Today marks 4 years of Russia’s full-scale invasion. I remember everyone who gave their lives for our freedom.

Those who became light in a dark time. Because of them, we can study, laugh, go to work, and dream about the future. 1/ Daria Lopatina. Iryna Tsybukh. Yar Batoh. Timur Abubakarov. Oleksii Sokolovskyi. Ruslan Chop’iuk. Oleksii Rubtsov. Yevhen Khrapko.

Maksym Petrenko. Denys Antypov. Eduard Horoshochok. Valerii Nikanorov. Oleksii Hubskyi. Our students. 2/

Zelenskyy: The Russians are playing games and aren’t serious about ending the war. They are very poor actors.

They are playing with Trump and the entire world. Putin thinks he looks convincing and can be trusted. No, he is a bad actor — FT.

1/ Zelenskyy: Russia and Ukraine are at the “beginning of the end” of Europe’s biggest conflict.

Without firm Western security guarantees, Moscow will use any ceasefire to rebuild its forces for another assault.

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Zelenskyy: Today is exactly 4 years of Putin “taking Kyiv in 3 days.”

In this little bunker, Biden told me: “Volodymyr, you should leave.”

And here I said: “I need arms, not a taxi.”

We all were scared. But we don’t have another Ukraine.

1/ Zelenskyy: Millions of Ukrainians didn’t raise a white flag. But defended blue and yellow.

Russians thought they would be welcomed with flowers. But they only saw more people going to fight them.

Civilians were blocking Russian tanks as a living wall.

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It is easier to show partners Ukraine retakes land than explain Russia burning thousands of soldiers for a few kilometers.

Ukraine recaptured 300+ sq km on the Oleksandrivsk axis, fastest gains since 2023, and pushes Russian troops from the Dnipropetrovsk border. — United24 1/ Ukraine’s Air Assault Forces launched the offensive to block Russia’s push toward Dnipropetrovsk and Zaporizhzhia.

Gen. Oleh Apostol leads the operation. The 82nd Bukovyna and 95th Polissia Brigades drive the assault. 2/

Zaluzhnyi: The old rules no longer work, but people still have high hopes for them. The new ones have not yet even been formulated yet.

Personally, for me, the main condition is the preservation of democracy and freedom and the standard of living. 1/ Zaluzhnyi: The reconstruction process should begin now, without waiting for a peace deal, which may never happen.
The energy system has become a new front in the war. Its stability determines the outcome of the conflict and the country's ability to survive, therefore to win. 2/

Trump's new parlor game is asking advisers "Vance or Rubio?" for 2028. He favors Vance but increasingly praises Rubio.

His dream ticket? "Vance-Rubio, and to be clear, that's Vance on top."

But he'd also be "absolutely" happy flipping it — Axios. 1/ Trump's thinking: "Vance-Rubio is the president's dream ticket for 2028," a Trump adviser says.

Vance has the political infrastructure to run. Rubio lacks it and has made clear he's fine with Vance being the guy. 2/

X’s algorithm amplifies conservative content and shifts users’ political attitudes to the right within 7 weeks, with no reversal when switched off.

Evidence come from a 2023 randomized field experiment — Nature. 1/ Active US users were randomly assigned to either the algorithmic “For You” feed or the chronological “Following” feed for 7 weeks.

Researchers measured engagement, policy priorities, and views on major political events. 2/

Putin will fight Ukraine until he dies.

In address on Feb 2023, he announced plans to scale up military capabilities, modernize nuclear triad, and called on society for total militarization. 2026 declared year of unity of Russia's peoples around sacred duty — UkrainskaPravda. 1/ Putin promised to increase military capabilities of all branches of russian armed forces.

Special attention to modernization and creation of new weapons, and nuclear triad. Promised to increase army readiness and ability to act in "most difficult conditions." 2/

Ukraine starts exporting weapons to Europe.

Kateryna Mykhalko, who led Ukraine's Technological Forces for 2.5 years: "Cheap Shaheds cannot be shot down with multimillion-dollar missiles.

This is ineffective defense strategy. Europe needs asymmetric solutions" — Hromadske. 1/ On Feb 8, Zelenskyy announced start of Ukrainian weapons export. 10 export centers to open in Europe in 2026.

Germany already started production of Ukrainian drones. Similar production lines began operating in Britain. Technological Forces unite 80+ defense companies. 2/

Budanov: Moscow is testing world order for strength, international institutions for viability.

Independent Ukraine is a challenge to Russian imperialism and great Russian chauvinism. Without Ukraine there can be no new empire. 1/ Budanov: Work is not easy, but we are definitely moving forward and approaching the moment when all sides will need to make final decisions - continue this war or move to peace.

I hope that justice will still prevail. 2/

Serhii Plokhy, Ukrainian historian: Ukraine now is like David against Goliath.

In 2025, they recieved less arms than the year before. And still fighting because of their belief in victory.

AI and drones are important in this war.

1/ Plokhy: In fall 2022, Russian former DM Shoigu called NATO and said Ukraine planned a ‘dirty bomb.’

Russia signaled it could use tactical nuclear weapons.

That changed the course of the war — arms deliveries slowed, and the 2023 counteroffensive lacked resources.

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Kasparov: Putin has vast capacity to create chaos in Europe. He wouldn’t even need to cross a border.

A few drones over key hubs, Frankfurt, Schiphol, De Gaulle, Heathrow, could paralyze European air travel. The West hasn’t shown an antidote, and Russian networks are active. 1/ Kasparov: Putin could stage a major provocation this year — I can’t put a percentage on it.

But if you look at his pattern of managing conflicts, a provocation against the Baltics is very likely — drones, “green men,” crossing near Narva or Daugavpils, or both.

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Applebaum: At the same time the U.S. says it’s stepping back, it’s supporting far-right politicians and think tanks in Europe, movements that are pro-Russian, oppose defense spending, and undermine European unity.

So people ask: which is it? What is U.S. policy really?

1/ Applebaum: Nobody wants to break the NATO.

Beneath the politics, U.S.–Europe military ties are still strong — joint training, exercises, operations, intelligence cooperation. It’s not as if everything is broken.

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Zelenskyy: Ukraine will for 100% return all of its land. It’s only a matter of time.

If we do it today, we lose millions of people. And what is land without people? Nothing.

Ukraine also doesn’t have enough of the needed weapons.

1/ Zelenskyy: Donbas isn’t just a land.

I see retreat from Donbas as abandoning thousands of people, and as weakening our positions.

Giving up Donbas would divide our society.

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Former Ukraine PM Yatsenyuk: If we get a ceasefire, Ukrainians will cast ballots and elect the president. But that’s not on the radar right now.

Russians are playing this game, believing they can embroil Ukraine in domestic infight. The Ukrainian president is legitimate. 1/ Yatsenyuk: I do not see any intention on the side of Putin to cut any kind of peace deal with Ukraine. These so-called talks are a sham, with the idea to drag its feet and to outlast us. 2/

Sullivan: The Chinese leadership says the East is rising, the West is declining. They believe the US is in decline and that democracy can’t succeed in XXI century.

Xi thinks China holds the high cards and America has vulnerabilities. There is real confidence from Beijing. 1/ Sullivan on Iran: If you got a deal, you put the nuclear program in a box, you get verification, and you’re not constantly lining up to take out enriched material or centrifuges or missiles.

I hope Trump would look seriously at the diplomatic option, but it’s likely there’ll be strikes. 2/

2025 is the first year of the war in which Russian army losses exceeded recruitment. 418,000 killed or wounded vs 406,000 mobilized.

Ukraine continues to resist Russia’s main offensives — Ukraine’s commander-in-chief Oleksandr Syrskyi for Le Monde. 1/ Syrskyi says Russia planned a large-scale 2025 offensive to seize all of Donbas, parts of Zaporizhzhia, Dnipropetrovsk and Kherson, and create a buffer zone in Kharkiv and Sumy regions — but “it failed.” 2/

Four Russian FPV drones hunted down a married couple as they tried to flee occupation near Sumy.

The man pulled his wounded wife on a sledge across no man’s land. A second strike tore her apart. A fourth killed him as he knelt beside her – The Times. 1/ The couple, Valentyna and Valerii Klochkov, had hidden in their cellar for six weeks after Russian troops captured their village before Christmas.

Hunger and cold forced them out. Their bodies still lie in the snow — no one can retrieve them under drone fire. 2/

An IT mistake exposed a $90bn Russian oil network funding the war in Ukraine.

FT traced 48 traders using one private email server to mask Rosneft crude after US sanctions in Oct. 2025. It is the largest sanctions-evasion scheme uncovered so far and may trigger new sanctions. 1/ FT identified 442 web domains whose public registrations show they all use the same private email server, .

It matched those domains with Russian and Indian customs filings linking the network to more than $90bn in oil exports. 2/mx.phoenixtrading.ltd

“I left my Manhattan apartment for Ukraine’s front lines. Now I’m fighting drones.”

Viktoriia Honcharuk quit her dream job at Morgan Stanley in 2022 to become a combat medic. She evacuated up to 100 wounded soldiers a week from one of the war’s deadliest fronts, The Times. 1/ Viktoriia left Ukraine at 15 on a U.S. scholarship.

She studied at Minerva University in California, sent out 80 job applications, interned at Citibank and landed a role at Morgan Stanley in New York.

On Feb 24, 2022, she woke up to Russia’s invasion. 2/

I want to write my son’s name on a rocket, push a button, and launch it in the enemy — Serhii, member of Stepwolves.

He is too old to be officially in the army. His son died near Bakhmutm but Serhii keeps helping Ukrainian army by repairing unexploded rockets.

1/ Did: I left to fight in May 2014. I came back badly wounded. They wanted to amputate both legs, bit I was lucky.

Too old to fight, Did now leads Stepwolves — a unit of men in their mid-60s, retrieving and repairing unexploded rockets.

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