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.
Yuliia Dvornychenko from Ukraine’s Donetsk region spent two years in Russian captivity. Her two sons waited the entire time.
Yuliia: I was tortured: electric shocks, stripped, beaten. They threatened to send my kids to an orphanage. I signed anything to stop it. — DW.
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Yuliia: People traveled from occupied areas to Ukraine-controlled territory to buy basics, collect pensions, get medicine. Everyone needed to get out; for some, just to breathe.
We’d go with the kids to see the difference between life under occupation and outside it.
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Yuliia: The unit that captured me got 500,000 rubles($6,500) for taking Ukrainian “spies.” My younger son slept, the older saw everything.
Then the kids were alone for a month, the occupation security service banned neighbors from helping.
The EU may give Ukraine EU-level protections before full membership
The EU is weighing a peace-deal formula that grants Kyiv early access to EU membership rights and safeguards, locking in a time-bound path to full accession, possibly by 2027 — Bloomberg.
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One option would grant Ukraine up-front accession protections, legal, economic, and regulatory safeguards, plus immediate access to selected EU rights, before formal membership.
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At the same time, the EU would lock in a time-bound accession roadmap, fixed steps and deadlines, replacing today’s open-ended process that can stall for years.
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Shot and bleeding in a dugout, Ukrainian soldier convinced his Russian captors to surrender.
Volodymyr Aleksandrov lay wounded in hand and pelvis as an FPV mine blocked the entrance and drones hunted above. “If I was going to die, I would take them with me” — Hromadske. 1/
Russian troops ambushed Aleksandrov and his partner while they collected food dropped by drone.
Russians fired from a house, wounded him, argued over killing him, then kept him alive to register a live prisoner for money. 2/
Russians carried Aleksandrov into the dugout and stepped on their own FPV mine.
The blast tore off part of one soldier’s leg, wounded another, and hit Aleksandrov again — shrapnel wounded his shoulder and ear and left him concussed. 3/
Russia gave its main security agency legal power to shut down internet and phone service nationwide. Like in Iran: cut the web when protests erupt.
If crowds fill Moscow’s streets, the switch is ready — United24.
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The State Duma passed the law on Jan. 27.
The UK Ministry of Defence says it lets the FSB order total communication blackouts for vaguely defined “security threats,” with no clear limits and no oversight.
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The order takes effect immediately.
Telecom operators must cut internet, mobile, landline, and messaging services the moment the FSB demands it — no court order, no appeal.
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