytro Sharpar, killed defending Bakhmut in 2023. Weightlifter Alina Peregudova, 14, killed with her mother by russian shelling in Mariupol in 2022. Strongman Pavlo Ishchenko, killed in combat in 2025. 2/
Also: ice hockey player Oleksiy Loginov. Biathlete Yevhen Malyshev, killed in the Battle of Kharkiv in 2022.
Heraskevych: "Some of them were my friends. Despite precedents when the IOC allowed such tributes, this time they decided to set special rules just for Ukraine." 3/
Chris Wright, US Energy sec.: Russia is funding its war by selling oil, gas and coal. Europe is the biggest buyers of Russian oil and natural gas to this day.
Trump is saying you’re helping fund this war machine, so we’re going to stop large buyers. 1/
Chris Wright: What’s India doing right now? It’s looking to buy more oil from the United States, probably more from Venezuela and other sources.
One way to help end the war in Ukraine is to starve the Russian war machine. 2X
Russian Ambassador to the UK Kelin: We could fight in Ukraine like the US did in Iraq, crushing cities, but we don’t. This war is slow and ‘surgical,’ to preserve civilians.
[Russia killed more than 15,000 civilians since 2022, this is how they preserve civilians.]
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Kelin: Three rounds of peace talks with Ukraine in Istanbul brought little result except prisoner exchanges.
Russia sticks to the Anchorage understandings with the US. Ukraine, despite a losing position, is trying to dictate its own terms.
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Kelin: Of course the talks matter. With or without the U.S., we need to work through many details.
Russia has proposed three tracks — military, political, humanitarian. Dialogue at different levels and formats is better than continued fighting.